The live-action Ghost in the Shell gets the look right

Whatever you think of the casting controversy surrounding Scarlett Johansson as The Major, née Motoko Kusanagi, this week's first trailer for the Ghost in the Shell remake demonstrated one thing: director Rupert Sanders seems to know what he's doing on a visual level. The film may not turn out to be great, let alone justify its need to exist in the first place, but it does at least look pretty good so far.

At an event in Tokyo, Sanders showed off a couple of other clips from Ghost in the Shell that are yet to be posted online. One was an action sequence featuring “Beat” Takeshi Kitano's Daisuke Aramaki, while the other saw Johansson's Major interrogate a prisoner in a futuristic cell; together with the trailer, it looks like the remake is up to the task of translating the classic anime series' influential cyberpunk style into live action.

The event had many of the costumes and props used in the film on show; you can see them below alongside Johansson, Kitano, and Sanders. (Click the photos to expand into full-width view.)

Ghost in the Shell hits theaters March 31st.