This film works so well on so many levels but falls short in almost as many areas. One could be much more forgiving of its shortcomings if it could be divorced from its status as an adaptation of an iconic and immensely influential anime film and viewed as an objective work, but there is so much care taken in so many instances to parallel its source material that this isn't really possible. What this leaves is a film that dazzles visually and performance-wise but is frustratingly lacking in most other capacities.

The sets, costumes, props, cinematography, editing – practically every visual element of Ghost in the Shell – are nothing short of perfect. As an adaptation, meticulous attention is paid to making its appearance an exact reference to the original film. Buildings, vehicles, and equipment all use nearly identical designs to the anime, and every character is cast and costumed to be instantly recognizable as their animated counterpart. An even more impressive aspect of this is the numerous instances of the film painstakingly recreating distinctive sequences from the anime shot-for-shot, down to body language and specific background details. The iconic set piece of the Major chasing a hacked terrorist down a city street and into a flooded apartment block is perhaps the best example of this dynamic at work. The similarity is so exact that it's uncanny. Beyond this, even on its own, this movie is a superlative cyberpunk work, nailing every visual, auditory, atmospheric, and narrative facet of the well-defined aesthetic to an extremely satisfying degree.

The cast support this accomplishment capably as well. Once again, Scarlett Johansson's knack for portraying performative humanity is on full display, though here it's much more blunt and telegraphed, as the narrative calls for. As a human brain inside a fully prosthetic body, the Major's movement and emoting are off-puttingly mechanical, highlighted in noticeable quirks like sitting or reclining in unnaturally stiff and awkward positions or standing completely still with zero fidgeting or weight-shifting when she isn't moving. Johansson convincingly expresses the lonely existential confusion of a being caught between machine and human, as well as the detachment and petulance with which the Major covers this up. Pilou Asbaek's Batou is a perfect translation of the original character, at once pointedly wry and cynical as much as he is a good deal softer and more optimistic than the rest of Section 9. 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano brings an ideal amount of both stern wisdom and wily tactical prowess to Aramaki, and Michael Pitt manages a few genuinely hypnotic moments as Kuze, the adaptation's interpretation of the Puppet Master.

Where Ghost in the Shell falls short as an adaptation is in a narrative sense. The questionable decision to make the plot's antagonists an evil robotics corporation rather than a branch of the government, and to tell a story of moral and ethical conflict rather than existential introspection, mars the work. This is reflected in changes like making the Major the first of her kind rather than an operative in a cultural and professional landscape where full-body prothesis is the norm, and making the Puppet Master a failed human cybernetics experiment rather than a sentient computer program. The result is that a great deal of the original work's transhuman themes are undercut, and the film takes a qualifiable moral stance on technology and humanity rather than merely objectively presenting concepts for the viewer's consideration.

Where Ghost in the Shell falls short as a film is in its writing. Practically all the dialogue in this movie is direct and utilitarian, with many bits that are laughably expositional; many character interactions come across as awkward and clumsy. Very early on in the film, the CEO of Hanka Robotics flatly declares, "I don't see [the Major] as a person; I see her as a weapon;" this sadly sets the precedent for the script's glaring lack of nuance. Admittedly, many of these issues are present in both the English and Japanese versions of the original animated movie, but here, coupled with the oversimplifying changes made to the overall narrative, it's far more difficult to overlook in the service of a greater message.

I still hold that this adaptation is worth a watch for anyone who enjoyed the original, and is practically required viewing for cyberpunk fans, but there is still a lingering frustration that it had the potential to be much more than it is.