100 years into our future, the human race has been hunted to
near extinction by giant human-like creatures known as Titans, the remaining
humans have survived by retreating back into towns and villages protected by
enormous walls, this has kept them safe for a while but now a new threat appears
and they find themselves once again fighting for the lives against the gigantic
menaces.
Attack on Titan Part One begins very similarly to the anime
with a colossal titan of over 50 metres in height attacking the wall of the
last know human civilisation and kicking a hole in it for the other titans to
enter killing off a few people, enter Erin, the protagonist of our story, he
signs up to the ‘Outer Wall Restoration Team’ to fight the titans to get some
revenge or something, at least I think that's the case as my interest towards
the plot was dampened by the shear lack of any motivation for his character in
comparison to the anime, the initial spark for Erin to join up is as a child witnessing
his mother eaten by a Titan, this is sorely missing from the film.
Due to the lack of any real reason for Erin joining the Restoration
Team, his character really fell flat for me making him just another tasty treat
for the titans to eat, close friend of his Mikasa is in the film but
rather than being the kick-ass adopted sister to Erin, she is a pointless love
interest who does eventually end up kicking ass but their relationship has even
less depth than their characters so is tenuous at best, with these two you also
have Armin who is Erin's supposedly intelligent but yet pathetically scared
friend but to me seems to just get lost in the movie.
The script in this movie is terrible with the amount of
heart stings the show pulls you through via character development only for the
movie to fail with it giving you long pauses of silence to try and over dramatize
the situation and empty stairs into the void it which really kills off each
member in the squad before they are even killed by the Titans, luckily enough
the action sequences though not quite top notch do kinda give you some sort of
motivation to continue watching whether it is more for the hope of the complete
annihilation of the humans in the film or for the pure fact that any scenes featuring
the regiment attacking the titans with their ‘Three Dimensional Manoeuvre Gear’
are quite impressive, overall the Titans are the main reason I found myself
continuing to watch.
The Titans have a probably the most similarities to the
anime than anything else, shown as giant disgusting creatures that live with
the sole purpose to gorge themselves upon the humans, not for any kind of sustenance
but seemingly just for the lols, watching the Titans eat the humans I found
myself strangely satisfied with each death, thinking to myself as each
character is talking “they can’t have much longer left to live” and letting out
a little cheer as another predictable attack occurs and that character finds
themselves gruesomely torn apart and munched.
Overall I found myself angry that I spent my time watching
this heartless and soulless version of a show that I love for its characters and
ability to just drop a bomb that makes you question the ability for the humans
to survive, only to find yourself watching this live action version wanting a
completely different outcome and pray to the Colossal Titan that the humans
perish and the real survivors end up being the Titans.
Personally I was hoping that the team would find themselves
eliminated by the stupid and more entertaining Titans because all they were
bringing was dull heartless conversations and drama, the movie has the basic
story line from the manga and anime we all love but it really takes away any
bonds that tie you to the characters in its other incarnations.
If I was you I would steer clear of this abomination to the Attack
on Titan world and not watch it, but if you are feeling deprived as you wait
for the second season of the anime and are craving something new then this
might help but don’t expect anything as gripping or entertaining.
Attack On Titan: Part 1 is out now on DVD and Blu-ray