Ghost in the Shell is a bomb...

[Skanky Vamp]

So what does this kill:
A- Whitewashing in Hollywood
B- Scarlett Johansson's leading lady status
C- Both

If anything I would say B. It would be nice if it were A, but I don't see that happening. I think ScarJo will take the brunt of the fallout and people will say she's lost her drawing power. And honestly, they might be true.

 

[Mr Trick]

Not surprised it bombed. The whitewashing is a smokescreen. Its a hot topic right now, but will be forgotten about before long and frankly I don't think it matters. Least of all in fantasy/Sci-Fi cinema and in this case where the character was not distinctly Japanese in the original anyway.

Hope it doesn't effect SJ's leading status. The studio should take the blame for not hiring a proper genre director who would engage with the ideas of the original rather than making it a by the numbers action/Sci-Fi which it appears to be.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

What this means is that Marvel has justified themselves for not making a Black Widow movie. ScarJo will always get work, but yea studios might not push her as a leading action star anymore. This is strike 2, after Lucy was badly received.

Unfortunately it's not her fault. It's up to the studio, producers, writers and director to have made a better movie. I think for me why I didn't go see it. I have no idea what the plot is about from the trailers. It just looked like a movie that people go "meh, I'll wait to rent it later".

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

My guess would be: D) none of the above. 😉

 

[Skanky Vamp]

What this means is that Marvel has justified themselves for not making a Black Widow movie.

I believe that to be accurate. I don't see them ever doing it now, especially not with two more Spiderman movies on the docket and more Ant-Mans, Doctor Stranges and Black Panthers to come. There's not much room left for her... then when you look at Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, the only novelty of a BW movie would be lost and it would be compared to those two movies, which would hurt it's sense of originality.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I believe that to be accurate. I don't see them ever doing it now, especially not with two more Spiderman movies on the docket and more Ant-Mans, Doctor Stranges and Black Panthers to come. There's not much room left for her... then when you look at Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, the only novelty of a BW movie would be lost and it would be compared to those two movies, which would hurt it's sense of originality.

I don't think Marvel would have done a BW movie even if Ghost did well. But now they have a legit excuse for not trying. I do want more Black Widow though. I want her and Hawkeye to do a smaller scale spy movie. But you're right, with WW and Captain Marvel, a standalone BW movie will be unfairly compared.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I don't think Marvel would have done a BW movie even if Ghost did well. But now they have a legit excuse for not trying. I do want more Black Widow though. I want her and Hawkeye to do a smaller scale spy movie. But you're right, with WW and Captain Marvel, a standalone BW movie will be unfairly compared.

I don't think they ever planned to do one either, but not sure about Hawkeye. How f'n drab would that be? Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner. Seriously. No way would I ever want to see that. Put her in a movie with anyone else and yeah. Hell, she and Paul Rudd could have good chemistry... just not Renner.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I don't think they ever planned to do one either, but not sure about Hawkeye. How f'n drab would that be? Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner. Seriously. No way would I ever want to see that. Put her in a movie with anyone else and yeah. Hell, she and Paul Rudd could have good chemistry... just not Renner.

Lol. Well I heard he was going to be in the next Ant Man movie. I think is fine they just haven't used Hawkeye that well. I like when he and BW team up.

 

[Blaze]

I wish it were A. Really sick of whitewashing Hollywood. But we all know that this is not the reason this movie bombed because you have loads of other whitewashed movies that do very well (Dr. Strange is one of the latest one).

I will admit that I still want to see this, just because the franchise offers such a cool world and I want to see if any of that was even remotely translated to the screen. But from what I hear it fails when it comes to being faithful to the franchise. They turned this really cool cyber punk sci fi world into a generic action movie.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Now, if it had a story to tell, heck, if it had a story.

 

[thetopher]

The truth is that if the movie is a success then the white-washing thing won't truly matter, and if the movie bombs then it will be 'just another reason' why the film sucks; no bigger or smaller than any other reason. But I think it does matter; I was surprised at the casting choice and thought it was a misstep.

I wasn't going to watch this anyway because I liked the anime just fine. It's iconic in a way, and I never believed we needed a live-action version.

But we did so yeah, they should've gone with an Asian actress lead. I think you should keep as true to the source material as you can if its appropriate.

Dr. Strange is one of the latest one

The Ancient One? I always thought that was a big nothing controversy. The ancient One was a shallow cliche; a 'magic Asian' there simply to gift the Caucasian with what he needs to be 'special'.
By re-casting they were trying to avoid another somewhat racist cliche; where the white character comes in and culturally appropriates whatever special cool stuff the foreign culture has (but then again I don't consider 'spell casting' to be belonging to one particular culture; every culture has 'magic')

In DS, Wong, a far more important character, was race appropriate. That's a good thing.

Iron Fist is a much better example of white washing because they easily could've found somebody better and more fitting for the role.

 

[JCoatsworth]

A- Whitewashing in Hollywood
B- Scarlett Johansson's leading lady status

Why not D- Neither?
Fans of the source material didn't ask for an American live action remake and the mainstream audience doesn't seem to be interested. Or maybe it's bad marketing. Or maybe it looks too much like Lucy. Maybe people are fed up with the boring Avengers spy woman. Probably a combination of all of it and more.

And as far as I can tell, there's no whitewashing in this movie. I'm not very familiar with the material, but as far as I understand, the main character is not human and can take any form. She's neither Asian nor Caucasian. You can cast whoever you want and the story works.
But I think it would have been nice to see an Asian lead in a big action movie, regardless.

 

[Guy]

Hopefully, it'll just kill anime remakes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't 'Ghost in the Shell' a nothing franchise in the first place? In terms of popularity, I mean. I've never even heard the name before this remake became a thing. Why would a remake of a cult series be expected to be a hit? Especially when the trailers make it look like Blade-Runner rip-off #45...

 

[Blaze]

The Ancient One? I always thought that was a big nothing controversy. The ancient One was a shallow cliche; a 'magic Asian' there simply to gift the Caucasian with what he needs to be 'special'.
By re-casting they were trying to avoid another somewhat racist cliche; where the white character comes in and culturally appropriates whatever special cool stuff the foreign culture has (but then again I don't consider 'spell casting' to be belonging to one particular culture; every culture has 'magic')

In DS, Wong, a far more important character, was race appropriate. That's a good thing.

Iron Fist is a much better example of white washing because they easily could've found somebody better and more fitting for the role.

I really can't comment on the whitewashing in Dr. Strange since I haven't seen the movie and I'm also not familiar with the source material. I can see what you are saying about the cultural appropriation though. What I meant really is that white actors have been cast in roles originally belonging to non-white actors and the movie has does fine at the box office. That's what leads me to think that GitS didn't bomb because of the whitewashing, whether it made sense in the movie or not.

 

[vellavu]

Still miles better than the blackwashing of L and whitewashing of Light in the upcoming Marvel movie.

The colorwashing isn't even the most important problem in that Death Note adaption. They got the characterization all wrong. They turn Light from a social, extroverted, two-faced villain into a stereotypical introverted psychopath. That's so stupid.