QUEZON City, Philippines (April 10) – What will happen if you take a human brain and transplant it inside an artificial body? That is the profound question asked by the American science fiction/action film “Ghost in the Shell.”
Based on the Japanese media franchise of the same name, “Ghost in the Shell” is set in the future. If you are imagining a future that is bright and shiny, you are wrong. In this movie, the future is just like the present but more crowded, more polluted, saturated with advertisements.
In this future, humans have the option of augmenting and enhancing themselves with cybernetic implants – as easy as upgrading our mobile devices today. Getting such implants is a must if you want to remain economically competitive.
Further blurring the lines is the latest technological development embodied in the person of Major. Unlike other humans – who install enhancements gradually – Major can be said to be 99% machine. Her whole body is synthetic, only her brain remains.
Then she started asking the question that confronts many of us: “Who am I?”
I may have painted what should be a very promising film mixing deep, profound issues with stunning visual effects. The Japanese media franchise was very successful after all and served as an inspiration for many other films and media projects.
But sadly, the American film was never able to encompass the profound thoughts posited by the Japanese opus. The director got the aesthetics right. I must admit that is appealing to the senses but like many films that hope to profit, the producers chose to water down the intellectual side of the work.
Another pet peeve is that I don’t know if Scarlett Johansson was instructed to act like she did. Normally a good actress, in this film she is very robotic – admittedly that is her character – but still.
In conclusion, “Ghost in the Shell” could have been so much more.
(written by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)
