The TERRIBLE Attack On Titan Live Action Movie...

Is this a sub-series in the making? Very maybe. Live action anime productions. And what better way to potentially get started on this reoccurring goldmine than by starting off with one of the most influentially large anime shows of all time, Attack on Titan. Show's so big I don't think it needs an introduction. And of course, with a project being so popular, it's no wonder the movie industry tried to take a stab at it too. Now as a disclaimer for anyone concerned, I'm not gonna be divulging into spoilers of late game Attack on Titan stuff. Actually at the time of recording this, I haven't seen it. I'll be binging it as this is made. Instead we are talking exclusively up to the timeline of the movies. Which covers approximately half of Season 1 and that's it. There are a couple elements from later on and I guess technically from Season 2 too, but these films came out in 2015. So that season hadn't even been adapted to anime form yet. And yes, I did just say FILMS. This isn't a simple 90 minute ride. This project was a two-parter. Did I seriously watch 3 hours of this and all of OUT in the name of research? Yes. Yes I am. So with so much to cover, let's get into things. We begin in the wonderful lands of Shigaji- Morzen? Okay. Where we meet our trio protagonist standing on a bomb? Yeah, so should probably explain now that this film adaptation takes a handful of artistic liberties with the IP to change the story. For a start, while the anime is set in a country inspired by Germany, what with the Germanic names like Arwin, Vohemann and Levi, in this world it's within a Japanese setting. Sure. And as for the characters themselves, Armin is all into tinkering to show off his intellect, Mikasa is a dainty girl rather than the real muscle of the group, and Eren's desire is not to change the world, but to go beyond the walls. They say the ocean is out there. The boy can certainly shout, but act? It's a little dicey. And when witnessing the wall he claims to not even believe in titans. Also his and Mikasa's relationship is no longer adopted siblings and just a one-sided romantic obsession. But hey, at least they got the scarf bit transferring over. And then... And that is AWESOME. I get that it's mostly just a smoke simulation, but this IRL version of the colossal titan is just an amazing spectacle, you've gotta admit. But here's where things really diverge. As the titans begin to pour in, everything falls into chaos. But while in the anime, the big emotional focus point has Eren's mother trapped in her home and eaten as they escape, in this rendition, there IS no mother. No hint of Eren's family at all. Instead, the emotional beat has Eren and Mikasa separated, all until... They KILL Mikasa. And I can kinda get what they were going for with an overcrowded building and not allowing anyone in which is also an exclusive thing, but it's also played with just music as audio. No emotional scream crying, no regrets on character relationships, and no buildup with a mouthy chomp. Maybe this film's biggest flaw is the fact that it's literally going up against one of the greatest opening executions of its industry. I can respect trying something new, but everything will fall in comparison to the original. My god. And then it tries to follow it up with Eren being the sole survivor of said building. How would they have even done that? Fast forward 2 years and Eren has finished his training, and here's where you're to notice all the changes. Everyone's immediately in the scouts regiment, no need for the arc of picking your role, and half the characters are scrapped from the original, whilst half are entirely new. Take our super leader director Kubal, being the combination of essentially all authoritative characters. Fair enough, gotta condense it into mere hours somehow. Then they introduce Hans, the weapons chief and scout leader who IS from the anime, as Hanji, where she's mostly the same, but isn't scout leader too. Another character slot taken. And while in the anime she appeared in the latter half of Season 1, now she's brought on earlier. As for another certain character mixed up in her escapades, HE does not exist in this movie. There's no fan favourite character Levi. Why? Oh because apparently his name CANNOT WORK WELL WRITTEN IN JAPANESE AND IT'S HARD TO PRONOUNCE FOR JAPANESE SPEAKERS. That is legitimately why he was skipped, from a show that's already produced in Japan. Okay. As for the fellow soldiers, they're all established in an interesting way. We see each of them saying their final goodbyes to their families, though there's more screentime on the families, and no one mentions the soldiers by name. So actually learning these characters is nigh impossible. So I guess I'll explain them later. And while the anime does have a plot point of blockading a whole breach in the wall, simple changes made are instead of it being a second inner wall, it's now the main outer one. And instead of a giant boulder to save the day, the plan is to blow up above the wall, and to have the debris clog the hole instead. Not bad. It's a simple way to resolve the beginning incident early. A couple soldiers do return as they're too iconic, the potato obsessed Sasha for a hint of strangely timed comic relief, hothead Jean to argue with Eren again, and no one else. Not even the actually real out character Daz. Man why did HE have to get the Daz name. And y'know I really wish an anime adaptation would balls to the wall more with hair colours. Cause man, having everyone be dark haired really doesn't help with such an ensemble cast. Plus it's just kinda boring. In the anime, there's blaring climaxes and a fantastic soundtrack even for the quiet stuff. Here it's an elongated stage music piece, followed by a whole lot of nothing. And off they go. Another thing to note, there's VEHICLES now. While the anime has a fantasy setting with wagons and horseback, here it's tanks instead. Jarring. Which is funny cause there's a whole tactical explanation in Season 1 about a formation of horses used to avoid titans sighted over a large distance as opposed to running and praying, but forget about it. Instead they're going under the cover of night as titans are less active then. At least that's true. Then after direct orders to location before sunrise, they randomly stop midway and whip out their lights to see. Geniuses! And after a brief romance between Sasha and Armin, this new girl trails away after hearing a child in the distance. Would be good if maybe we could hear it too, but we don't. For a long while. And what do they discover but a baby titan! That's new. Let's not ask about how that works. Instead everyone makes the worst next move and screams, despite titans being sensitive to human voices and with nothing achieved, they run as the sun starts to come up. You know a really poignant difference that makes this film feel odd? I think it's the colour palette. Whenever I think of the anime series, I see this particular tone of orange as the towns are perpetually in a sort of twilight. The direction really likes presenting scenes at sunset. Whereas here it's just got that generic desaturated blue hue that just makes it look cheap. Or at the very least, less pretty. I guess it hides the VFX but man does it not do it favors. And then there's this guy. Sanagi. Who I kid you not, just grabs a titan and throws him over his shoulder. What is this? And the group are saved by our final new characters, Captain Shikishima, our replacement slot for Levi, and... Mikasa. She wasn't dead after all. Somehow. And she practically avoids Eren too. Her whole motivation of protecting Eren as a promise to his mother... poof. And Eren's revenge arc on the titans for killing Mikasa is... uh. But hey, at least now Mikasa's not presented as a dainty damsel in distress anymore. And instead of bombarding you with all of my links this time, I'm gonna promote just one thing today. Check out this playlist linked in the cards or in the comments. It's a playlist from our Clips channel. It's not a long watch, but it's a new channel I'm working on on the side. Trying new avenues. I'd appreciate the support. And of course if you haven't already, do subscribe to help us out and reach the end of this vid for a hint on what's next. For the next 15 minutes everyone rests. Which is good. As much as we are narrowing plot points, having a pause is good for pacing. The military leader accesses hidden bombs, Eren and Jean fight for real this time, Shikishima monologues to Eren about who the real enemy is, Armin and Sasha connect again, and the others talk of Eren and Mikasa. Including this Souda. Who's a replacement for Harness as the protective type from the before times. Now being a drunken mess rather than a garrison captain. Also Mikasa and Eren briefly speak, Mikasa now has a bite on her hip, Shikishima has a weird possession over Mikasa for some reason, Eren freaks out, and then this lady appears. Hyana. Who dotes over Eren to be the father to her child. Some interesting digressions. Though seemingly pointless too. Hyana's not established well, and the bite doesn't explain how Mikasa survived. But you just gotta go with it. And then Hyana dies. And now we see the ODM gear in action. Finally. Why hasn't anyone up to this point done it? And the execution ain't bad. It's choppy in places, but it does the job. Sanagi for some reason attacks with an axe to the ankle, and it consistently works in this canon. And hey, here's a direct adaptation. There's a couple that's been established in the ranks, and one's given the other CPR. The twist of course being, he's ripped beyond repair. The anime is a bit more subtle with it's censorship, and so knowing YouTube, you'll just have to imagine how the live action one looks. Still, the moment is great. Thumbs up from me. And then she goes on a revenge rampage. Stopping a saboteur from destroying the explosive they need, and blows up a titan instead. And then after a brief team rescue of Jean on a rooftop, the final major adaptation comes in. Eren is relieved of his leg, he witnesses Armin about to be eaten, and though this time everyone's here to help, nothing works. Eren somehow dives up into his mouth and takes his place. Not motivated by Armin's desire as a kid or anything, we've not got the time. So again, some emotional weight is lost. And the deed has him losing his arm as well. And you probably know what follows next. Only now does Mikasa seem to actually care. And instead of a surprise appearance from behind, here's Eren's titan form up front and centre. I like the display. And though it is expected to be a surprise, the anime is a bit stronger on the hints, since this film only plays a single shot and moves on. Still now, he destroys every titan in sight and soon's run out of steam. Somehow they instantly know he's inside the nape, and that ends it there. Only now do we get a real inkling of Eren's titan explanation. As a flashback to his until now non-existent dad injecting him with something before being taken away by the higher ups. And that's all you get. Time for interrogation time. Everyone's of course freaked out over Eren's titan form, and while in the anime it's another officer entirely, Vohemann, doing the deed in a much more paranoid way, this time it's our conglomerate role General Director Kubal. People come to defend Eren's case, it's a tad less dramatic than the anime version, but he's not having any of it. Even shooting Old Man Soda, which is certainly not what happens to Harness in the anime timeline. Still the divergences certainly keep you on your toes. And before Eren is executed, a new titan bursts through to save him. And all of that took up the first 20 minutes of the second film. They really dug their teeth into this scene. It's almost anime length. Okay, so with a new plan in place to grab the bomb from the first scene, the rest of the crew make preparations. Whilst Gene is still belittling them all despite clearly having enough experience for a character arc. But no, we never even reach the more gripping part of him feeling guilt and pressure as a leader of the group. He just remains a minor rival. Shame. As for Eren, it's all new from here. He's taken to a mysterious white room with archaic items and monologue by Shikishima about the origins of titans. And how apparently it was a science experiment on humans that went berserk everywhere. Even showing footage of Earth as we know it. Not quite as the anime perceives it I think. And while up to this point I've praised the visual effects, this scene here... kinda loses me. Greenscreening the crew onto a wagon as it travels just gives this amateur looking effect that really wasn't necessary. Especially considering it's just countryside around them. Anyway as Shikishima continues, he states how convenient the breach was for the government as it quelled all discontent as it redirected hatred towards titans instead. And how he's leading a rebellion for a non-authoritarian world. Where they have assault rifles and RPGs. Alrighty then. But the crew collect the dud bomb and the two teams mash. Now with Captain Shikishima stating that he will destroy the inner wall to lead titans in to topple the regime and lead an uprising. Dun dun dun. Everyone disagrees. Shikishima beats Eren and after a brief bomb threat, the battle is won by... Sanagi grappling a nearby tower and literally pulling it over through brute strength alone. All the while he's getting shot up, but he still keeps going. This is just ridiculous. Yeah okay. Sure. This new character is like a god. It's ridiculous. How did he throw a titan earlier? It just seems like the stupid way to progress forwards. And the grieving for him after the fact is lackluster at best. With a plot surrounding so much death, you really gotta nail the emotional beats of it, otherwise it just becomes stale. Still, we're in the final 30 minutes now. This film was all the exposition bits. Shikishima reveals himself to be the titan from before. Surprising no one. And the transformation for him is legitimately epic. I hope I can show it. His face... isn't as impressive. And with all the stakes here, we're back to the outer wall. Ready for Shikishima to destroy some more titans, despite them being a great aid to him if he thought about it. And the crew all team up to try to take him down without the Eren trump card. As you can probably guess, it doesn't work out, so it's time for another episode of Power Rangers... I guess. To be fair, this does come up later in the anime, but considering this is already in the Takatatsu style, it just feels like more of the same. The choreography is mostly punches rather than some MMA fight, but Eren does use a helicopter blade from something faintly established at the start. And with a final callback to the Jean fight earlier, Eren takes him down. Final thing left is to explode the wall. Except Eren passes out and Mikasa has to talk to him through the nape, something that is adapted from the series. And then the Director General pops up. Mr. Government himself because it turns out in the movie canon at least, HE is in fact the Colossal Titan himself. Admittedly, I wasn't expecting this. I never reached even the scouting part of the anime series when I watched it years ago. So the idea that the Colossal Titan was SOMEONE was something my brain never even went to. Perhaps it's a bit easy and cliche to just say Government Bad and they do play it a bit on the nose. But to wrap up a story in 3 hours, it makes great sense to loop us back to the beginning somehow. And it is hinted at as we see the Director waddling past Armin in the first minutes of the film, getting into position. Actually overall I think I would say that this adaptation actually does a lot of things right. As much as superfans hated many of the changes that WERE made, apparently they were suggested by out creator himself, Hajime Isayama. And there were a good chunk of faithful adaptations. Sasha's bow, the theme of cow and cattle, the slashing of ankles to a certain extent, and a comment on wanting a sexy titan. As well as the stuff mentioned before. Sometimes it's some weird choices, but you gotta get what you can get I guess. Yet at the same time, there are just so many advantages to animation that this film couldn't possibly replicate. Like look at everyone flinging about. It delivers, but what's missing are those close up character moments to show more than action but thought too. Similarly, there are shots that are impossible to do in real life that really execute fantastically in animation, or things that are possible in reality are rare in the film. And replicated in the anime instead. And while the concept is quite the bloodfest, when comparing approaches, the anime is surprisingly tame. And having a slow-mo particle effect almost hits home harder than Potato Masher. And the extended runtime allows for far more emotional beats, whilst the movie seems to avoid it at every turn. And while this final fight is good, it feels... weird. It really does take you back to the standard Japanese-y style. A lot of the issues this movie comes up with other than some poor choices is the fact that just translating anime elements into live action is just weird. Hans comes off as cringey and over-the-top where it's much more fitting in the animation, even with everyone acting like it's an amateur theatre play. The anime also gets to slow down it's pacing and jump to flashbacks which adds something over the chronological approach of the movie. The literal first scenes of each really highlight which one grips you the most y'know? That being said, the movie's making a great effort. I mean hey, this final fight isn't just a head-on clash, both parties are also manipulating the bomb for their goals. Somehow they made a bag for a titan, that's quite impressive I have to say. Not where I expected it to go. And it's not without sacrifice either, as completely off from the anime now, Jean is soon swept away by Colossus. They use RPGs to help, the bomb doesn't go off, Shikishima shows up too, he tightens up, grabs the bomb, and slam dunks to victory. One explosion follows another, and the wall debris clogs itself. What a ridiculous way to end it. Maybe it's cheap, maybe it loses the sanctity of my attack on Titan, but it gets the job done on higher stakes. You get your big money shot of Mikasa saving Eren, no one really gets a final word in, and Mikasa and Eren witness beyond the wall is all ocean. Kinda makes you wonder how the Titans got here and how they weren't wet, but oh well. I can't believe I spent £7 for both movies only to discover I can watch them on Funimation for free. What an experience. The movie does so many things right as best they can, but also so many things wrong by their own fault or not. The colossal visuals are stellar at times, but while Armin comes off as the best execution of their character, there's still something to be desired with the lack of a weakness arc and a simple romance plot instead. Really, this comes off as a great case study of the trials of anime adaptations. The biggest flaw of the movie is the fact that it's going up against THE attack on Titan. I mean, with a source material that supermassive, this itty bitty project just had no chance. Now I'm even more paranoid for all the other anime adaptations coming our way. For now though, I'd best get out myself. My name's been Dazz, you didn't really care, next time we've got an adaptation video mentioned many times before on the channel, and I'll see you in a biiit!!