‘Ghost’ a respectable but utterly unnecessary remake

her synthetic body, which emerges from a final bath of milky glaze that hardens and shatters, revealing the humanlike form beneath.

As the Major and her colleague Batou seek out a mysterious super-hacker known here as Kuze, what passes for a story turns out to be relatively prosaic. But, whether it’s quoting its original source material (as in that birth sequence, or reimagining a squad of “geisha bots”), or creating eye-catching new set pieces, “Ghost in the Shell” is often ravishing — and at a swift 105 minutes, it knows better than to overstay its welcome.

With her chilly, monotonic reserve, Johansson is playing another version of a character that’s become something of a go-to in recent years, in such intriguing speculative fantasies as “Under the Skin,” “Lucy” and the rapidly evolving operating system in “Her.” Although purists will still no doubt think of the Major as a properly Asian character, Sanders has eased the inherent cultural tensions of “Ghost in the Shell” somewhat by making it a pluralistic ensemble picture: Binoche is French; the Danish actor Pilou Asbaek plays Batou; the Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca plays a key role; and the legendary Japanese crime-film actor “Beat” Takeshi Kitano portrays Major’s commander, Aramaki.

Narratively, “Ghost in the Shell” is rather dull, in large part because of the many movies that have copied the anime original so ingeniously. This version may not break new ground, but it revisits familiar territory with a vibrant sense of style and welcome restraint. It exemplifies the kind of respectable and utterly unnecessary remake that now defines the Hollywood business model.