Thank you for dropping that hint. Where is the sophisticated Johansson, the one that starred in this movie? Spoiler And then she went on to be a Cyborg and a Black widow. All girls go down that road one day.
Yes, I saw it IMAX 3D. It was gorgeous and a visual treat. However, after 30 minutes you get tired of watching giant squid fish crawl around Tokyo skyscrapers in sweeping wide shots. Then, you start looking for a cohesive plot and that's where the film falls flat. To answer your question, "commercial" Johansson left the Woody Allens of the world behind a long time ago. She is a beautiful and talented actor who when working for the right director is brilliant. Same thing happened to Charlize Theron who went from winning an Oscar for Monster to Aeon Flux, and then a decade of mediocre films from 2005 to 2015 until George Miller plucked her for Furiosa. Look at Fury Road and her upcoming Furious 8, a ridiculous popcorn flick with a Oscar-winner as the silly villain, both are high octane action films, but Miller is a visionary and the Furious franchise is a gun-for-hire factory. As for Johansson, her next film is this ridiculous mess:
Lol yeah. They do a comedy every other year. This looks like a feminine, less fun version of Todd Phillips' Hang Over.
I saw it, and would give it 6.5/10. I personally enjoy the world building in my sci fi movies and that was the brightest spot in this movie, but agree that the philosophical issues were secondary and/or have been done too many times. Shout out to Takeshi Kitano, he always puts on a good performance and wish he had more scenes. "You don't send rabbits to hunt a fox".
I pretty much agree with everyone take, great visuals and world building but they decided on a fairly well worn plot. I gave it a second watch, since I knew what I to expect and it's a serviceable movie that would have set up future installments if it had connected better. It's a shame because I would have been very curious if they would have really started digging into more of the philosophical from the anime, manga......
Rewatched the anime for the first time in like 15 years. Initial thoughts still hold true. Kind of cool, but way overrated.
