History YMMV / GhostInTheShell2017

** [[AC:[=#IAmMajor=]]] which was Paramount's attempt to promote the movie but [[http://fusion.net/story/391619/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major/ many people made fun of it]] such as mocking the casting choices of this movie and others (such as Creator/FinnJones' role in ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'') to several unrelated characters also using the "I Am" statement (e.g. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Groot]], [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith the Senate]]). [=DreamWorks=] was not amused, and they allegedly disagreed pretty heavily with the way Paramount was marketing the film based on this backlash.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After months of controversy over the film's casting, Creator/TakeshiKitano was hired to play Aramaki. They followed this up by casting a number of other Japanese actors, like Rila Fukushima. (Though Fukushima's casting didn't precisely help, since after the film was released, it was revealed she wasn't actually playing a character in the film, but instead served as the facial model for the robot geishas that Major battles in one scene.)

* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ghost-shell-4-japanese-actresses-dissect-movie-whitewashing-twist-990956 In a roundtable discussion]] hosted by ''The Hollywood Reporter'', it was argued that while TheReveal about the Major's past was probably meant to justify the casting and defuse the racial issue, it opened up ''another'' can of worms [[spoiler: by virtue of having Asian characters be "upgraded" into perfect white bodies]]. [[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-ghost-in-the-shell-hollywood-whitewashing-justin-chang-jen-yamato-20170406-story.html This charge]] has been echoed in other pieces on the film as well.
-->'''Atsuko Okatsuka:''' And they f—ed up in the process because now it looks even worse. The text at the beginning of the movie explained that Hanka Robotics is making a being that’s the best of human and the best of robotics. [[spoiler: For some reason, the best stuff they make happens to be white.]]

* {{Narm}}:
** Kuze's name is dealt with inexplicable gravitas, like it was a some sort of meaningful, menacing title, like the Puppetmaster or the Laughing Man. The chances are that it was one of these two in earlier drafts and the script never ended up changing how it was presented.
** The sheer amount of times that the film crams some variation of "[[TitleDrop Ghost in the Shell]]" into the conversation. This extended to the film's release in Spain, where it received the subtitle of ''The Machine's Soul'' in Spanish (admittedly, to make the title a bit more comprehensible given its awkward English).
** It is evident that the film retains the manga's original Japanese setting, as the President is referred as "Prime Minister", traffic is left-handed, and there are Japanese cultural elements everywhere. However, both the film and its promotional materials are bizarrely shy about this and ''never'' mention explicitly where is it supposed to take place. This makes it look like the producers couldn't decide about a possible ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange and just opted to write around it, which only makes it more awkward.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The source material inspired ''Franchise/TheMatrix'', among other franchises that the vast majority of western audiences are expected to be more familiar with. ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'' put it thusly:

** The controversy about the Major's whitewashing is now impossible to bury, but its basis is actually very flimsy. There's no official claim that the Major is supposed to be Asian, as the Japanese-sounding "Motoko Kusanagi" is explicitly a pseudonym, and the series' universe features a futurist Japan that received heavy immigration; characters like Batou and Ishikawa look remarkably un-Asian and have been suggested to be actually naturalized foreigners, so this could perfectly be Kusanagi's case too. Even more overtly, given that she has a synthetic body, Kusanagi could look the race she wanted with only changing her frame (which she did several times in the manga, in fact). The accusations of racism only reflect the same situation that has plagued the franchise from the very start: [[PopCulturalOsmosis that few people in the West are actually familiar with the series other than its most stylish aspects.]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' franchise was a huge influence on ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' and on the {{cyberpunk}} genre as a whole. However, newcomers to the franchise likely saw ''Matrix'' first, and most of the themes of identity and people and machines were already covered there, and so many people wondered what all the fuss was about.
** ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'' put it thusly:
-->'''Epic Voice Guy:''' "...the source material was so influential that now it feels like it's copying the films that it inspired."

** After numerous trailer releases showing how well the developers were doing to WinTheCrowd by faithfully recreating the visual, thematic, and atmospheric feel of the franchise, the "Wake Up" trailer reveals that they changed the Major's name from Motoko Kusanagi to "Mira Killian", where her getting called called by that name twice only a few seconds apart. [[spoiler: Mira turns out to be a fake name and Motoko is supposedly her real name, which is rather ironic because "Motoko Kusanagi" was declared "an obvious pseudonym" in the original manga.]]

* WinTheCrowd:
** Paramount was at least painfully aware of the backlash against Johansson's casting, as they released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9wNSGDiKY&ab_channel=KinoCheckInternational behind-the-scenes featurette]] before the first trailer even dropped featuring an interview with the original anime director Mamoru Oshii, who gave his blessing for the film and Johansson as the Major.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxRwc8Lp7XU&ab_channel=moviemaniacsDE first teasers]] for the film managed to allay some fears by creating a strong sense of atmosphere and showing shot-for-shot remakes of various iconic scenes from the original anime. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vctm5VD7qKQ&ab_channel=ParamountPictures first theatrical trailer]] drew an even stronger positive reaction from fans through its thick atmosphere and stunning visuals, showing that at the very least the filmmakers are attempting to capture the aesthetics and mood of the ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' universe.

* MagnificentBastard: Born the anti-augmentation revolutionary Hideo, "Kuze" was [[PsychoPrototype remade into a cyborg]] by Hanka Robotics. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge In revolt]], Kuze hacks into the minds of various cyborgs and murders Hanka executives, using his robotic pawns to persuade heroine Mira Killian into remembering her past and the evils of her employers. Eventually succeeding, Kuze is mortally wounded while rendezvousing with Killian but [[TakeUpMySword provides the final insights]] in her quest to utterly destroy Hanka.

** The film gets constantly compared with the Oshii anime movies, with most detractors labeling the former as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and citing the latter as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, contrary to popular belief, the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original manga as the live action film is, if not actually even ''more''. It was the 1995 movie which started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of a provocative hustler, Batou as a somber straight man instead of a boisterous goofball, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of colourful action. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be paradoxically said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.
** The controversy about the Major's whitewashing is now impossible to bury, but its basis is actually very questionable. There's no official claim that the Major is supposed to be genetically Asian, as the Japanese-sounding "Motoko Kusanagi" is explicitly a pseudonym, and the series' universe features a futurist Japan that received heavy international immigration; characters like Batou and Ishikawa look remarkably un-Asian and have been suggested to be actually naturalized foreigners, so this could perfectly be Kusanagi's case too. Even more overtly, given that she has a synthetic body, Kusanagi could look the race she wanted with only changing her frame (which she did several times in the manga, in fact). The accusations of racism, ironically, only reflect the same situation that has plagued the franchise from the very start: that few people in the West are actually familiar with the series other than its most stylish aspects.

** It's [[http://deadline.com/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-box-office-flop-whitewash-1202061479/ been]] [[http://www.inquisitr.com/4120952/ghost-in-the-shell-flop-critics-weigh-in-on-why-the-movie-tanked-at-the-box-office/ suggested]] this may be part of the reason the movie performed badly in the US. For starters, it's an expensive adaptation of a beloved anime that has CultClassic status in the U.S. but otherwise is ''not'' well known, be it in the U.S., the Anglo-sphere or other western countries, particularly among modern day anime fans. The whole aesthetic on the man/machine and identity crisis, which was one of the draws of the franchise, has been already presented in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' (which was precisely Creator/TheWachowskis' love letter to the 1995 film) and many other cyberpunk works though the years, thus making the film look like [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny old hat]]. Additionally, the fact that the Major is TheStoic also made it difficult to get audiences invested in the trailers since there was no emotional tether. The filmmakers were also accused of taking far too many creative liberties with the license than what hardcore fans were comfortable with, who argued that the result missed the point of the original animated film and series. Finally, the ensuing controversy over the Major's RaceLift meant that many entertainment journalists and geek bloggers, who normally could have been counted on to cover the movie and help promote it, now felt antsy about showing any support towards it. As the linked articles show, there are people who wonder if there was actually a way this film could succeed at all.
** For fans of the franchise, there is consensus in that the movie's basic premise was not the best for an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' in the first place. Before 2017, Motoko Kusanagi's past had never been a big deal in any continuity (or at least not in the way it is connected to the main plot here), so the decision to make the film an origin story for her, probably inspired by the success of recent superhero cinema, was condemned to feel unfamiliar and forced even in the best case scenario. It didn't help that Hideo Kuze is a relatively obscure antagonist, unlike more famous villains like the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell Puppet Master]], the [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Laughing Man]] or [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Locus Solus]], and neither it did the inclusion of Hanka, a name that is literally a [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain-of-the-week in the manga]]. While the resultant mishmash of canonical elements and additional homages (which included giving Kuze symbolic elements of the characters above) could still be appreciated in a nostalgic light, it is difficult to overlook that this film's skeleton was cobbled together out of ''Ghost in the Shell''[='s=] '''least''' interesting pieces.

** The movie gets constantly compared with the Mamoru Oshii anime movies in terms of how an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' should be played, with most detractors labeling the 2017 film as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and citing the anime movie as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, contrary to popular belief, the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original manga as the live action film is, if not actually even ''more''. It was the 1995 movie which started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of the provocative hustler she was in the manga, Batou as a somber straight man in the place of the boisterous goofball he was created to be, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of colourful action as Masamune conceived it. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be paradoxically said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.
** The controversy about the Major's whitewashing is now impossible to bury, but its basis is actually very questionable, to the point one can actually say there's no official claim that the Major is supposed to be genetically Asian. The Japanese-sounding "Motoko Kusanagi" is explicitly informed to be a fake name, and moreover, the series' universe features a version of Japan which turned into a superpower and admitted heavy international immigration; some of Kusanagi's partners, like Batou, Ishikawa and Borma, look remarkably un-Asian and have been suggested to be actually naturalized foreigners, so it could be perfectly possible that it is Kusanagi's case too after all. Even more overtly, given that she has a synthetic body, Kusanagi could look the race she wanted with only changing her frame, an action she has done several times in the ''Man-Machine Interface'' manga due to her job's requirements. The nature of the accusations of racism, ironically, only reflects the same situation that has plagued the franchise from the very start: that few people in the West are actually familiar with the series other than its most stylish aspects (and those adaptations that highlight them).

** It's [[http://deadline.com/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-box-office-flop-whitewash-1202061479/ been]] [[http://www.inquisitr.com/4120952/ghost-in-the-shell-flop-critics-weigh-in-on-why-the-movie-tanked-at-the-box-office/ suggested]] this may be part of the reason the movie performed badly in the US. For starters, it's an expensive adaptation of a beloved anime that has CultClassic status in the U.S. but otherwise is ''not'' well known, be it in the U.S., the Anglo-sphere or other western countries, particularly among modern day anime fans. The whole aesthetic on the man/machine and identity crisis, which was one of the draws of the franchise, has been already presented in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' (which was precisely Creator/TheWachowskis's love letter to the 1995 film) and many other cyberpunk works though the years, this making the film look outdated. Additionally, the fact that the Major is TheStoic also made it difficult to get audiences invested in the trailers since there was no emotional tether. The filmmakers were also accused of taking far too many creative liberties with the license than what hardcore fans were comfortable with, who argued that the result missed the point of the original animated film and series. Finally, the ensuing racial controversy meant that many entertainment journalists and geek bloggers, who normally could have been counted on to cover the movie and help promote it, now felt antsy about showing any support towards it. As the linked articles show, there are people who wonder if there was actually a way this film could succeed at all.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After months of controversy over the film's casting, Creator/TakeshiKitano was hired to play Aramaki. They followed this up by casting a number of other Japanese actors, like Rila Fukushima. (Though Fukushima's casting didn't precisely help, since after the film was released, it was revealed she wasn't actually playing a character in the film, but instead served as the facial model for the robo geishas that Major battles in one scene.)

** Many fans defended the movie's whitewashing by saying Major was a cyborg, so her race could be anything, and there was nothing that said she wasn't originally born Japanese. [[spoiler: Turns out that's exactly what happened in the film, as she was originally a Japanese run away, who was kidnapped and illegally experimented on.]] Additionally, the film becoming a BoxOfficeBomb led to a lot of relief from the same people that [[spoiler: a Japanese actress wouldn't be forced to take the blame for it]].

** The film became this due to the {{race lift}}s of several characters from Asian to other races. Paramount executive Kyle Davies [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paramount-admits-ghost-in-the-shell-did-poorly-because-casting_us_58e486cbe4b0d0b7e1660b61 even conceded]] that the whitewashing controversy likely hurt the film at the U.S. box office. It was even brought up in the 2019 Golden Globe Awards where the hostess Creator/SandraOh joked about the film, together with ''Film/{{Aloha}}'', for its casting on white actresses as Asian leads.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' franchise was a huge influence on ''Franchise/TheMatrix''. However, newcomers to the franchise likely saw ''Matrix'' first, and most of the themes of identity and people and machines were already covered there, and so many people wondered what all the fuss was about.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Cutter]] is the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt CEO]] of Hanka Robotics and the true mastermind behind the conflict. Engineering the mass kidnapping of teenage runaways from the Lawless Zone, Cutter authorizes illegal, covert experiments to perfect a transhuman weapon that leads to the death of ninety-seven of the runaways and the imperfect creation of the ninety-eighth, Kuze, whom Cutter orders disposed of like trash. Viewing the ninety-ninth, [[TheProtagonist the Major]], as little else but a living weapon for his own benefit, Cutter orders her killed when she learns too much and callously murders Dr. Ouelet, the doctor who initially performed the experiments, the moment she rebels against Cutter's immoral methods. With full intent to move onto further illegal projects, Cutter orders the entirety of Section 9 killed and tries to kill the Major and Kuze himself, cruelly referring to his own wayward creation as a "freak." A shallow {{hypocrite}} who refuses to acknowledge any fault of his own, Cutter is concerned [[{{Greed}} purely with personal profit]] and is willing to stoop to any low in this pursuit.

** For fans of the franchise, there is consensus in that the movie's basic premise was not the best for an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' in the first place. Before 2017, Motoko Kusanagi's past had never been a big deal in any continuity (or at least not in the way it is connected to the main plot here), so the decision to make the film an origin story for her, probably inspired by the success of recent superhero cinema, was condemned to feel unfamiliar and forced even in the best case scenario. It didn't help that Hideo Kuze is a relatively obscure antagonist, unlike more famous antagonists like the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell Puppet Master]], the [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Laughing Man]] or [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Locus Solus]], and neither it did the inclusion of Hanka, a name that is literally a villain-of-the-week in the manga. While the resultant mishmash of canonical elements and additional homages (which included giving Kuze symbolic elements of the villains above) could still be appreciated in a nostalgic light, it is difficult to overlook that this film's skeleton was cobbled together out of ''Ghost in the Shell''[='s=] '''least''' interesting pieces.
** A more minor one was establishing "Motoko Kusanagi" as the Major's real name, which is an incoherent name in Japanese and every other version has established as an obvious pseudonym.

** The movie's decision not to use the Fuchikoma/Tachikoma created a lot of contention between people who found their absence an acceptable change for the adaptation to make and those who thought it was a terrible idea that removed a crucial element of the franchise.

* MisBlamed: The movie gets constantly compared with the Mamoru Oshii anime movies in terms of how an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' should be played, with most detractors labeling the 2017 film as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and citing the anime movie as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, contrary to popular belief, the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original manga as the live action film is, if not actually even ''more''. It was the 1995 movie which started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of the provocative hustler she was in the manga, Batou as a somber straight man in the place of the boisterous goofball he was created to be, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of colourful action as Masamune conceived it. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be paradoxically said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.

** It's [[http://deadline.com/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-box-office-flop-whitewash-1202061479/ been]] [[http://www.inquisitr.com/4120952/ghost-in-the-shell-flop-critics-weigh-in-on-why-the-movie-tanked-at-the-box-office/ suggested]] this may be part of the reason the movie performed badly in the US. For starters, it's an expensive adaptation of a beloved anime that has CultClassic status in the U.S. but otherwise is ''not'' well known, be it in the U.S., the Anglo-sphere or other western countries, particularly among modern day anime fans. The whole aesthetic on the man/machine and identity crisis, which was one of the draws of the franchise, has been already presented in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' (which was precisely Creator/TheWachowskis's love letter to the 1995 film) and many other cyberpunk works though the years, this making the film look outdated. Additionally, the fact that the Major is TheStoic also made it difficult to get audiences invested in the trailers since there was no emotional tether. The filmmakers were also accused of taking far too many creative liberties with the license than what hardcore fans were comfortable with, who argued (justifiedly or not, as explained in Hypocritical Fandom below) that the result missed the point of the original animated film and series. Finally, the ensuing racial controversy meant that many entertainment journalists and geek bloggers, who normally could have been counted on to cover the movie and help promote it, now felt antsy about showing any support towards it. As the linked articles show, there are people who wonder if there was actually a way this film could succeed at all.

* HypocriticalFandom: The film gets constantly compared with the Mamoru Oshii anime movies in terms of how an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' should be played, with most detractors labeling the 2017 film as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and citing the anime movie as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, this happens to be a very heavy case of PopCulturalOsmosis, because the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original manga as the live action film is, if not actually even ''more''. The 1995 movie started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of the provocative hustler she was in the manga, Batou as a somber straight man in the place of the boisterous goofball he was created to be, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of colourful action as Masamune conceived it. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be paradoxically said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.

** The casting of Creator/ScarlettJohansson as the Major earned a lot of accusations on whitewashing, while others (notably, most of them in Japan) didn't mind it as long as the resulting film's story and direction was good. Another camp argued that while it was a bit of a wasted opportunity, the Major's body is artificial anyways.

** As for the film itself, the base was broken about its general quality. Those who disliked the film claim that the opposite side has no standards and that they would allow any degree of crass Westernization and cheapening of the series and its values in order to have an adaptation of the work, quality be damned. Those who liked it accused the opposite side of being a party of unpleasable people that didn't appreciate all the care put into the production, and who would have panned the film regardless of its quality out of prejudices against Western adaptations of anime/manga.
** The movie's decision not to use the Fuchikoma/Tachikoma created a lot of contention between people who found their absence an acceptable change for the adaptation to make and those who thought it was a terrible idea that removed a crucial element of the franchise.
** For Latin American viewers, the use of a different voice cast from the anime films, in stark contrast with the Japanese dub, when their original voice actors were brought back as much as they could. Other people didn't mind the change much and they at least accepted the dub was good for its own merits.

** For fans of the franchise, there is consensus in that the movie's basic premise was not the best for an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' in the first place. Before 2017, Motoko Kusanagi's past had never been a big deal in any continuity (or at least not in the way it is connected to the main plot here), so the decision to make the film an origin story for her, probably inspired by the success of recent superhero cinema, was condemned to feel unfamiliar and forced even in the best case scenario. It didn't help that Hideo Kuze is a relatively obscure antagonist, unlike more famous antagonists like the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell Puppet Master]], the [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Laughing Man]] or [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Locus Solus]], and neither it did the inclusion of Hanka, a name that is literally a villain-of-the-week in the manga. While the resultant mishmash of canonical elements and additional homages (which included giving Kuze symbolic elements of the villains above) could still be appreciated in a nostalgic light, it is difficult to overlook that this film's skeleton was cobbled together out of ''Ghost in the Shell'''s '''least''' interesting pieces.

** It's [[http://deadline.com/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-box-office-flop-whitewash-1202061479/ been]] [[http://www.inquisitr.com/4120952/ghost-in-the-shell-flop-critics-weigh-in-on-why-the-movie-tanked-at-the-box-office/ suggested]] this may be part of the reason the movie performed badly in the US. It's an expensive adaptation of a beloved anime that has CultClassic status in the U.S., but otherwise isn't well known by many in both the U.S., the Anglo-sphere and some other western countries, including modern day anime fans. The whole aesthetic on the man/machine and identity crisis is already presented in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' which is Creator/TheWachowskis's love letter to the 1995 film. Additionally, the fact that the Major is TheStoic also made it difficult to get audiences invested in the trailers since there was no emotional tether. The filmmakers were also accused of taking far too many creative liberties with the license than what hardcore fans were comfortable with, who argued (justifiedly or not, as explained in Hypocritical Fandom below) that the result missed the point of the original animated film and series. Finally, the ensuing racial controversy meant that many entertainment journalists and geek bloggers, who normally could have been counted on to cover the movie and help promote it, now felt antsy about showing any support towards it. As the linked articles show, there are people who wonder if there was actually a way this film could succeed at all.
** For fans of the franchise, there is consensus in that movie's basic premise was not the best for an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell''. Before 2017, Motoko Kusanagi's past had never been a big deal in any continuity (or at least not in the way it is connected to this film's main plot), so the decision to make the film an origin story for her, probably inspired by the success of recent superhero cinema, was condemned to feel unfamiliar and forced even in the best case scenario. It didn't help that Hideo Kuze is a relatively obscure antagonist, unlike more famous antagonists like the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell Puppetmaster]], the [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Laughing Man]] or [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Locus Solus]], and neither it did the inclusion of Hanka, which is literally a villain-of-the-week in the manga. While the resultant mishmash of canonical elements and additional homages (which included giving Kuze symbolic elements of the villains above) could still be appreciated in a nostalgic light, it is difficult to overlook that this film's skeleton was cobbled together out of ''Ghost in the Shell'''s least interesting pieces.

** The casting of Creator/ScarlettJohansson as the Major earned a lot of accusations on whitewashing while others (notably, most of them in Japan) didn't mind it as long as the resulting film's story and direction was good. Another camp argued that while it was a bit of a wasted opportunity, the Major's body is artificial anyways.

** As for the film itself, the base was broken about its general quality. Those who liked the film accused the opposite side of being a party of unpleasable people that didn't appreciate all the care put into the production, and who would have panned the film regardless of its quality out of prejudices against Western adaptations of anime/manga. Those who disliked it claim that the opposite side has no standards and that they would allow any degree of crass Westernization and cheapening of the series and its values in order to have an adaptation of the work, quality be damned.
** The movie's decision not to use the Tachikoma created a lot of contention between people who found their absence an acceptable change for the adaptation to make and those who thought it was a terrible idea that removed a crucial element of the franchise.

** The 1995 film was regarded as a classic and one of the greatest anime films of all time in the West, but in Japan, it's considered a slow, boring artsy film and a MainstreamObscurity. Then the tables turned when the 2017 film received mixed reviews in the West while in Japan, it was considered an enjoyable action film.
* HypocriticalFandom: The film gets constantly compared with the Mamoru Oshii anime movies in terms of how an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' should be played, with most detractors labeling the 2017 film as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and quoting the anime movie as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, this happens to be a very heavy case of PopCulturalOsmosis, because the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original idea as the live action film, if not actually even ''more''. The 1995 movie started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of the provocative hustler she was in the manga, Batou as a somber straight man in the place of the boisterous snarker he was created to be, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of stylized action as Masamune conceived it. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Japanese audiences were surprisingly more favorable toward this American adaptation of a Japanese property, including its most controversial aspects. People in Japan were shocked that there was any problem with Creator/ScarlettJohansson playing the Japanese lead, with some even calling her the best option for the role regardless of her race, and as for the divergent elements of the film compared to the manga and anime, Creator/MamoruOshii himself actually [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/21/original-ghost-in-the-shell-director-mamoru-oshii-has-no-problem-with-live-action-remake opined]] that the producers should have deviated even more from the manga in order to create their own work instead of trying to remain plainly faithful to it.

** It is evident that the film retains the manga's original Japanese setting, as the President is referred as "Prime Minister", traffic is left-handed, and there are Japanese cultural elements left and right. However, both the film and its promotional materials are bizarrely shy about this and ''never'' mention explicitly where is it supposed to take place. This makes it look like the producers couldn't decide about a possible ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange and just opted to write around it, which only makes it much more awkward.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The general critical consensus of the film, despite a few positive and negative outliers. While many agreed that the technical aspect and the action are the highlights of the movie, the story itself is simplified and dumbed-down for the sake of newcomers of the franchise which many agreed that it is the weakest aspect of the movie. However, even the harshest critics agreed that the movie itself is not nearly as bad as other Hollywood film adaptations of anime like ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' or ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy''.

** Several close in shots of Batou show the actor's real eyes clearly visible underneath the prosthetic cybereyes. However, as it is not revealed how damaged were Batou's eyes before his augmentation, he might actually retain his non-functional original eyes under the prosthesis.
** When Major is being repaired after the explosion, close-ups on the red parts which possibly intend to be synthetic flesh give an overwhelming impression of simple red plastic film glued upon the actress. Very much like the previous example, though, it is not known how much of it is a special effects lack or a deliberate effect.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[spoiler:The reveal that that the Major really was a Japanese person named Motoko Kusanagi]] offers up a gift-wrapped opportunity to directly address the RaceLift issues that plagued the film's production ever since the casting was announced, but any feelings she might have about literally being an Asian character turned into a white one are unaddressed. Of course, it has to be considered if they could have incorporated this element in the plot at the production stage they were in when the controversy exploded.

* ValuesDissonance: In America, there was a ''large'' backlash towards having a white person playing an Asian character, especially among fans of the originals and Asian-Americans. In Japan, [[http://kotaku.com/the-japanese-internet-reacts-to-scarlet-johansson-in-gh-1771544034 none of them are bothered with the casting]] with some stating that [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/japanese-fans-react-ghost-shell-992255 an Asian but non-Japanese actress pretending to play a Japanese character is a lot worse]] which was a huge issue back then with ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha''. Several articles (from [[https://theringer.com/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-western-anime-adaptations-3e31aeb7f906 The Ringer]], [[http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/9/11612530/ghost-in-the-shell-anime-asian-representation-hollywood The Verge]], [[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/10/01/books/global-ghosts-shell-japanese-manga/#.WOtOANJ97cc The Japan Times]] and [[http://www.screendaily.com/features/how-asian-audiences-reacted-to-ghost-in-the-shell/5116824.article Screen Daily]] among others) explained why the Japanese themselves have no issue on whitewashing or diversity in general.

** The casting of Creator/ScarlettJohansson as the Major earned a lot of accusations on whitewashing while others (notably, most of them in Japan) don't mind it as long as the story and direction is good. Another camp argues that while it's a bit of a wasted opportunity, the Major's body is artificial anyways.
** The trailers and TV spots made a lot of hints about the Major's past. While some find this a welcome change considering that her past is [[MysteriousPast very vague]] and [[MultipleChoicePast different in every adaptation]], others dislike it, pointing out that the Major's past is not always the focus of the franchise and that she doesn't need to angst about it. It doesn't help that many people started comparing it to ''Franchise/{{RoboCop}}''.
** TheReveal that [[spoiler:the Major ''is'' in fact Motoko Kusanagi, and her ghost is still that of a Japanese woman in a shell that is white]], is also controversial and has divided viewers as to whether it successfully addresses the controversial casting InUniverse or just makes the situation worse.
** As for the film itself, the base is broken about its general quality. Those who liked the film accuse the opposite side of being a party of unpleasable people that don't appreciate all the care put into the production and who would have panned the film regardless of its quality out of prejudices against Western adaptations of anime/manga. Those who disliked it claim the opposite side has no standards and that they would let pass any degree of crass Westernization and cheapening of the values of the series in order to have an adaptation of the work.

** For Latin American viewers, the use of a different voice cast from the anime films, in stark contrast with the Japanese dub, when their original voice actors were brought back as much as they could. Other people didn't mind much the change and they at least accept the dub was good for its own merits.

* ClicheStorm: An inevitable one, given that the film is an adaptation of a manga from TheEighties, back when the whole CyberPunk story with cyborg-human identity crisis and [[MegaCorp Mega Corps]] run by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive heartless businessmen]] had not been done left and right yet. Some of those clichés were popularized the manga itself.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: A crowded box office along with whitewashing controversy hurt the movie's domestic box office. International audiences were much more accepting and the overseas income tripled the North American gross. [[https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2017/04/japanese-audiences-praise-ghost-in-the-shell-remake-and-are-happy-with-scarlett-johanssons-casting/ Japanese reception was more favorable as well]].
* HarsherInHindsight: Back in 2016, Scarlett Johansson faced criticism for playing a role of a Japanese character in this movie. Two years later, [[http://ew.com/movies/2018/07/07/scarlett-johansson-transgender-casting-controversy-rub-tug/ she was bombarded again with criticism]] for being cast as a trans man in the upcoming film, ''Rug and Tug'' which was also directed by Rupert Sanders. However, [[http://ew.com/movies/2018/07/13/scarlett-johansson-rub-tug-exit-transgender-casting-backlash/ she backed out]], knowing being in another controversial role is detrimental to her career and to growing casting problem in Hollywood.

** Back in 2004, Creator/DreamWorks distributed ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]]'' for international release via their now-defunct Go Fish Pictures label. Now they're producing the live-action adaptation of ''[=GitS=]''.
** Many fans defended the movie's whitewashing by saying Major was a cyborg, so her race could be anything, and there was nothing that said she wasn't originally born Japanese. [[spoiler: Turns out that's exactly what happened in the film, as she was originally a Japanese run away, who was kidnapped and illegally experimented on.]] Additionally, [[spoiler:the film becoming a BoxOfficeBomb led to a lot of relief from the same people that a Japanese actress wouldn't be forced to take the blame for it]].

* HypocriticalFandom: The film gets constantly compared with the Mamoru Oshii anime movies in terms of how an adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' should be played, with most detractors labelling the 2017 film as unfaithful and disrespectful to the manga and quoting the anime movie as the quintessential adaptation of the saga. However, this happens to be a very heavy case of PopCulturalOsmosis, because the Oshii films are just as divergent from the original idea as the live action film, if not actually even ''more''. The 1995 movie started the trend of portraying the Major as a depressive philosopher instead of the provocative hustler she was in the manga, Batou as a somber straight man in the place of the boisterous snarker he was created to be, and the series's medium as a place for psychological musings instead of stylized action as Masamune conceived it. Considering that the 2017 film brings out a bit of the Major's lively side again, gives Batou a less introspective nature and focuses on action first and existential questions later, it could be said that it is a more faithful adaptation of ''Ghost in the Shell'' than the Oshii movies.

** [[AC:[=#IAmMajor=]]] which was Paramount's attempt to promote the movie but [[http://fusion.net/story/391619/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major/ many people made fun of it]] such as mocking the casting choices of this movie and others (such as Creator/FinnJones' role in ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'') to several unrelated characters also using the "I Am" statement (e.g. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Groot]], [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith the Senate]]). [=DreamWorks=] was not amused, and they allegedly disagreed pretty heavily with the way Paramount was marketing the film.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Japanese audiences were surprisingly more favorable toward this American adaptation of a Japanese property, including its most controversial aspects. People in Japan were shocked that there was any problem with Creator/ScarlettJohansson playing the Japanese lead, with some even calling her the best option for the role regardless of the race, and as for the divergent elements of the film compared to the manga and anime, Creator/MamoruOshii himself actually [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/21/original-ghost-in-the-shell-director-mamoru-oshii-has-no-problem-with-live-action-remake opined]] that the producers should have deviated even more from the manga in order to create their own work instead of trying to remain plainly faithful to it.

** The film became this due to the {{race lift}}s of several characters from Asian to other races. Paramount executive Kyle Davies [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paramount-admits-ghost-in-the-shell-did-poorly-because-casting_us_58e486cbe4b0d0b7e1660b61 even conceded]] that the whitewashing controversy likely hurt the film at the box office. It was even brought up in the 2019 Golden Globe Awards where the hostess Creator/SandraOh joked about the film, together with ''Film/{{Aloha}}'', for its casting on white actresses as Asian leads.

** Paramount is at least painfully aware of the backlash against Johansson's casting, as they released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9wNSGDiKY&ab_channel=KinoCheckInternational behind-the-scenes featurette]] before the first trailer even dropped featuring an interview with original anime director Mamoru Oshii, who gave his blessing for the film and Johansson as the Major.

** On a more general level, it launched a meme of people jokingly fancasting Scarlett Johansson every time a movie or TV series featuring Asian characters is announced, as well as sarcastically calling Scarlett an Asian-American actress. Even Creator/SandraOh got in on it during the 2019 Golden Globe Awards:

-->'''Sandra Oh:''' ["Fimlm/CrazyRichAsians"] is the first studio film with an Asian American lead since ''Ghost in the Shell'' and ''Film/{{Aloha}}''.

* MemeticMutation: [[AC:[=#IAmMajor=]]] which was Paramount's attempt to promote the movie but [[http://fusion.net/story/391619/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major/ many people made fun of it]] such as mocking the casting choices of this movie and others (such as Creator/FinnJones' role in ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'') to several unrelated characters also using the "I Am" statement (e.g. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Groot]], [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith the Senate]]). [=DreamWorks=] was not amused, and they allegedly disagreed pretty heavily with the way Paramount was marketing the film.

* ValuesDissonance: In America, there was a ''large'' InternetBackdraft towards having a white person playing an Asian character, especially among fans of the originals and Asian-Americans. In Japan, [[http://kotaku.com/the-japanese-internet-reacts-to-scarlet-johansson-in-gh-1771544034 none of them are bothered with the casting]] with some stating that [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/japanese-fans-react-ghost-shell-992255 an Asian but non-Japanese actress pretending to play a Japanese character is a lot worse]] which was a huge issue back then with ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha''. Several articles (from [[https://theringer.com/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-western-anime-adaptations-3e31aeb7f906 The Ringer]], [[http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/9/11612530/ghost-in-the-shell-anime-asian-representation-hollywood The Verge]], [[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/10/01/books/global-ghosts-shell-japanese-manga/#.WOtOANJ97cc The Japan Times]] and [[http://www.screendaily.com/features/how-asian-audiences-reacted-to-ghost-in-the-shell/5116824.article Screen Daily]] among others) explained why the Japanese themselves have no issue on whitewashing or diversity in general.

** Paramount is at least painfully aware of the InternetBackdraft against Johansson's casting, as they released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9wNSGDiKY&ab_channel=KinoCheckInternational behind-the-scenes featurette]] before the first trailer even dropped featuring an interview with original anime director Mamoru Oshii, who gave his blessing for the film and Johansson as the Major.

* InternetBackdraft: Due to Hollywood's [[Film/FistOfTheNorthStar ill]] [[Film/DragonballEvolution reputation]] on adapting anime and manga into the big screen as well as its history of whitewashing, people remained skeptical about the film, most especially the casting of the white Creator/ScarlettJohansson. Several people such as [[https://twitter.com/jontsuei/status/720803388355530753 Jon Tsuei]] and [[https://twitter.com/MingNa/status/720629012180123648 Ming-Na Wen]] were very critical about the casting while others such as [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/doc-strange-whitewashing-shell-884385 Hollywood Reporter]] pointed the reasons behind the casting. Despite the plot twist [[spoiler:regarding the Major being Japanese all along]], [[http://variety.com/2017/film/news/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing-1202020230/ there's still some people accusing the movie of whitewashing]] considering that the movie didn't bother [[spoiler:to show the real faces of Motoko and Hideo in the flashbacks, or - even weirder - to give Motoko a gravestone inscription written in Japanese]].