Summary
Attack on Titan’s live-action movie doesn’t hold a candle to the manga and anime it’s based on, butit does get one thing right about the critically acclaimed series. Despite fan reservations at the time,Attack on Titan’s two-part movie debuted back in 2015, bringing Hajime Isayama’s world to life in live-action. Given that the original story revolves around giant, man-eating beasts, making the jump to live-action was always going to be achallenge forAttack on Titan.And that’s reflected in the reception of the 2015 adaptation, which was overwhelmingly negative.
The live-actionAttack on Titanmovie has a 47% critic score onRotten Tomatoes, as well as a 34% audience rating — and this is a far cry from the response to the anime.Attack on Titan’s anime is a critical success, receiving numerous awards for its four-season run and even becoming thefirst anime to receive an Astra Award. Isayama’s story is considered a masterpiece, but the live-action movie doesn’t reflect that. Surprisingly,it does do one thing better than theAttack on Titananime.
10 Best Plot Twists in Attack on Titan
AoT has some of the most shocking plot twists in anime, where each one redefines what the viewers thought they knew about its complex world.
Attack On Titan Live-Action’s Titans Were Even Scarier Than The Anime’s
The Movie Really Drove Home The Horror Of The Titans
Although the live-actionAttack on Titanmovie doesn’t do the anime justice,it does surpass the original series in one big way: how it portrays the Titans. Bringing such creatures to live-action couldn’t have been easy, but the end result is much scarier than it is in the anime. The movie’s Titans look grotesque, which helps drive home the terror they elicit in the characters. Titans should be horrifying, and the live-actionAttack on Titansucceeds at portraying them as such.
The animated Titans look far less disturbing, which takes away from the terror.
By contrast, the animated Titans look far less disturbing, which takes away from the terror.Attack on Titanfans often make jokes about the more comical-looking background Titans, as their grotesque features don’t come across as scary in the anime. Andthe Titans with major roles in the story, like the Colossal and Armored Titan, have features similar to the characters who turn into them. This humanizes them more than it should, and it makes viewers see them as less threatening — even if that’s not the case.
What Went Wrong With The Live-Action Attack On Titan Movies
The live-actionAttack on Titanmovies may get the horror of the Titans right, but their criticisms are otherwise earned. A lot went wrong with the live-action adaptations, starting with the fact thatthey watered down the amazing cast of characters from the anime. With the characters leaving no impression on the viewers, their deaths didn’t hit as hard in the live-actionAttack on Titan.The films also made odd changes to the source material, like removing Levi Ackerman’s character for a similar leader named Shikishima.
All in all, the live-actionAttack on Titanseemed more committed to giving audiences a spectacle rather than adapting the original story. This is baffling, as the manga and anime are among the most popular additions to their mediums. Combining the heart of the source material with the horror of the live-action films would undoubtedly have been a success. Unfortunately, the 2015 adaptation didn’t capture the former.
