Ghost in the Shell” doesn’t deserve to be as good as it is.

Director Rupert Sanders’ previous work on “Snow White and the Huntsman” was hacky at best, and if “Ghost in the Shell” didn’t come from such excellent source material, it probably would have ended up just as lame.

There are a lot of reasons this iteration is problematic in execution — and because of casting controversies, there are many who take issue with its existence in general.

Originating as a manga (a Japanese graphic novel) that spawned an anime (Japanese animated movie) in 1995, “Ghost in the Shell” follows the story of a woman whose brain is the first to be transferred into a cyborg body. She is then turned into a high-tech terrorist hunter referred to simply by her rank: “the Major.” Her previous identity — before her consciousness (or ghost) was transferred into the cyborg body — is unknown to her and completely lost, leaving her with a sense of emptiness, unsure of what she is.

In the original materials, of course, the Major’s shell took the form of a Japanese woman.

But this movie whitewashes the Major so badly, it becomes perplexing in a completely different way to those familiar with the original. The filmmakers took advantage of the premise that an unidentified woman’s brain is transferred into a cyborg shell, and they chose to create that shell in the form of a red-hot Hollywood actress because they thought it would sell more tickets.

If any of this bothers you to the degree that you find it offensive, don’t see the movie. However, if you can separate art from the social issue surrounding it, “Ghost in the Shell” is pretty freakin’ awesome.

The Major (in a skin-tight nude toned body suit that allows her to turn invisible) and her team start following the trail of a cyber terrorist called Kuze, who has the ability to hack robots, cyborgs and cybernetically enhanced individuals to become his cronies, using them to murder others by proxy. The trail also leads the Major on a parallel direction that will reveal who she was in a previous life, and how she became the way she is now.

There are some amazing action scenes that are pretty enthralling to watch, and the performances are good all around. The issue of AI or cybernetic organisms crossing over to a point where they reach individuality creates a fascinating and complex vision of what is to come in humanity’s future. Also, Scarlett Johansson looks pretty great in that body suit. Just sayin’.

It’s like a toned-down cross between “Robocop” and “Blade Runner,” though inferior to both due to its aforementioned problems — as well as one last one: The movie could actually been made 10 minutes longer just to explain a bit more. There were at least two scenes where I was lost on what the heck was happening.

Also, the movie would have been better (and a bit closer to its source material) with an R rating. Given the way some scenes were edited, it appears “Ghost in the Shell” may have been a much more gritty and violent film before the pre-production process. Hopefully there’s an unrated version coming to Blu-ray.

I recommend seeing it in a theater soon, as it is tanking and may not be on the big screen for long. If you don’t want to support what Hollywood has done with the concept, but are still curious, just wait for it at Redbox. Your money will go to the vendor that runs the box rather than directly to the studio’s pocketbook.

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“Ghost in the Shell” is playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.

George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.