Watching the trailer again and I'm a little less enthused than I think I really should be. Yes it looks very faithful visually, but the action (what little we see of it) looks kind of clunky in a way I can't quite put my finger on.
I think part of it may be the glimpses we get of the post chase/invisible fight scene. The
original version has an almost serene and oddly meditative quality to it. Lots of wide shots, a patient approach to the pacing and most crucially, you barely see the Major until the fight is already over. I may be over analysing, but the way she just steps out with that "I'm gonna punch you now" stance just lacks a certain elegance and fluidity that was a hallmark of the original.
Not thrilled at the use of slo-mo either. Again, in the original the violence was fast, brutal and over before you really knew it. In both the opening assassination scene, and the tank battle at the end, it felt dangerous and made you buy that the Major was in serious peril.
Also, looking at this director's previous credits doesn't exactly fill me with optimism. I don't know. We'll see.
In the original movie (I haven't read the manga), the major is unsure whether she has a human soul (ghost) inside her shell because of her extensive cyberisation, which seemingly retained either none or only a small portion of a biological brain. It's not clear if she has any memories surviving from her original biological brain. If I recall correctly, in the SAC series, she had memories (real or implanted) of a childhood before she became a cyborg so deep philosophical musings about this aspect of her nature were absent. It does look like this movie is taking its cues more from the original movie.
It was always more of an undertone though, whereas the trailer makes it seem like it's the focus of the plot. Personally, I'd prefer they just not make this an origin story for the Major. I may be alone in this but I rather think she works best as a semi-mysterious character. She's a lone wolf/gunslinger character in the vein of Yojimbo.
