Attack on Titan Movie Review

Attack on Titan is the first part of a two-part film based on Hajime Isayama's popular manga series of the same name. Directed by Shinji Higuchi (Gamera), the film follows humanity's struggle to fight beings known as Titans and by the looks of it, they are in a losing battle.

The film opens with a premise that 100 years ago, beings known as Titans started attacking humanity and to prevent this threat, humanity build giant walls to protect themselves from these creatures. In the present, Eren and his friends are interested in exploring the world outside the wall but that all changed when the Titans attack and devoured the population and occupied their lands. Two years later, now a member of the Survey Corps, Eren and his friends want to reclaim the lands occupied by the Titans but can they make it with limited explosives and them being amateurs with the usage of the 3D Maneuver Gear?

Before I start this review, there is one thing I need to let out. This is an adaptation of an on-going comic book series published in a monthly basis. Put emphasis on the word adaptation. If the only reason why you hate this film is because it didn't follow the manga that closely, congratulations, now you understand how Western comic book fans feel when the movie or TV adaptation of their favorite comic doesn't follow the comic book canon. Heck, the film feels more like how Hollywood will usually handle a comic book property! They will get the essence and key elements of the material and adapt it. 

To put it simply, you can't cram all of the exposition and detail of the first 13 episodes of the anime in under one hour and 30 minutes, that's why they need to get the best aspects of the material, with the author's permission of course, and make an enjoyable film. To put it simply, the division of the military is not that clear, the number of walls built were not explored and of course, the technology. Speaking of which, another thing that was pointed out prior to the release of the film is that it will differ from the source material for a lot of good reasons. 

In an interview, the writer of the film stated that because all the cast members are Japanese, it doesn't make sense to keep the European setting; hence a lot of changes were made to suit this limitation. To put it simply, that's the reason why some fan favorite characters didn't appear and the existence of original characters and how said characters fill in the roles of those fan fave characters. So yeah, that's the reason why the film pretty much takes place in post apocalyptic Japan and not in some unnamed European country that looks and feels like ancient Germany.

Now that I am done ranting about it being different from the source material, it's time for me to talk about the film itself and how it stands on its own. I enjoyed the film. Aside from reading some interviews of the film's staff, I also read some reviews of the film and I got to say, all I receive is mixed signals. Some reviews say it's good, some say it's decent, and some say that it's a really bad film. To put it simply, I have low expectations for the film both as a fan of the source material and as a movie goer. After watching the film, I realized that I should not compare it to the source material and I should watch it on how I watch my American superhero movies and TV shows, on its own merits. What I got is one of the best kaiju movies in recent years. 

I mean seriously, the way the film was shot felt like I was watching my weekly dose of Japanese superhero shows or those old monster movies with a higher budget and better special effects. The makeup of the Titans was amazing and the way they differentiate the regular Titans with the Titan Shifters tells how much detail they put into with the suits and makeup alone. The first time I saw the Titans on screen, I both got chills and laugh on how ridiculous some of them look... just like in the anime! 

Unlike my usual Japanese superhero shows, it's more bloody and it focuses more on the human casualties and the terror these beings struck on mankind... just like in the anime! Even though the Titan action in the film is really great, there is one aspect of the source material that the film fails to deliver, the characters. Without spoiling anything, there were a lot of changes made when it comes to their characters. Some of the changes made include some of their character motivations and how they ended up in that state differs from the source material. Even if that's the case, the film gets the bare essentials of what makes these characters interesting in the first place. 

As I mentioned earlier, the film introduced some original characters, these new characters serve two functions: early casualties and replacements for seriously Western sounding characters with some character tweaks made to make them different from the character they replaced. A perfect example would by Shikishima, Levi's replacement in the film. Shikishima is basically Levi in every aspect except for a couple of things. Unlike Levi, he's tall, a bit more aloof and as what the film implied, is totally working for the government and has no plans to overthrow them what so ever. 

As for the new characters whose sole purpose is to be casualties in this fight against Titans, they were... okay. Some of those characters I actually cared about while some of them felt like they were just there for the sake of seeing them die on screen. Even if some of them briefly appeared on screen, I was emotionally invested on those characters that I actually cared about. Why they failed with the characters? Thanks to the changes made to some of them, the interesting character dynamics between said characters were changed. 

Yes, these characters feel like the ones from the source material, but it feels like these characters are missing some element that made them great in the first place. The only thing I can give away is that there are a lot of major changes when it comes to the Eren, Mikasa, and Armin dynamic in this film. The only time we witness the said dynamic is at the opening act and the final act of the film. The middle feels like this dynamic didn't exist at all. 

Speaking of things that went missing, the film barely has any 3D Maneuver Gear action. Yes, we see some of it in the film, and it captured the spirit and thrill on how we see it in the anime, but we barely see the Survey Corps use it in battle. As what the film implied, they were barely trained to use these weapons to combat the Titans. They know how to kill one using these weapons but it feels like they kinda forgot how to use it once they meet the Titans. Heck, the film features a lot of shots of them running away from Titans while they are wearing the gear, but only a few shots of them using it to run away from them. It's like the film forgot that all those who are wearing the gear are basically steam punk Spider-Men. 

Overall, Attack on Titan is a really fun film and if you are not a fan of franchise, you will definitely get engaged with the film's fight scenes and the world that it setup. But if you are a fan of the series, you will have some mixed feelings about the film. Again, this is an adaptation of Hajime Isayama's manga, not a live-action shot by shot remake of the anime. If that's the case then, you should just watch the anime and not watch the movie. Again, how can you cram over 260 minutes worth of content in under 90 minutes? 

Considering that the best part about this film are the Titan scenes and how they all look like as well as how they terrorized the humans, it gave me high hopes on Toho's new Godzilla film that will air premiere next year, which will be of course, directed by the guy who directed this film. Lastly, will I watch the sequel, which will air next month? I got to say, I had a great time watching this film, so yeah, I will watch the second film.