Alien at the Movies

It's "Jason Bourne" meets "Ex-Machina" meets "Black Hat" meets "The Bride of Frankenstein" in futuristic Japan where humans opting for cyber enhancements is common place. Based on a Japanese manga (comic) unfamiliar to this critic, this dark sci-fi crime drama has a "Blade Runner" backdrop feel to it with a cyborg weapon called Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) who leads a cyber crimes task force trying to find a mysterious hacker who killing robotics scientists. Major is the first of her kind, a human brain successfully implanted into a synthetic body; thus, a ghost, or soul, in a shell. ScarJo kicking butt in a form-fitting nude full-body suit is the big draw here. I don't understand the Asian role controversy here. I don't think the Major's manufactured shell was necessarily specified as being required to be Asian looking & ScarJo already had Black Widow training on her resume. Look for some spectacular special effects in this basic crime drama under the wild high tech disguise. Will Major catch the hacker? Will she recover her memories? Do your memories define who you are?

Alien gives it 3 "cybernetic salvage" stars out of 4.