Ghost in the Shell (2017) is the 209th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2017 live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. It was published on July 25, 2017, to coincide with the release of the film on home video and Blu-ray. It is 4 minutes 8 seconds long. It has been viewed over 3.1 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Ghost in the Shell on YouTube
"Hollywood is running out of stuff from the '80s and '90s to remake. Now they're remaking a film they've already been ripping off for decades." ~ Honest Trailers - Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Script[]
From the minds behind Snow White and the Huntsman and Transformers 2, 3, and 4 (Rupert Sanders and Ehren Kruger)...? Oh, no...comes the glossy Hollywood adaptation of a beloved Japanese anime that goes about as well as you'd expect:
Ghost in the Shell
Hollywood is running out of stuff from the '80s and '90s to remake. Now they're remaking a film they've already been ripping off for decades (shows clips comparing the Ghost in the Shell anime movie with The Matrix), but with controversial casting, a dumbed-down plot, just enough recreated scenes from the anime to put it in the trailers, and a complete lack of understanding about what made the franchise popular to begin with, because, as Dragonball Evolution taught American film executives, if at first you don't succeed, blame the reviews and learn nothing from your mistakes.
You've seen Scarlett Johansson as a Special Ops soldier (Iron Man 2), an enhanced human (Lucy), a stoic outsider (Under the Skin), a sexy robot voice (Her), and a white girl feeling out of place in Asia (Lost in Translation). Now, she'll combine them all as the Major, an enhanced Special Ops sexy-robot-voiced stoic outsider white girl who feels out of place in Asia. She's a robo-cop with a weird robo-walk and only one weakness: getting snuck up on by dudes with tasers (shows clips of Mira Killian being incapacitated with tasers from behind). Y'know, for all the gadgets, maybe invest in a rear camera.
Watch as the studio avoids a whitewashing controversy by showing off how multicultural their version of Hong Kong is and explaining that Major's body is just the robot shell for someone else's brain (Dr. Ouelet: We made you a new body, a synthetic shell, but your ghost is still in there.), which...all right, I'll bite...then cringe in disbelief as the studio manages to ruin their own solution by revealing that...yep, she was full-blown Japanese all along (Batou: What's your name?/Mira Killian: Motoko.). Way to double down, gang; you just tried to put out a dumpster fire with a much larger, easily avoidable dumpster fire.
Jack in as the Major teams up with side characters who get two to four lines of dialogue, led by Japanese legend Beat Takeshi, who was smart enough to know this movie wasn't worth speaking English for (shows clips of Daisuke Aramaki speaking Japanese). Together, they'll chase down an evil Max Headroom hacker (Kuze: ...of-of-of lessons took fro-fro-from my failure./Max Headroom: This is Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma- He-He-He-Headroom.) in a cat-and-mouse game of shifting loyalties that will have you wondering, "Can we see your boobs or not (shows an unclothed Mira Killian)? I, I can't tell, and I definitely don't care what else is going on. This movie's really boring."
So gear up for the latest movie with John Carter syndrome, where the source material was so influential that now it feels like it's copying the films it inspired; and witness the newest lame attempt at a live-action anime film, which we should really just leave to the Japanese at this point (shows a Titan eating a human in the live-action Attack on Titan film)...orrrr not.
Starring Turning Japanese, Oh Yes, I'm Turning Japanese, I Really Think So (Scarlett Johansson as Major Mira Killian); Cable (Pilou Asbæk as Batou); Beat Takeshi, Beat Beat Takeshi ("Beat" Takeshi Kitano as Daisuke Aramaki); Palpatine (Michael Carmen Pitt as Kuze); Business in the Front, Party in the Back (Chin Han as Togusa); Holy Crap, Is That Top Dolla?? (Peter Ferdinando as Cutter); and Literal Whitewashing (shows Mira Killian's robot body being formed from a white substance).
Honest title for Ghost in the Shell - Bicentennial Woman. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
Bicentennial Woman
Carlos Ishikawa (lifting his shirt to reveal surgical scars): Cybermech liver. Been saving up for a while. Now it's last call every night.
Uhh, guys, your friend is an alcoholic.
Trivia[]
Honest Trailer Commentaries - Ghost In The Shell
- This Honest Trailer was produced in between Screen Junkies' commitments at 2017 San Diego Comic Con.
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other science-fiction films including Alita: Battle Angel, Inception, The Matrix, Blade Runner, Aliens, Alien: Covenant, Avatar, Jurassic Park, Predator and many more. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- Additionally, Screen Junkies have produced Honest Trailers for multiple Japanese anime movies/shows including Pokemon: The First Movie, Naruto, Tokyo Ghoul, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Bleach, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, One-Punch Man, and Hunter x Hunter. See Honest Trailers Anime for more information.
Watch the full Honest Trailers Commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - Ghost in the Shell (2017) has a 94.2% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Syfy Wire said the Honest Trailer was "hilarious" and the comment about Hollywood running out of movies to remake was "eloquent." The Mary Sue wrote that Screen Junkies "does not hold anything back" and the best moment in the Honest Trailer is its "absolutely vicious takedown of the whitewashing controversy." Comicbook.com agreed the Honest Trailer was "brutal" and said it was "far more entertaining then the actual movie itself." Comicbook.com noted the Honest Trailer "hits all the (easy) marks" including the Americanization of the source material and the whitewashing controversy. Slash Film wrote that the Honest Trailer's "most astute observation of the Ghost in the Shell movie is how the character of Major feels like an amalgamation of several characters that Scarlett Johansson has played before." Slate wrote "if the original trailer had been a little more upfront, like this one, it might have saved us all a lot of time."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Ghost in the Shell
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Executive Producer - Andy Signore
Producers - Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Michael Bolton, Christina Kline
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell & Andy Signore
Edited by Kevin Williamsen and TJ Nordaker
External links []
- ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Honest Trailer: A Remake of a Film That Was Ripped Off for Decades - Slash Film article
- Honest Trailer for Ghost in the Shell Holds Nothing Back - The Mary Sue article
- Ghost In The Shell Gets One Brutal Honest Trailer - CBR.com article
- Ghost in the Shell gets an Honest Trailer - Looper article
- 'Ghost in the Shell' Just Got Wrecked by Honest Trailers - Inverse article
- The Ghost in the Shell Honest Trailer Doesn’t Try to Hide Its Bananas Whitewashing “Solution” - Slate article
- GHOST IN THE SHELL HONEST TRAILER JACKS INTO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE MOVIE - Syfy Wire article