Ghost in the Shell

A live-action remake of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 cyberpunk anime classic, based on Masamune Shirow's popular 1989 manga series, this frenetic, dystopian sci-fi thriller favors style over substance. Scarlett Johansson appears to be almost naked, dashing around a futuristic cityscape in a flesh-colored, skintight casing as a cyborg law-enforcement officer known as the “Major.” The gimmick is that when she dons this “thermoptic” suit, she is basically invisible. Major Mira Killian is the first of her kind: a military-designed robot with a human brain; she's an integral part of a counter-cyberterrorist task force operating under Chief Daisuke Aramaki (Takeshi Kitano). The group is in pursuit of a villain named Kuze (Michael Carmen Pitt), who has been eliminating Hanka Robotics scientists by hacking into the consciousness of different accomplices to make them commit murder. Kuze's warnings about the company begin to dovetail with glitches in Major's brain that make her more self-aware and increasingly curious about discovering her true identity, a quest that is only amplified by the insistence of her creator (Juliette Binoche) that memory is irrelevant. Director Rupert Sanders pays homage to the original film, with many scenes coming directly from the comic-book source, but there was an uproar over casting a Caucasian actress in an iconic Japanese story, and the fact is that Johansson is never convincing in her character's struggle to discover her humanity. Optional. [Note: Blu-ray extras include a “Hard-Wired Humanity” making-of featurette (30 min.), the behind-the-scenes segments “Section 9: Cyber Defenders” (12 min.) and “Man & Machine: The Ghost Philosophy” (11 min.), and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing adaptation of the Japanese anime classic.] (S. Granger)