Attack on Titan (Live Action)

I think Attack on Titan is an overhyped series and I am not a fan. All the hype obviously made me curious about it and I decided to purchase the manga. The art style is not something I enjoy and yet I still continue reading because of all the hype. Only after getting past the 10th volume, I began to feel curious about how the story goes. But my feelings towards the art style and the characters remain unchanged. Despite all these, I can't help but feel excited about the live action version.

As I am not a fan of the original material, I cannot really remember what the story is all about. I treat the movie as any other movie that I have no background knowledge of. I know it is going to deviate from the manga or anime because Levi is excluded from the live action. Bleah.. I thought that was weird since Levi is like the most popular character and even more popular than the main guy, Eren.

I did not have a good first impression for the movie. It feels weird to see that the human population suddenly becomes Japanese as it feels more angmoh in the manga. Eren is a protagonist that you can't help to be rooting for in the manga but here, he is damn irritating right from the very first scene. What's with the change of characterisation sia? Mikasa is more like a sister to Eren in the manga but it is very obvious in the movie that they are meant to be love interest. Oh and basically these people are way too old to be playing 15-16 year old teenagers.

The first invasion of the titans seem to be the climax of the movie as everything goes downhill after that. The design of the titan is really gross and that is a compliment as titans are supposed to be gross. I am looking forward to how gross and gory the human-eating scenes will be but I have to say I am pretty disappointed. Perhaps I am desensitised after seeing those scenes from the anime or I am desensitised with human body parts after my anatomy lessons in university. The movie maker seems to be running out of ideas to depict gory scenes as subsequently I mostly see red (blood) dropping from the sky and body parts flying. The Colossal Titan looks badass and the other titans look like shit in comparison. Too bad that the Colossal only appears behind the wall to look badass and does nothing else.

In the manga, Eren's hatred towards titans is due to witnessing the death of her mother. In the movie, his hatred seems to be lame as he thought titans eat Mikasa, despite no proof of her death. To me, movie Eren does not seem to have a strong reason to fight and that makes his character boring. In a post-apocalyptic settings, the banters between the Survey Corps characters also seem very trivial and useless. Bleah...

I will not say that there is a fight between Survey Corps vs Titans. It is more like Mikasa and Shikishima slaying the titans while the others were scared to death. The CGI during the fight scenes does little to convey the realism of the fight. I find the titan invasion at the beginning to be more intense than the so-called climax.

In the manga, I don't like Armin because he is too wimpy but in the movie, I actually like him better than Eren. Haha.. He is the same guy who plays as Echizen Ryoma in Prince of Tennis movie a few years ago and I think he is pretty good to be able to play a stuck up Ryoma and wimpy Armin. Mikasa looks very thin but I think she is perfectly casted. The hair is identical, she looks very cold when being serious, but her facial expression can soften significantly when she is not in killing mode.

The ending is obviously hanging as there is second part of the movie. Will I watch it? Sure I will! There are still so many unanswered questions like how Mikasa survived the titan attack, the mystery behind the titan, etc. Haha.. I am glad that I am not a fan of Attack on Titan. I think the movie is rather rubbish so if I am a fan, I think I will curse and swear. But if you consider this as a standalone action movie, it feels less rubbishy. Lol..

There are NC16 and M18 version for this movie. Since I am past the legal age, I chose the M18 version which is showing at Golden Village Suntec City or Vivocity. I have never been to Suntec City so I decided to give it a try. I think I will never go there again. Haha.. It is a very far walk from the MRT and I hate the ticket gantry system. Pui...