If the divergence was used to say something new, I do not think it would have mattered so long as the general aesthetic of the franchise remained the same.

She even drops hints about having been a guy at various points in the past

I think that has more to do with this film seeming to lift shots from the original anime film for no reason other than to hit a nostalgia button. It comes off as lazy.

I would have preferred seeing the filmmakers go for new iconography rather than seeing them steal — sorry, “pay homage to” iconography from previous entries in the franchise (but most noticeably the original anime film). The point of an adaptation like this should be to say or do something new with the general ideas…

Kuze, the primary antagonist from “Stand-Alone Complex — 2nd GIG”, is the “white haired, don’t open my mouth dude”. And according to IMDB, that is the character’s name. And yes, this film’s Kuze does seem to be a pastiche of The Laughing Man, 2nd GIG!Kuze, and The Puppeteer.

No, the dialogue really is awful. Maybe it will suck less during the actual film, but it comes off as generic and way too spoiler-y in the trailer.

That is why I have no faith in “Ghost in the Shell” becoming the same kind of cult classic as “Speed Racer”. Nothing about this film seems like a sincere attempt to bring “Ghost in the Shell” into 2017 with something new or different to say.

It is possible, but it does not seem probable.

“Speed Racer” is a goddamned masterpiece and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

Even if you were to forget about the “RoboCop” and “Bourne” franchises, you could still name more examples of this. The entire “Universal Soldier” franchise is basically built on this trope. “Soldier” and “Rambo: First Blood — Part II” are arguably about this trope to some degree.

I cannot get behind this film at all.

I will guess that it is Rebuild of Evangelion 4.0: This Will (Not) Make More Sense Than “End of Evangelion”.

Well, The Doom Slayer would probably look as if he were out of his mind if he had, say, PTSD.

If Rick copies an apple from my batch but leaves me with all of my apples, what the hell did he actually steal? I still have all my apples. I have no less money than I did before. What tangible item was taken from my possession?

I don’t say piracy is 100% lost sales, of course it isn’t, but it is a sizable portion gone away to piracy on platforms where it is very conveniently easy to pirate.

there’s no legitimate argument that piracy isn’t theft