I was expecting a lot more from a film like this. While there were some cool parts, I felt like the story was slow moving and there was a desire for more of an emotional human response coming from the lead actress at certain moments. Based on the stories they could have drawn from the original anime, sadly I was disappointed and underwhelmed.

I fell asleep and was completely lost when I was awake. It's slow moving and the story line was hard to follow. Perhaps if I knew anything about the anime I would have been more engaged

The whitewashing controversy aside, I was not impressed with Ghost in the Shell. I found the directing and the writing to be uneven and lacking. The special effects were disappointing as well. While some areas (the design of the city, Michael Pitt's body) were mind-blowing there was definitely poor CGI. Also Scarlett was not a strong enough actress for Major.

The movie tried hard to cram anime, book, and multiple movies of the Franchise into one less than 2 hour origin story, and it shows. Overall this move is a string of couple of great moments (that really are impressive and compelling) among a lot of subpar moments with a lack of cohesion. Failures here are editing, scripting, and occasional subpar CGI ruining emersion. 2 stars