Critics shouldn't take these things under consideration before they see a movie, but when a film doesn't screen before the Wednesday it comes out, well, it does create an impression that the studio is hiding it. The thought had certainly entered my mind when I sat down to watch Ghost in the Shell last night. And yet, lo and behold, it's actually a pretty good sci-fi action-thriller, bringing its own energy to the 1995 anime that inspired it. A lot of credit has to go to Scarlett Johansson -- and, as far as the accusations of whitewashing are concerned, well, I get into that in my Popular Mechanics review.
