The hit anime movie “Ghost In The Shell” gets its Hollywood live-action adaptation and I was actually fairly impressed. I enjoyed the original version and I think this new version manages to faithfully recreate the style of its Japanese counterpart while adding enough variation to create a new experience for fans of the original. If you are unfamiliar with the original and therefore the premise, just imagine a cross between “Blade Runner” and “I, Robot”.

We return to the disturbing futuristic world of “Ghost In The Shell” as Scarlett Johansson (“The Island”, “Avengers Assemble”) stars as Major, a cyborg counter-terrorist officer. She’s on the trail of an elusive hacker known as ‘Kuze’ (Michael Pitt) but what she will find is the dark truth of her past.

There was a lot of controversy over the casting of Johansson but I think a lot of it was just people trying to find something to complain about it. Johansson does a good job. I didn’t really care for the villain all that much, which is a shame. Fans of Japanese cinema will most likely be happy to see that Takeshi Kitano (“Battle Royale”) has a small role. The special effects on the various cyborgs and robots look pretty impressive for the most part.

At times, I was a little confused because this version features some significant plot changes from the original but many of the famous scenes are recreated. While I definitely still prefer the original, this is about as good as a live-action remake could be. I think fans of the anime will find it enjoyable but this may also be a good way to ease in audiences unfamiliar with the anime. It isn’t quite as philosophically intriguing as the original but it does a good enough job in recreating the dark world of “Ghost In The Shell”.