I'm an Attack on Titan fan so the idea of a live-action movie excites me! I heard a lot of bad stuff from this, though so I went in not expecting much. I also watched the dubbed version even though it wouldn't match the lip flaps. And... it's okay. It's not good, but it's not bad, either. It's better than DragonBall Evolution, I can tell ya that much

Disclaimer: I have not read the manga nor seen the anime, so feel free to discount my opinions and continue on to other, more enlightened, reviewers. That said: this movie makes no sense what-so-ever. What's left of humanity seems to live in a walled city, protected from marauding Titans. The wall is breached by an immense deformed giant, accompanied by what appears to be a rain of meteorites. The opening in the wall is exploited by a number of smaller, but still giant, giants, who lack genitals and some, but not all, secondary sexual characteristics. These behemoths (many of whom have a 'slit-mouth', a popular Japanese horror motif) then messily devour people. Flash forward a couple of years: it has been discovered that the giants (who regenerate when damaged and were thought to be immortal) die if attacked on the nape of the neck. As this is a difficult shot to make, the humans devise a Buck Rogers-meets-Spiderman jet-powered grappling hook system (necessity is the mother…). This leads to lots of cool-drenched shots of youths flying around with samurai swords, slashing open the back of giant necks. I was doing OK up to this point but then a fat giant swallowed a 'hero', and shortly thereafter, the fat giant split open and something that looked vaguely like Eddie from Iron Maiden album covers climbed out, beat up the other giants, then spontaneously expired. Upon examination of his disintegrating corpse, the ingested hero is found alive the nape of the neck, prompting one of the characters to state that this must be why the nape-blows kill the Titans. With that elucidation, the movie comes to a close (anticipating part 2, which perhaps will explain everything). That's it in a nutshell, so if this synopsis intrigues you (and how could it not?), you'll have to watch the movie. I would not that say it's a particularly good movie, but it is picturesque and a novel way to squander a couple of hours.

Attack on Titan exploded onto the anime scene a short time after the likes of "Kill la Kill", "Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood" and "Death Note". There are all considered good anime by the masses, with Attack on Titan being the new comer. I knew little about the series at the time save for the fact people flew around in gear to take down monster that ate people. Most distinguishing about the series is the fact that these "Titans" looked like giant people, save for they were missing skin. I have yet to see the anime series, but I was pleasantly surprised by the live action movie.The movie is not the first movie to follow an anime in live action; Wangan Midnight, Initial D, Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note have all received this treatment – with the exception of Rurouni Kenshin (which I have yet to see) all are good movies, with Death Note being an exceptional twist on the series. These types of movies follow the series as we know them, but often condenses events or creates a few red herrings and plot devices that help things flow better in a movie. And then there is Attack on Titan; absolutely magnificent and possibly the best of any live action movie I have seen based on an anime.The plot is simple enough – a one hundred foot wall was constructed nearly a century ago to keep Titans out of a confined location. This was to allow humanity to continue to progress while a disaster of some sort managed to wipe out the rest of the world. Due to the fact they've been confined behind this wall for so long, they are not certain what lies behind. In fact, the government in this small nation, has decided to perform an excursion beyond the walls to see what has become of the outside world. Just as they are discussing this with some young would-be mischief makers, a massive Titan powers over the wall and begins to attack it. He manages to unleash his fury and the damage to the wall is done. He retreats and all seems well until smaller Titans start to pour in through the hole he created at the base of the wall. One thing of note is that the larger Titan looks as depicted in the anime art that makes its way on the Internet; the rest of the Titans just look like deformed Japanese. On that topic, their faces seem to be devoid of any emotion save for the fact they are gorging themselves humans; they seem to also only be predisposed to eat humans and that is it. Their nature seems to be very animal and they are lacking in any intelligence.The humans in this nation are wiped out in the outer limits, thus the survivors retreat to the inner commercial zone towards the center of their habitat. They develop and omni-directional device that allows them to fly, anchor into walls, and perform acrobatics to get behind the nape of a Titan's neck and cut it wide open – thereby killing the Titan. For some reason, Titans regenerate their body's limbs if bad things happen to them. This movie is all about post-apocalyptic zombie survival horror as a bunch of large zombies (Titans) work there way through the habitat of the world's survivors whom try to defend their claim. The acrobatics performed at points are amazing, and some of the sequences shown here were that of a top notch movie. A few of the plot moments were great and I managed to get into them, as well as feeling for some of the characters. By far my favorite is the 'potato-girl' whom seems to have an unending appetite for potatoes. The rest of the characters seem to be bitter and jaded, but I can't blame them – they are trying to protect what little bit of a home they have left.Best part? This movie has a line, 'living in fear behind a wall makes you cattle'. Very true, and something I wasn't expecting from a movie. This movie does have a sequel and the plot directly leads to it; meaning this is probably a two part movie much like Death Note. I feel this movie could dance toe to toe with many American movies I've seen and I highly recommend "Attack on Titan" for its unique take on the genre.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=10535).

So we saw the live action version of Attack on Titan, and was it as good as the anime? Well, read to find out. If you don't know the story of this series I'll just go ahead and explain. A hundred years ago, titans arrived and killed a lot of people, but humanity built walls to protect themselves from the titans. In present day, the main characters live their lives still inside the walls. But some of them are bored and want to go outside the wall to see what's there. That's when chaos happens. I won't spoil anything else. But is the live action story the same as the anime? Well...yes and no. For starters, the world is the same except that there's a combination of modern weapons and old, and the beginning starts off - and ends - differently from the anime. There are things from the anime that still play a part in this version of the story, even though there are changes.This movie was dark and really bloody (live action violence might bother some people more than anime violence). There were at least two characters I couldn't tell if they were made for this version, or if they were in a anime (they could have been a combination of characters), but the really sad part is that Levi isn't in here. There's a character that seems to be modeled after him, even though he has a different personality (he's more humorous than anime Levi).What I liked about this movie was that we get a real life version of our beloved anime. It was really nice to see at least three characters that looked exactly like Eren, Mikasa, and Hanji; the actors for them were good picks.The dramatic and emotional scenes really make you feel like you're in the chaos, which was nice. As for the titans themselves - they're even more creepy than in the anime.Now, a lot of people would probably not like the changes from the series, but I thought it was a good thing. Like Death Note, it had the main plot but with a different take. I like seeing a different take on things sometimes - like with Fullmetal Alchemist, when you watch Brotherhood after seeing the original it's a new adventure even though some elements are the same. That's what I liked about the live action movie of Attack on TitanFinal thoughts: If you're a big Attack on Titan fan and don't mind change, then go for it. I thought it was pretty good.