I started watching this movie as a fan of the manga and anime series but without much expectations about the quality. I mostly wondered how the story itself, the characters, the gear, the titans, the fighting techniques etc. would be translated into a live action movie form.

About all the latter parts, I am pretty content. The graphics of the titans are great and were my personal highlights of the movie. The makers have also stayed loyal to the original fighting gear in the anime and manga, which I was grateful for. Just for these two factors alone I would watch the movie again.

What the writers did with the story and the characters, I am personally a lot less happy. The basis of the story was kept: humanity locked up behind the walls to protect themselves from titans until a particular one ruins everything and brings chaos everywhere. A new generation steps up and tries to fight for humanity's sake. And there it should have stopped. Instead unnecessary romance plots that didn't seem to fit in were added. Maybe the scriptwriters thought it was needed to make the movie more universal and more mature since the characters in the movie seem older, but a story like Attack On Titan honestly does not need it. Instead they could have put more focus on character development. Something this movie severely lagged. The ending felt rather abrupt too, even though we got our expected climax. Story wise, the move felt like a prologue to another one (which maybe could happen in the future). Of course I didn't expect that the movie would just blindly copy the story of the manga or anime but the newly created plot left me wishing they actually had done just that. If I do have to point out a good point, it's that the darkness of the manga and anime are wonderfully portrayed. The feeling of dystopia is one of the key points of the original story and was brought really well unto the golden screen.

If I may formulate another pet peeve of mine, then it is the music. As someone who feels being spoiled by the wonderful music of the anime, the music in the movie paled greatly in comparison. Sometimes it felt too loud, like it took over the whole scene and otherwise I just did not like the sound of it. It wasn't bad but as I said before, I felt already spoiled by the music I was used to hear in the anime.

My review may sound quite negative but let it please not discourage you to check out the movie. The fighting scenes and graphics of the titans are absolutely great. Let me warn you, they aren't without a bit of blood. A whole lot of blood. So if you are into some mindless action which includes a lot of gore and you do not care much about plot, this movie might be right up your alley. Enjoy.

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