Netflix's anime series Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is widely regarded as trash and we concur.

Scrolling through the platform yesterday we stumbled across an attempted recovery in the form of a film adaptation of the first season.

Which premiered in the US last year and was released worldwide on May 9.

Season one of the Netflix Series “Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045” will be reborn as a feature-length theatrical animation complete with new scenes and a full re-color grading of all shots. Taking the helm is Michihito Fujii, the director of live-action films such as the six Japan Academy Prize-nominated work “The Journalist,” and “A Family.”

Like the series, it wasn't loved by critics and even the trailer is garbage.

We are not slow readers but this dialog is zipping by very quickly.

There's one in the middle where you have to read all of this in one second:

IN THE NEAR FUTURE WHEN,
PEOPLE DON'T YET REALIZE
THEY FACE EXTINCTION FROM AI --

If your GHOST
is whispering to you,

We have to applaud the honesty of this trailer.

Where the original film and earlier TV series are expertly crafted sci-fi and political mystery thrillers with a strong philosophical undercurrent, SAC_2045 is frenetic action with bonkers dialog.

Seemingly the attempted rebirth as film isn't much if any improvement over the series.

But it's interesting to us because last year in an atmosphere of general negativity surrounding the rise of streaming and its impact on the film industry, James Cameron offered a divergent opinion.

I think what we can see is an expanded form of cinema. I want to do a movie that’s six hours long and two and a half hours long at the same time. Same movie. You can stream it for six hours, or you can go and have a more condensed, roller coaster, immersive version of that experience in a movie theater. Same movie. Just, one’s the novel, and one’s the movie. Why not? Let’s just use these platforms in ways that haven’t been done before.

SAC_2045 likely wasn't written with this in mind and also poorly written into the bargain so not in our minds a good indicator of the value of this idea.

However, Netflix's willingness to experiment here suggests that we might see Cameron's idea properly pursued and to good result in the near future.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 and Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War are available to stream now on Netflix, but we definitely don't recommend them.

Neither the original Ghost in the Shell film nor the Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex series - both excellent - are available to stream on any provider in Australia.

The terrible live action Ghost in the Shell film is also unavailable.

[ Main Image: Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 Sustainable War trailer. Credit: Netflix via IMDb.com. ]

References

Netflix Anime (April 20, 2022). Anime Film | Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War | Official Trailer | Netflix Anime. YouTube.

Rotten Tomatoes. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 - Season 1. (viewed June 30, 2022)

Rotten Tomatoes. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War. (viewed June 30, 2022)

Wikipedia. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. (viewed June 30, 2022)