SO-CALLED “fake news” may upset the current resident of the White House but authentic fake news — an entire identity — is at the slightly sterile heart of “Ghost in the Shell,” whose fetching heroine (played by Scarlett Johansson) is told a striking lie about who and what she is. Self-selecting audiences will probably be won over by the mood, wanton firepower and top-notch visuals on display in this lavish live-action version of manga artist Masamune Shirow’s modern classic. A “ghost” inhabits the no-nonsense female main character but mature viewers, scanning the busy horizon for more than a ghost of a plot, may find the proceedings more exhausting than rewarding.

    Shirow’s original manga has given rise to two animated films, two animated TV series, video games and other iterations. The questions it raised in 1989 about the eventual melding of human and machine — talk about identity theft! — are as pertinent as ever, maybe more so.

    In the aggressively urban future in the film, the line between human and machine has blurred.

    The story gets under way with a “cerebral salvage.” When Mira (Johansson) awakes, gasping for breath on the operating slab, semi-kindly Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche) tells her she’s the first of her kind. Mira is a refugee who almost drowned when terrorists sank the boat she was on with her parents. They couldn’t save her body, but they successfully deposited her brain into an artificial skull. Mira can take alleged comfort in the fact that her soul — a.k.a. her “ghost” — lives on in this shiny new semi-indestructible package.

    A year later, Mira, now Major Mira Killian and addressed as Major, is a key member of Section 9, a crime-fighting unit from the Ministry of Defense whose other members are humans, “enhanced” humans or cyborgs. Their boss is Aramaki, played with entertaining gravitas by Takeshi Kitano. Kitano speaks Japanese and all other characters speak English, in a cast comprised of actors from many geographical outposts. Section 9 needs to get to the bottom of why the top scientists at Hanka Robotics are being murdered in flamboyant ways.

    A hooded entity with an eerie electronic voice who materializes to warn: “Collaborate with Hanka Robotics and be destroyed!” proves very hard to trace. But when Major connects with a certain Kuze (Michael Pitt) she gets a crash course in just how evil technology can be.

    Johansson, who was superb as a blank-faced man-eating alien in “Under the Skin” and considerable fun as the blank-faced title genius in “Lucy,” is well cast here as a cybernetic hybrid with a digital axe to grind. Filmmakers can keep trying, but it seems unlikely that any character will ever surpass the power of Rutger Hauer’s visionary self-aware replicant in “Blade Runner.” Major’s pronouncements are flat and expedient and only Pitt manages a tone of bereaved yearning despite so-so dialogue.

    Intellectually we know a great deal is at stake, but the emotional pay-offs remain frustratingly minor. Danish hulk Pilou Asbaek as Major’s closest associate cuts a dashing figure and grows more touching once outfitted with mechanical eyes after a blinding explosion.

    Major’s encounter with Kuze and her visit to a middle-aged woman carry the most weight because they’re actual dialogue scenes played at a reasonable pace. In the realm of sheer spectacle, Charlize Theron’s Furiosa in “Mad Max: Fury Road” is arguably a more indelible can-do warrior than Major is. And Alicia Vikander’s pretty face on an exoskeleton in “Ex Machina” lingers in a way that Major doesn’t. One is left with the strange impression of a powerful female character who, after considerable mayhem, gets to the bottom of who she is only to learn that while her predicament is interesting, she isn’t.

    Shooting in Wellington with additional footage from Hong Kong and Shanghai gave skilled computer artists plenty to embellish in eye-catching ways that play very nicely in 3D. The cityscapes are futuristic but the guns, oddly enough, are available today. Major’s all-silicone garment — which allows her to become invisible at will — is a standout innovation in costuming.

    The propulsive and disquieting score is a plus.

    The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen.

    (SD-Agencies)