Attack on Titan (The Movie)

If you've heard anything about anime in the past 5 years, you've probably heard about Attack on Titan. Like most anime, Attack on Titan is based on an original manga/comic series of the same name. But this is a blog about movies, so let's talk about the director of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (an awesome movie) made a movie based on a manga that is not the anime but at least related to it in that they're both based on the same thing. That director is Shinji Higuchi, whose work we previously discussed in the 90's Gamera trilogy. I consider this person one of the best kaiju movies directors in the biz, so here's to hoping he can replicate that quality with this adaptation.

As always, I want to credit the monster actors, but have been unable to find anyone credited as the Titans despite them clearly having at least some human element in their creation (likely human actors augmented with CGI. Word on the internet streets says I am correct). So instead we'll give credit to the 3 main "human" characters: Haruma Miura, Kiko Mizuhara, and Kanata Hongō star as Eren, Mikasa, and Armin (respectively).

There's not a whole lot to explain about the background of this one that wasn't done above, so let's see if Mr. Higuchi can repeat the quality of his previous forays into kaiju film! Fingers crossed.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Over 100 years ago, the Titans appeared. Those who survived the Titan War have built 3 large walls around their city and stay safe inside them now.

- Our three main characters are Armin, Erin, and Mikasa. Eren is the main character and is a dreamer who just wants something besides living and dying inside the city's walls.

- The kids seek to escape from the city to go see the sea, and Eren casts doubt that Titans even exist as one hasn't been seen in over 100 years. As this happens they are caught by guards and Eren starts a fight. He is saved by Souda, an old acquaintance who prevents the guards from shooting him.

- Souda tells Eren of a scouting mission that will lead outside the walls and Eren gets excited. Before he can be too hype though, a tremor begins and the wall begins to shake. A giant, steaming Titan appears above them.

- This Colossal Titan breaks down the wall and it and many other Titans invade and begin to eat people. They are hit with cannons and many other weapons but simply regenerate their wounds, making them functionally unstoppable.

- Mikasa is separated from Eren and targeted by a Titan while trying to rescue a baby. Eren tries to make it outside to rescue her but is too late, but it does manage to save his life as the shelter he was previously in is torn apart by Titans and the occupants devoured.

- We next see Eren and Armin as member sof the military preparing for a plan to reclaim the lost part of the city (the farmland of Monzen). The military has developed a weapon to fight Titans: Omni-Directional Mobility Gear. This allows the user to moves in any direction and use swords to attack the nape of the Titans' neck, their only vulnerability.

- On their mission, Eren and his squadron are attacked by a Titan Baby, which is super fucking creepy, and several other Titans. The survivors, few of them that there are are, are saved by Captain Shikishima and Mikasa. Turns out she survived the invasion!

- Mikasa is (predictably) traumatized now, having barely survived her Titan attack when Captain Shikishima saved her from inside the jaws of the thing. She now lives only to kill Titans.

- As one of Eren's compatriots makes a very forward move on him by sticking his hand on her boob and asking him to be a father to her child, they are attacked by a Titan and she is eaten.

- Eren and his squad are now fighting an impossible battle against Titans, but at least have the aid of the incredibly skilled Shikishima and Mikasa.

- Eren eventually makes a final stand but ultimately has his leg bitten off. He falls onto a rooftop, alive but clearly unable to do much else for himself.

- Armin is next on the chopping block, being grabbed by a Titan near Eren and all of his companions being unable to prevent it. As Armin slides down the Titan's throat, Eren throws himself into the Titans' maw and launches Armin out. In return, of course, he ends up in the Titans' belly after losing an arm.

- Mikasa, low on the gas needed for her ODM Gear, goes for revenge against the Titans but (obviously) finds herself overwhelmed and helpless. Fortunately for her, another Titan literally bursts from the one that ate Eren, killing it (by pulling it's jaw apart).

- This is Eren, in Attack Titan form, and he proceeds the beat the living shit out of and kill all the other Titans. The sun comes up so the Titans retreat (they're nocturnal) and Eren is carved out of the Titan shell he was inhabiting.

- Having just been a Titan, Eren has regrown his arm and leg in his human form. So turns out Eren can become a Titan and fight back, which should really even the odds in the future. But that's the end of this first film.

Kaiju Notes 

- Titans are... horrifying. They are essentially giant, deformed, naked humans (with no genitals or nipples) who eat people but don't subsist on them. They all appear different sizes and shapes, but share the ability to regenerate from all wounds except being slashed across the nape of the neck..

- The Colossal Titan adds some pretty epic abilities on top of that, giving off absurd amounts of hear and being incredibly large compared to the others.

- The Attack Titan doesn't seem to have any unique abilities, but does at least have a distinct look. It does retain Eren's knowledge of how to kill Titans and fight, so it is a much more effective Titan than any of the other thus far seen.

This being a blog about kaiju movies, you might be surprised to learn that I am a nerd. This means that I have seen the anime this movie is based on. And with that anime based on the original manga, at the point of this film we're 2 adaptations deep. So, I know what comes from where and what's changed between the two "moving picture" versions. First and foremost, the characters are quite significantly different: simpler is the biggest change, but their personalities have shifted as well. I would say, quite honestly they're all three pretty boring. Especially Mikasa, who has gone from severe girl who is always the most badass person in any room she's in to... sidekick. Eren's changed from vengeance driven hardcore determinator to regular army grunt. And Armin has shifted from tactical genius to character who I genuinely don't remember being in the movie except when he almost gets eaten (like 3 times).

That's the downside. Here's the upside: pretty much everything else about it is pretty entertaining. This movie lacks depth of character, but of course it does it's adapting a much longer story into a bite-sized chunk. And that bite-sized chunk is actually pretty thoroughly entertaining. The overall impression of this movie is really more horror film than action movie, and that really contributes to the enjoyment factor. And now's the time where I say something controversial: this film as an introduction to the story is better than the actual beginning of the anime. Up to the point in the show where this movie ends: I'd watch the movie any day. I've seen enough to know that the show does pick up, but if I'm being perhaps too honest: the 1st season sucks and I have no idea why people were so into it. But this movie? Pretty entertaining. Lacks some depth of character, true, but that's not the worst sin when you're too busy being horrified/entertained.

Onto a specific point: the invasion scene near the beginning of the film is tremendously effective. The Titans appearing for the first time in these people's lifetimes and proving impervious to all of their weapons is a gripping sequence. The Titans kill indiscriminately and gleefully and the humans face some genuine horrors in their attempts to escape/survive. People's reactions vary, of course, but we see the range from panic to cooperation to acceptance of their fate to suicide. It's a pretty effective sequence when it comes to illustrating the raw terror of a Titan attack, and more explicit than anything we've seen in a kaiju movie thus far. Every Titan scene borders on horror movie territory, which honestly makes a lot of sense for movies about giant monsters but hasn't been done yet so far (probably because it'd be a huge downer). It is, honestly, a bit of an evolution in the genre. While the original Gojira was more akin to a horror movie than most of the ones which follows, Attack on Titan truly embraces it as the point, and it makes the Titan scenes quite disturbing throughout the entire film.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot more than I expected to. A movie adaptation of an anime which is an adaptation of a comic is usually a nightmare (see almost any anime movie made thus far), but Attack on Titan is genuinely entertaining, one could even argue good. The choice to make a horror-kaiju movie is a bold one, and pays off greatly. Showing the scale, danger, and consequences of kaiju battles has always been something I appreciated, but this one adds terror and dread to the equation and makes you I feel how terrible the situation is. It is likley not a coincidence that the director who managed to make the weight of kaiju battles feel real in his Gamera trilogy is also able to do the same here. The special effects are solid but not winning any awards, and the characters lack depth but do at least manage to not be actively annoying or dumb. One could argue that their lack of personality might be intentional to emphasize the lack of identity amongst both the monstrous Titans and their opposition the military, but that's stretching it. Probably just weak character writing. But Attack on Titan is a good choice if you're looking for entertainment value, distinct horror-tinge, or something relatively unique in the genre.

Next: Shin Godzilla