Missing a soul

GHOST IN THE SHELL Direction: Rupert Sanders Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbaek Rating:

Ghost in the Machine has the cyberpunk aesthetic but lacks the core element of soul.

In a future dominated by technological tinkering, a female human-cyborg hybrid (Scarlett Johansson) is tasked with investigating a series of crimes committed by a disgruntled cyber hacker (Michael Carmen Pitt).

You’ll see flashes of the Matrix trilogy, Ex Machina and RoboCop in this live-action retread of the Japanese animated sci-fi tale of the same name. But the script rambles from one pointless predicament to another as the onewoman army attempts to come to terms with her true identity. In short order, the hybrid also learns a number of disturbing details about the boss (Peter Ferdinando) of the shady corporation which reassembled her as a weaponised machine. Skyscraper-sized holograms dot the neon-drenched cityscape but the production design is lackluster, as are the digitally generated action scenes. The multi-national cast includes Danish hulk Pilou Asbaek (the protagonist’s partner), French legend Juliette Binoche (the do-gooder doctor) and, notably, Japanese auteur-showman ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano (the sardonic chief of the anti-terrorist unit). Despite its high-tech trappings, Ghost in the Shell is just another leaden Hollywood behemoth.