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Ghost in the Shell

Started by JamesC, 06 April, 2017, 06:51:54 AM

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JamesC

Well Ghost in the Shell has flopped at the box office.
There's loads of stuff on social media blaming the flop on the 'whitewashing' controversy, which I'm finding quite interesting. I almost posted on here a couple of weeks ago to comment on the film's poster which seems to be all around town at the moment.
It's this one:


To me this poster completely fails at its job. It tells you absolutely nothing about the film other than that it exists. It doesn't even clearly define the genre. Surely the only people who are going to be interested after seeing this are those already familiar with the source material or those who'll go and see anything starring Scarlett Johansen.

More on this later - I need to go to work...

JamesC

#1
...as I was saying - I find it interesting that this film's poor performance is being blamed on the whitewashing controversy when, to me, it seems that the marketing of the film has been completely bungled.

I feel like I'm part of the target demographic for the film. A fan of sci-fi and action films and a casual cinema-goer. My main impressions of this film are the above poster and an image of Scarlett running towards the camera in what looks like a chameleon-esque body suit. That's it.
I have a vague recollection of seeing the anime sometime in the 90s and thinking it was a bit boring. Nonetheless I'm sure with a bit of effort I could have been persuaded to see a slick modern sci-fi action flick starring Scarlett Johansen.

The whitewashing thing is neither here nor there to me. I've been shown nothing to make me want to see the film. 

Steve Green

Yeah, that posters says nothing - but I know broadly what it's about and I still can't be arsed.

Maybe it's a bit of a saturation of fantasy genre thing. I don't think the whitewashing thing had much to do with it either.

I think there's also an element of fans (or the people making the film) severely over-estimating the mainstream appeal (see also Dredd)

I'm pretty sure Akira would go the same way.

Valerian will be an interesting one - I'm sensing a flop in that, apart from maybe France - unless it can do the business in China.

Goaty

#3
Problem with that it so similar to her other film poster few years ago!


I, Cosh

Well, that's not the poster I've seen. Not that this one is significantly more exciting.

To me, this is a bit like Trainspotting 2 or Silence. I'd be quite happy to watch it but it's definitely not top of the list and I'm not going to cry if I miss it.
We never really die.

I, Cosh

Quote from: Goaty on 06 April, 2017, 09:23:17 AM
Problem with that it so similar to her other film few years ago!
Is it? Now I'm a lot more interested. Lucy was great!
We never really die.

Goaty

Sorry I means Lucy poster.

JamesC

That second GITS poster at least says 'sci-fi'.

The Lucy poster, while being a bit mundane at least gives you loads of information about the film. It's an action thriller, it explains part of the premise and it lets you know the pedigree of the director.

Goaty

This could be best poster for people to understand Ghost in the Shell but sadly not;


SIP

Not sure it's fair to say it's a flop yet.....as I thought it was yet to have its Japan or China release. Good chance it will make a lot of money there much like resident evil.

Could still be a big earner.

sheridan

Quote from: I, Cosh on 06 April, 2017, 09:26:47 AM
Quote from: Goaty on 06 April, 2017, 09:23:17 AM
Problem with that it so similar to her other film few years ago!
Is it? Now I'm a lot more interested. Lucy was great!


I would probably have liked Lucy - unfortunately they prominently featured the 10 % fallacy which immediately makes you think the film's going to be poorly thought through rubbish.

abelardsnazz

I was really disappointed with this. The visuals were impressive at first but I got fed up with them towards the end, the script was pretty dire and the normally great Takeshi Kitano didn't have much to do.

Lucy - now there was a great Scarlett Johansson sci-fi thriller.

Echidna

I doubt the whitewashing thing has made much of an impression beyond the existing GitS fanbase. What worries me is Hollywood will assume it's flopped because audiences don't want to see female-led SF/action films. I suspect it's more to do with a failure to advertise the film to a mainstream audience. The existing fanbase isn't big enough to make it a guaranteed hit, and a lot of us have avoided it anyway, assuming it would be a disappointment.

For my part, I saw the trailer with the sound turned off and thought, wow, that looks a lot more faithful than I was expecting. So I rewound, turned the sound on and realised, oh, it really isn't.

Dandontdare

I don't get this 'lack of publicity' thing - I'm not a big fan of the original and the trailer didn't grab me, but I  certainly feel saturated with promos - seems like it's been everywhere recently, trailers at the cinema, posters, buses, even TV ads.

I think the poor showing is due to it being a generic crass Hollywood remake that everyone expects to be pants compared to the source material.

Arkwright99

I saw the original anime on a cinema re-release a couple of months ago and the live action remake on Tuesday. I liked the remake a lot - lots of resonances with Blade Runner and Mega City 1, I felt - and found it a lot easier to understand and follow than I had either the anime or the manga. Which, yes, means it's been 'dumbed down' for the multiplex audience and that might offend the purists but if you want a mainstream hit then sometimes you have to sweeten the pill.

The thing is I feel that GitS, like Dredd, has a hardcore but pretty niche audience that on its own isn't big enough to support a multi-million dollar franchise so you need something else rather than brand recognition to bring in the aforementioned multiplex audience. If Scarlett Johanssan running around, to all extents and purposes, essentially naked for two hours isn't enough of a USP then you've got bigger problems than what you put on your posters.

I'm going to suggest that making GitS a 12A rather than a 15 (like the anime) or an R/18 probably won't end up being seen as an asset. Although making Dredd an 18 didn't work for it either so perhaps the problem is more that niche products only appeal to niche audiences. :-\
'Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel ... with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.' - Alan Moore