Attack on Titan (film)
Attack on Titan is a 2015 Japanese post-apocalyptic action film based on the manga of the same name by Hajime Isayama. The film is directed by Shinji Higuchi, written by Yūsuke Watanabe and Tomohiro Machiyama and stars Haruma Miura, Hiroki Hasegawa, Kiko Mizuhara, Kanata Hongō, Takahiro Miura, Nanami Sakuraba, Satoru Matsuo, Shu Watanabe, Ayame Misaki, Rina Takeda, Satomi Ishihara, Pierre Taki and Jun Kunimura. In Attack on Titan Eren Yeager, his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman and his childhood friend Armin Arlert, join the Survey Corps, a military corporation to fight gigantic humanoids called the Titans after their hometown is attacked by a Colossal Titan. The film is split into two parts, with the first part released in Japan on 1 August 2015 and the second part released on 19 September that year.
Plot
Part 1
One hundred years ago, the Titans suddenly appeared and decimated most of humanity. To stop their advance, humanity built a series of walls and lived peacefully there for another 100 years. In the present day village of Monzen, Eren expresses to his friends, Armin and Mikasa, his desire to leave the confines of the Outer Wall and see the outside world. After their failed attempt to approach the wall, Souda, the captain of the Garrison, explains to them that the military is assembling a scouting regiment to explore beyond the walls. However, the wall is suddenly attacked by the Colossal Titan. The wall is breached and Titans enter the village, eating people and getting back up despite being injured. When Mikasa tries to rescue a baby, she is separated from Eren, and is presumed killed.Two years later, Eren and Armin enter the Scout Regiment, along with Sasha, Jean, and others. The team, led by Military Police Commander Kubal, move out into one of the towns of the Outer Wall. The group is then attacked by Titans but are saved by Captain Shikishima and Mikasa, who survived the attack from two years ago and is now part of the Scouts. Eren eventually confronts Mikasa and she reveals to him that the experience made her realize the world is cruel. After realizing that Mikasa and Shikishima are most likely together, Eren is once again devastated.
When more Titans surprise them, Kubal retreats, leaving the Scouts to fend for themselves. Lil, who had just lost her lover, sacrifices herself. Jean attempts to convince Eren to flee, but Eren chooses to fight back before losing his leg in the process. Eren manages to save Armin from being eaten but at the cost of his own life. Though crushed by Eren's death, Mikasa keeps fighting until she runs low on fuel and comes face to face with the same Titan that ate Eren. However, a Titan emerges from within it and begins battling the other Titans. Souda and Mikasa realize that the Titan is Eren. After he starts to collapse, Mikasa frees Eren from his Titan shell.
Part 2
Years before, a young Eren is forcibly injected with an experimental serum by his father, but soon after Eren's mother discovers this, a military police squad break in, taking Eren's parents and burning the place. Eren survives with the help of Souda. In the present, Eren is captured by Kubal and his squadron, believing he is a threat to humanity. Armin and Souda try to persuade Kubal to spare Eren's life, but Souda is killed. Before Eren is executed, a Titan busts in, killing Kubal and his squadron, takes Eren, but spares Mikasa and her comrades.Eren awakens in a mysterious bunker with Shikishima, who reveals the origins of the Titans as a military experiment gone wrong that soon developed into a virus that turned people into Titans and decimated humanity. Shikishima plans to launch a coup against the corrupted government who has been oppressing its people with the walls and with fear of the Titans. Eren learns that Shikishima has stockpiled some of the pre-Titan War weapons, and agrees to help.
Hange, Mikasa and the others retrieve an undetonated bomb in Eren's hometown with the hopes of using it to seal the outer wall. They encounter Shikishima's troops and reunite with Eren. However, Shikishima attempts to recruit them into his coup, revealing that he plans to use the dud bomb not to seal the wall but to blow up the capital and let the Titans overtake everything, freeing humanity. Realizing that more innocent lives would be shed, Eren stands against Shikishima. As they fight, Sannagi sacrifices himself to bring down a nearby tower that falls on the weapon stockpile, blowing it up while the others escape with the bomb. However, Shikishima reappears on the truck and stabs himself revealing himself to be the Titan that took Eren earlier. The gang attack Shikishima, who smashes Eren into a wall, but Eren transforms into his Titan form and defeats Shikishima. Titan Eren climbs the wall and plants the bomb, reverting to his human form while Armin sets the fuse.
Having survived the earlier attack, Kubal wants the group to give up Eren and return to the interior, but they refuse. Kubal shoots Armin, but is shot by Sasha and falls, transforming into the Colossal Titan which actually breached the outer wall in part 1. When Eren, Mikasa and Jean try to jump on the Colossal Titan's back, Jean is killed. The bomb does not go off, so Mikasa tries to get the bomb fuse working again, but is confronted by Shikishima. Eren tries to break into Colossal Titan's nape but is knocked down. Shikishima sacrifices himself by transforming into a Titan and lodging the bomb into the Colossal Titan's mouth. The detonation successfully closes the hole in the wall and Eren and Mikasa stand at the top of the wall overlooking the ocean.
In a post-credits scene, footage of the battle with the Colossal Titan is analyzed, in Shikishima's bunker, by an off-screen character, who says that Eren and Mikasa's unpredictability is what makes them "fascinating".
Cast
- Haruma Miura as Eren Yeager, a young man who dreams of one day leaving the walls
- Kiko Mizuhara as Mikasa, Eren's childhood friend. It was thought that she had been killed in the initial wall breach at Monzen, but she reappears as part of the Scout Regiment under Shikishima.
- Hiroki Hasegawa as Shikishima, the captain of the Scout Regiment.
- Kanata Hongō as Armin, Eren's childhood friend. He has an interest in mechanical stuff.
- Takahiro Miura as Jean, a soldier who gets into a scuffle with Eren.
- Nanami Sakuraba as Sasha, a soldier who enjoys food, especially potatoes. She uses a long bow.
- Satoru Matsuo as Sannagi, a soldier who uses an axe where he cuts the heels of the Titans.
- Shu Watanabe as Fukushi, one of the soldiers.
- Ayame Misaki as Hiana, one of the female soldiers. It is later revealed she joined the Scouts in order to provide for her daughter. Later, she is eaten by a titan.
- Rina Takeda as Lil, one of the female soldiers, she and another soldier are a couple.
- Pierre Taki as Souda, a former captain in the Garrison when the walls are breached at Monzen.
- Satomi Ishihara as Hans, the weapons chief and a leader in the Scout Regiment. She typically wears goggles and first appears where she demonstrates the omni-directional mobility gear.
- Jun Kunimura as Kubal, the director in the military forces.
Production
Development
The film was announced on October 2011, with a planned release date in 2013 and in December of the same year it was announced that it would be a live action film and that Tetsuya Nakashima would direct. On December 2012 it was announced that Nakashima had left as director because of creative differences. On December 2013, Shinji Higuchi was revealed as the new director and Yuusuke Watanabe as the screenwriter. Originally, the filmmakers wanted to make the film very faithful to the source material, but author Hajime Isayama suggested numerous changes to make the films standalone, because "the story has already been told", while also introducing new elements that would later be used in the manga. Another thing to note is that the films may or may not be a sequel to the 1966 Toho film, The War of the Gargantuas.Filming
was expected to start in 2014 and the film was now expected to be released in 2015. A car commercial featuring the Titans and directed by Higuchi was also announced and broadcast on January 2014 on Nippon TV, reaching more than 5 million views on YouTube in four days. Haruma Miura was revealed as part of the cast in April and in July it was announced that there would be two films. The first images of the actors in character were revealed in November.Music
composed and scored an original motion-picture soundtrack, which compiled into one whole soundtrack. The theme songs of the films are "Anti-Hero" and "SOS", respectively, both performed by Sekai no Owari. The film's soundtrack goes under the name "Attack on Titan ".All music composed by Shirō Sagisu.
Release
The first film was released in Japan on 1 August 2015. It was released by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand on 27 August 2015. Funimation Entertainment has licensed the rights for both films in North America, Central America, and South America and hosted the world premiere of the first film on 14 July at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Director Shinji Higuchi and stars Haruma Miura and Kiko Mizuhara attended the red carpet premiere. Funimation had announced its screening dates for the films. Attack on Titan: Part 1 screened in a limited engagement beginning on 30 September 2015 and Attack on Titan: Part 2 screened three weeks later on 20 October 2015. The second part, entitled End of the World, was released on 19 September 2015. It was released on 1–7 October for Australia and New Zealand. The second film did poorly at the Japanese box office, relative to the first part - the first film made $4.8 million in its opening week at the Japanese box office, and the second did $2.7 million.For its DVD and Blu-ray release in the United States, which included English dubs of both films, Part 1 was released on 4 October 2016 and Part 2 released on 6 December 2016.
Marketing
A teaser trailer was released in March 2015 and a trailer was released in April. Another trailer was released in June, which revealed that the film will be given an IMAX release in Japan and internationally.Box office
Part I was number-one on its opening weekend, with. It was the seventh highest-grossing Japanese made film at the Japanese box office in 2015, with . and the 17th highest-grossing film at the Japanese box office for that year. Part II underperformed at the box-office, having grossed ¥2.1 billion less than the total gross of the first film within first three weeks of release. Combined, the films have grossed ¥4.93 billion.Critical reception
Lee Edmund of South China Morning Post, said that the film was "One of the most perversely original fantasy movies in recent memory, this adaptation of a Japanese manga series is a schizophrenic mix of genres." Hope Chapman of Anime News Network also praised the movie. "Outstanding and immersive aesthetic unlike any other horror movie, swiftly paced and gripping start to finish, sharp script with heavy thematic undertones, holds up completely as its own work of art divorced from the source material." Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku said "The First Attack on Titan Movie Stinks". Piera Chen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a visually refreshing blockbuster undermined by clichés." Derek Elley of Film Business Asia gave it a 7 out of 10 rating and called it "a trash-horror fantasy that's a big-budget B picture."SFX artist Yoshihiro Nishimura and director Shinji Higuchi responded to some critics, with Nishimura responding to unfavourable comparisons of the film's special effects with Hollywood's standards thus: "I'm sorry, but deciding what movies to see based on their budget, and comparing everything to Hollywood, that's like how some people feel secure buying Okame natto when they go to the supermarket". Higuchi referenced one critic of the film's characters, saying "who's the idiot who gave this guy an early release of the film?!"
On Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of critics have given Attack on Titan: Part 1 a positive review based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.29/10. 50% of critics have given Part 2 a positive review based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 5.96/10.