[kbenson]

> Instead of an kickass army verteran we got Scarlett Johannson playing a little girl.

Isn't that canon? IIRC, in Stand Alone Complex they talk about how the Major is most at home in her cybernetic body and has been there the longest because she was forced to as a small child.

Then again, I haven't seen the movie yet, so perhaps I'm not quite getting the extent of the difference.

[jpt4]

In the second season of the series (2nd Gig), the Major's cyberization since childhood becomes a plot point because she slips from her insouciant, super class-A wizard hacker/super soldier default. The Major exudes, at least in the animated versions, first and foremost an attitude of liquid nitrogen cool.

[slavik81]

In the backstory of Stand Alone Complex, they showed she struggled with her body but through practice eventually mastered it. She came to lead the Section 9 team due to the skills she honed.

In the live action movie, she's the best solely because of the unique technology that she's given. She doesn't see herself even as having the ability for self-improvement.

I found the changes to her character to be very depressing.

[maxsilver]

> In the live action movie, she's the best solely because of the unique technology that she's given. She doesn't see herself even as having the ability for self-improvement.

Is that not how it's supposed to be?

I haven't seen any of the other works or the new live action movie, so perhaps this was retconned. But I did watch the 1995 original just last week.

In the original film, she talks and acts just as you describe -- that she's "the best" because of "this body", which she doesn't really consider hers. She seems totally aloof about much of the rote mastery she performs, and talks about her physical form as though it was just issued out like procedure, similar to the way a police unit might hand out badges and guns.

[slavik81]

It's been a few months since I saw the original, and I've been watching SAC in the meantime. The Major is a little different between the two, but they're similar enough it's hard for me to remember the differences. I could be mixing things around, but I believe in both she regarded her cybernetic body as just a tool that she was very skilled at using.

The live-action movie goes beyond that. She feels that not only is her body a product of the people who created it, but that her mind is too. When she's chastised for a poor decision she made, she literally responds "Well, maybe next time you can design me better."

More broadly, I think the difference between the two films are very clearly reflected best in her IMDB quotes. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0010863/quotes

[6nf]

In the new movie Major is only a year into her cybernetic body, and she's very unsure of herself.

[kbenson]

Ah, yes, that would make the complaint somewhat valid then.

[swang]

I don't recall the animated movie mentioning it but Stand Alone Complex series she was part of a UN task force, and it's heavily implied she had much more experience before that.