By Much like how you’ll see films based on comics like Marvel’s Avengers or DC’s Dark Knight Trilogy, manga comics get a huge following back in Japan they don’t get here domestically. One of the biggest releases from the last few years has been Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) thanks to its balance between good character work, unique premise, and mature tones and violence.
After adapting into a successful anime series, the next natural step is for it to get a full blown film production. But the question is whether or not Attack on Titan’s grand premise can even be adapted into a film successfully. Without the proper care we’ll get something more akin to the Titanic, a big and seemingly good idea that’s doomed to fail. Unfortunately. that’s what we got.
Attack on Titan: Parts 1 & 2
Director: Shinji Higuchi
Rated: NR
Release Date: October 20, 22, and 27th, 2015 (limited)
Attack on Titan (split into two 90 minute parts released a few months from one another) is the story of a small walled off city that’s constantly being attacked by giant, grotesque man eating monsters known as the Titans. After a surprise attack leaves their city devastated, two boys, named Eren (Hamura Miura) and Armin (Kanata Hongo), join the military in order to fight them. Also, their friend Mikasa (Kiko Mizuhara), who was once thought to be eaten before being saved by super soldier Shikishima (Hiroki Hasegawa), is also there and very angsty. Then follows are soldier on titan fights, titan on titan fights, and lots of poorly conceived military conspiracy intrigue. I don’t have a lot of experience with the original comics, but that’s okay since the two films are their own entity and venture into different paths than the stories fans may be familiar with. The stories of the films have to end, after all, and who knows when the comics will do the same.
The first thing you’ll notice about Attack on Titan is how great it all looks. Part 1 opens spectacularly as the initial titan attack is well storyboarded and the action flows well from scene to scene. It gives the titans an appropriate horrific weight despite how ridiculous some of them look. Rather than choose to go CG (the terrible green screen actions scenes later in the films notwithstanding), the titans are all people in body skin suits akin to Toho’s Godzilla or a very gloomy episode of the Power Rangers. You’d figure it was a low budget shortcut, but it works. Thanks to using actual actors, we’re given a chance to sink in to the titans’ emotions rather than be distracted by the film’s spotty CG. It’s just that nothing in these films ever looks as good as the opening scene again.
I’d be willing to forgive the wonky effects had the rest of the film worked, but sadly that’s also a problem. I’m not sure what’s to blame here. Whether the two films are victims of adaptation, translation, or even the property’s fandom, but nothing in the two films makes any sense. Although the film chooses to create its own narrative, it still bases some of the films’ bigger scenes on scenes from the comics. But the problem with cherry picking key scenes in order to please its fans, is that without adapting the rest of the story those scenes won’t make sense. It’s also thanks to the films’ short runtimes that everything moves at too brisk a pace to keep up with or even care about in the slightest. Like Eren, for instance. First he’s got this plot about wanting to escape from the walls, to suddenly pulling an Ultraman and becoming a giant himself, to suddenly hatching a plot to blow up the walls with a discarded H-bomb. And within all of that, he’s still got Mikasa’s random angst to deal with. No character is developed well enough, and there’re so many that none of them have any chance to leave a lasting impression.
The biggest flaw with either of these films was I couldn’t really separate the two from one another. I initially wanted to review each part much akin to Hollywood films like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter, but neither part was substantial enough to warrant its own discussion. It only seemed fair to the film to just take it all in as one entity since the majority of the plot and backstory waits in part two, while the visual budget was clearly all exhausted back in part one. I’m not sure how these films were shot, but it’s clear that by the end of part two, they had pretty much used all the money at their disposal. The film’s big finale looked absolutely ridiculous. And since there isn’t any real narrative reason to stay invested, it’s all just a wash. At least the acting was good. I didn’t personally note any bad performances, and even if an actor was chewing the scenery, they all tried their best. Bringing it back around to my Titanic metaphor earlier, it’s like the cast was the string quartet composing a soundtrack for their imminent doom.
But at the end of the day, I understand the film isn’t for me. But it really isn’t for fans of the Attack on Titan series either. In fact, it may even be more of a detriment to the fandom itself. It’s a hollow adaptation that only chooses particular moments from the story in order to manipulate the fans. They want the fans to go out and see the film, talk about seeing their favorite anime/comic scene in live action and hope those same fans ignore everything else.
A fan’s worst nightmare is to see their favorite stories and characters wrung through an unrecognizable filter, and that’s exactly what Attack on Titan is. I don’t think that’s the kind of horror the film wanted to embody.