Review: ATTACK ON TITAN PART 1

This is the first time in SUPER MOVIES history where I’m reviewing a movie before its release. For my Winnipeg readers, Attack On Titan: Part 1 will be showing at Polo Park on Monday, Oct. 26 at 7:00 p.m. Now that I’ve been very specific about where it’s showing, let me regale you with all of the reasons you should stay home and download it.

Attack On Titan is based on the popular anime by the same name, which itself is based on a manga series. And if you haven’t checked out AOT yet, check out my previous blog post…

Do yourself a favor and watch Season 1 of AOT (It’s on Netflix) then come back to read this review because there are *SPOILERS AHEAD*

As you could probably tell from my previous blog post on AOT, I am a big fan of the anime series. Its perverse mix of German fairytale and anime horror has made AOT one of the most visually interesting and engaging fictional universes I’ve ever seen.

Neither one of these qualities is on display in the live-action Attack On Titan: Part 1.

Maybe director Shinji Higuchi was taking inspiration from dark American comic adaptations like Man of Steel or The Dark Knight when he was visualizing AOT. I say this because, for the vast majority of the film, the sky is dark or overcast. Colors are muted and washed out with greys everywhere.

And the characters are similarly dull. Beyond a short sequence in the beginning with the three main characters —Eren, Armin, and Mikasa — running through cheesy, angsty dialogue that flatly sets up the premise, the movie pays far more attention to gore. There is no chemistry between these three. None. If Armin just vanished halfway through, I wouldn’t have noticed. I applaud fast-paced films, but a universe as complex and bizarre as AOT’s deserves a proper introduction. Instead, all we get are one-note characters with matter-of-fact lines: there are titans, there are walls, titans haven’t been seen in 100 years, Eren is angry, Armin is smart, Mikasa is the shy girl from every anime you’ve ever seen.

Then BOOM! The titans are back. And anyone unfamiliar with AOT would have had at least a dozen WTF moments before they arrive.

What’s especially poorly handled is how the film reveals that AOT’s fantasy world is in fact a world of science fiction. Within the first five minutes our main characters are examining what looks like a WWII plane. Then, as the characters reach the wall, one mentions a “big bomb” that changed the world while a rusted helicopter hangs from the wall above them. What was a subtle yet mind-blowing reveal in the anime series is a blunt lets-just-get-through-this check list for the live-action film.

You might think, “They’re just trying to do something different. Why does it have to be exactly like the anime?” Fair enough. But the live-action film chooses to remain faithful in really strange, off-putting ways. If I didn’t know AOT was based on an anime (or manga) I would have immediately guessed when Hange arrives, acting like a cartoon character, or when Sasha stuffs her face with mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, Eren, Armin, and Mikasa are pale versions of their anime selves. The script pays service to “the potato girl” while Levi, one of the anime series’ most popular characters, is completely missing — instead replaced by Shikishima, a soldier who mostly snickers through the film’s climax.

Oh, the climax. Where do I start? There are many points in AOT’s final scene where I could see the film’s budget running out. The omni-directional mobility gear is woefully underused and perhaps that’s why. The human characters swinging around with their steam punk hookshots  look completely out of place next to the human actors playing titans. While I applaud the filmmakers for hiring human actors to play titans, especially when any and every American studio would choose to make them pure CGI, they just don’t quite convince.

For fans of the anime, Attack On Titan: Part 1’s story ends roughly around where The Struggle for Trost: Part 3 took place. That’s seven episodes into a 25-episode season. So, if you have to choose between watching the live-action version or sitting through seven episodes, I think the choice is pretty clear.

Ever since this Japanese production was announced, fans have complained how in the anime every character is, in fact, white, yet all of the actors are Asian. Only Mikasa is meant to be Asian — the last surviving Asian on the planet, no less. This is one complaint I don’t share. If Ridley Scott can whitewash the story of Moses, I think it’s only fair that Japanese filmmakers cast Japanese actors in an anime adaptation.

I would commend the filmmakers for attempting such an ambitious adaptation, but I just can’t get over the insane choices they made. At one point a character throws a titan over his shoulder. He THROWS a titan over his shoulder! If you’re going to adapt an anime into a live-action cartoon, why bother?