L'Attaque des Titans

AoT is probably one of the most popular series out there at the moment and I will admit that die-hard fans would find this disappointing. However, I am a die-hard fan myself and when I heard the news that a live-action was being made, I delved straight into research. I continued this research all the way from the beginning to even up to the point where I watched it myself.

First, I've always thought that live-action movies have never really been Japan's forte, plus considering the technical aspects of AoT I had a feeling CG and effects would be dodgy at some points. And honestly, I was IMPRESSED with the effects; yeah, some points I thought it could've been better and occasionally I rolled my eyes and thought, "Totally NOT a green screen." But equal many times I literally squealed in delight at the CG and effects, because it looked absolutely terrific during those times.

Secondly, for those of you who complain that it doesn't follow the original storyline at all. Isayama Hajime himself ASKED for the story to be different and it was up to the writers, yet to still keep the key elements. I found this out so long ago that I was prepared for something different the whole time, and I like the result. Except the ending, the last twenty or so minutes I feel as though the writers sort of lost their creative spark and tried to put in as many scenes from the manga as they could, which was disappointing.

Third, the acting and the characters. I liked the acting a lot in this movie, except for a few characters in some scenes. I thought Kiko Mizuhara played Mikasa beautifully and think no else could play the role better than her, honestly. I also liked how the writers gave Mikasa more of a "not taking any bullshit" attitude, but that's more of a personal preference, I suppose. Honestly, I just liked the general acting of characters.

Last thing, the scenery. Oh my lord how I loved the settings.The more crowded towns, the fields, the walls... AND THE GORE, wow. If there's anything I've learnt about Japan, is that they're not light on the gore for things like this. And I was absolutely LOVING IT.

Overall, I really liked this movie except for the ending, but hopefully the next movie will make up for it. I would watch this again at some point, no doubt. Just watch it with an open mind and don't criticize every point, then trust me, it's an enjoyable movie.

I was (un)fortunate to see this film and its sequel in theaters, during the initial US premier run. It was a packed house of people who were there to see this film and support it. In the first half of the runtime we were quiet and respectful, seeing what the film had to say. By the second half, the audience was actively laughing and jeering at this cinematic abomination. I have never seen an audience opinion form so decisively and unmistakably in real time. Not even the most ardent supporters of the Attack on Titan franchise can make excuses for this absolute trainwreck of a film. If you want to see an Attack on Titan parody, which takes itself so seriously that it becomes funny, this is your ticket!

As a non-fan I was mildly entertained. Didn't think it was terrible, didn't think it was the best film ever. I felt it faithfully translated a very convoluted TV series the best way it could within 90 mins while not sacrificing action and Titan screen time.

I don't consider myself a fan of the TV series, but being someone in their late 30's who grew up on they heyday of Japanese animation back in the 80's and 90's--Attack on Titan was the first time in a long while that an animation from there felt fresh, poignant and emotionally compromising for the viewer. The young kid in me would have loved this TV series, but the late 30's me who has been through a lot in life and chooses to seek out more positive and cheerful entertainment felt it got a bit too overly depressing and macabre. That's not saying I felt it was bad, just no longer my taste in entertainment anymore.

Fanboys/fan-girls on here rating this film 1's have noticeably a lot of impractical whines concerning the film. They simply are expecting a 600 hour TV animation series to be summed up in 90mins. It doesn't take someone who has worked on a film to realize that is setting up an impractical expectation. Characters and situations ARE to be expectedly retooled in order to give the film proper pacing. Sure, some characters in the film that fans had invested a lot of hours into via the TV series are sometimes sidelined, rewritten or killed off. I expected and knew this would happen and it didn't change my perspective on the overall film because I didn't go in with impractical fan expectations of this "film adaptation". Of course a 600 hour TV series has plenty of time for you to become emotionally invested with meat shield fighters that the overall story had every intention of killing off down the line for more emotional impact. But trying to delve into all those characters in a 90 minute film isn't going to happen. Have to be more objective than that within the context of this adaptation.

That being said the film does suffer from being disjointed and rushing through major plot points towards the final cliffhanger. It's really a film that just gets to the point and does not bores you with exposition that you can pretty much obviously figure out on your own.

The Titans are absolutely as terrifying as I remembered from the TV series and faithfully depicted. I found myself covering my face in some parts like I did with the TV series, so I think they did their job well in translating the horror and macabre of what the humans went through.

The action was obviously CGI heavy, but not done in a way that felt tawdry. They perfectly captured the aerial flight and feel of the fights from the TV series well.

Attack on Titan was by no means a 1 rated film. It's no Ed Wood film. It's no Manos the Hands of Fate. It's not Glitter levels of bad. It's not a film that is really that terrible. It's a film that on a baseline captures the terrifying essence of the TV series main concepts, but does suffers a little bit on core characters development.

Attack on Titan is recently one of the most popular manga/anime in a while, it wasn't nearly as rich as some of the greatest ones out there, however the material tackles a rather mature subtext, otherwise a really fascinating showcase of macabre in a larger scale. It's clearly destined to be a movie, it might as well fit in today's blockbuster trend of post-apocalyptic settings and revolution ordeals. But the movie's approach is rather standard in comparison. While it still wonderfully realizes the most grotesque moments of its source material, the characters are watered down with less interesting plights. Newcomers might find its premise intriguing, but what makes Attack on Titan interesting is hardly existent in this adaptation.

How the main characters are introduced is painfully contrived. Like every piece of exposition is immediately crammed into that one long scene that is supposed to establish who they are and what their world is. The difference is it's not quite compelling. I personally don't mind changes from its source material; the protagonist, Eren, is basically now a slacker who is tired of living behind the colossal walls from the titans, instead of an aggressive kid with some sociopathic tendencies who vows for revenge. It's not necessarily horrible since they're still represented as unlikely heroes, but Eren's arc is basically just trying to win back his girl and living up to that image, it makes him look lousier. What makes this character originally interesting is the fact that he is a traumatized kid who is too full of himself, which eventually crosses the line of his humanity and morality. It may not be the friendliest role model you'll see from a hero, but it rather makes him more relatable.

And that sounds more reasonable since this circumstance would really affect one's senses into insanity or paranoia. But in this movie, they're just verbally expressing their fears, sentiments and humor. The plot is ought to be followed through these characters, but most of them are single noted. They might as well exist in some YA where they're designed to be hormonally appealing. In the end, they're clearly just uninteresting. To its credit, the visuals are pretty cool. It may not be perfect or spectacular, but it's impressive enough to take these exciting moments into live action. There are some scenes that can be count as genuinely awesome, specifically the climax, even though it now seems to be quite senseless since they're taking this story to a different direction. Nevertheless, as long as these Titans and gore are on screen, there is some real pleasure to be taken.

Attack on Titan, in spite of its scale and production, is surprisingly underwhelming. The filmmakers are clearly just following the conventional direction of adapting a popular material, more or less. Visually, it's appropriate to call it a fan service; because it indeed puts these big action where it belongs. But thematically, it is a letdown. Attack on Titan isn't only great for its creepy titans and cool gadgetry, in fact, these things are basically small compared to its surprising complexity within its characters. That is what I personally believe that makes this material great, and yet that's what the movie ended up altering. Therefore it's just a standard B-Movie. It can be mindless fun, but you won't find anything else to like in the end.

A few minutes into the movie I was taken by surprise that the director chose to wildly mash up the characters and their relationships. Even though I really like the anime I was open to a new envisionment of the source material, since prejudice is something I try not to practice. Maybe the director wanted a new interpretation, while maintaining the essence of the series. But then it dawned on me that this new interpretation was leaky at best and the capturing of the essence was a parody. It was a 90 minute crap-fest of half-assed dialog, disinterested story telling and slasher-like violence. The movie also had a particular inability of finding a tone. Any tone. All the scenes feel staged, unreal and almost completely unrelated. Most disturbingly however was the implausibility. Nothing seems connected and nobody related. This is a waste of brilliant source material!