With no emotional fan attachment to the original Japanese manga, Hollywood's re-imagining of the Ghost in the Shell story was a more standalone experience for me, as director Rupert Sanders delivers his own vision for more mainstream audiences.
It's set in the near future, where the lines between human and robot have grown increasingly blurred and cyber-enhancements are as commonplace as getting Botox or a spray tan.
It's a world where technology can enhance and repair the body and the mind, and a world rife with corruption and power-hungry evil-doers.
Fighting the good fight against the bad guys is Scarlett Johansson as Major. A human brain encased in a robotic 'shell', she is one of a kind. As far as her creators are concerned, she's a weapon - their weapon.
Major heads up an elite squad of soldiers called Section 9, a rag-tag posse loyal to their cause and loyal to the Major. Her right hand man Batou (Pilou Asbaek) has her back, and she will need his help as the layers are slowly peeled back on her past.
They are chasing down a mysterious cyber-terrorist who is hacking the minds of some of the city's most important people. It becomes clear to the Major that what he hunts will also unlock doors into her own memory.
Wonderful Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche brings her class to proceedings here, as the woman who helped create the Major and who nurtures her still. The bond between Binoche and Johansson on-screen is palpable and delivers much-needed depth to an otherwise shallow pond of character development.
With the exception of the group's leader Aramaki (played by venerable Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano) and Batou we spend such little time with the members of Section 9; we barely even make their acquaintance, a superficiality reflected right across the storyline.
Johansson herself brings an intense physicality to the role. Her close-ups are strangely mesmerizing and as she does with all her action outings, she leaves you secure in the knowledge that she is more than capable of kicking serious butt.
This story is far from memorable, however, almost without a soul, which left me feeling undernourished and a little cold. But there is no question that visually, Ghost is a strikingly immersive big screen experience.
Surreal, richly sumptuous and hypnotic, Sanders and his team, including Weta Workshop, have rendered a visionary futuristic otherworld which - unlike the story - will haunt the recesses of my retina for some time.
Three-and-a-half stars.
Newshub.
