Remember the good old days of the movie trailer? How about short movie teasers? Remember just a few months ago when movie trailers got their own pre-trailers? Psh who needs any of that when you can release five mini teasers and slap ‘em all together to make one giant teaser?!
That’s what we got in the first footage from Ghost in the Shell, the live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s manga series. Five roughly 10-second teasers debuted during Wednesday night’s season finale of Mr. Robot, a fitting companion by the looks of the glitchy, moody new teasers, and thanks to the beauty of the internet all five are now available to watch back-to-back.
The teasers show Scarlett Johansson’s Major, a special-ops cyborg, pointing a gun as she stumbles upon a group of sitting monks, curiously touching a woman’s face, unplugging Matrix-style, and Daisuke Aramaki (Beat Takeshi) firing a weapon. The sleek photography looks eerie and stunning, and the ominous music evokes a bit of an Under the Skin vibe, which I totally dig.
Yet as exciting as these new teasers may be, there’s no forgetting that the adaptation has already garned mounds of controversy for its poor treatment of race and the source material. From its whitewashing casting controversy to our report on the racial shifting VFX tests commissioned by Paramount, the film has already upset audiences and these stylish teasers may not be able to reverse that backlash.
The film, directed by Rupert Sanders’ (Snow White and the Huntsman) follows Johansson as Major, originally Major Motoko Kusanagi in the manga series, a name change that uh, clearly reflects the actress’ race. Major works for Section 9, a counter cyber-terrorist task force intent on stopping an enemy’s technology advancements. Ghost in the Shell also stars Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Rila Fukushima, Takeshi Kitano, and Chin Han. The film hits theaters March 31, 2017.