Movie review
March 29, 2017 · 107 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The story follows a cyber-enhanced soldier (Scarlett Johansson) who uncovers that a corporation fabricated her memories and turned her into a weapon. The core arc is her personal quest to reclaim her humanity and identity in a high-tech future—classic cyberpunk stuff about self, memory, and machines. There are no lectures on race, gender, politics, or social justice, and no marketing or dialogue pushing representation agendas. It’s straight sci-fi action with anti-corporate villains, the kind of philosophical themes the original anime had, nothing modern activist.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Ghost in the Shell.
Woke representation / casting
High-profile lead casting drew whitewashing criticism; story and marketing contain zero emphasis on diversity or identity representation.
Woke political dialogue
Occasional generic anti-corporate lines exist, but nothing resembling modern political or social-justice statements.
Identity-driven story themes
Protagonist’s quest to discover her real self and reject a fabricated corporate past is central, but remains standard cyberpunk philosophy with no activist messaging.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Evil megacorp villainy drives the plot as a classic genre trope; no ties to contemporary activist critiques of culture or real-world institutions.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Absent; only backlash was progressive whitewashing complaints (explicitly ignored per guidelines).
Creator track record context
No pattern of similar activist or identity-focused work.
Production
