Monday, September 28, 2015

Review of ATTACK ON TITAN 2: END OF THE WORLD: Rushed and Raw

September 25, 2015





This sequel to last month's live-action version of the manga/anime "Attack on Titan." That was a much-anticipated film because of the popularity of the anime. However, it was uniformly met with bad reviews and fan disappointment because of the poor Titan special effects, but more because of the significant, arguably ill-advised or unnecessary changes in the storyline made to fit a live-action format.

The first episode ended with the revelation that Eren was actually the special Titan who was killing the other regular Titans. This sequel began with an inquiry conducted by a ruthless Director General who seemed to want nothing but to execute Eren. Of course, Eren's friend Armin bravely argued for his friend. The action builds up to a climactic grand three-way fight among three special Titans on the outermost wall. 

This sequel, released just a month after the original, was only about an hour and a half long. The first 20 minutes or so was just a reiteration of the event in the first film. For me, the two films could have been simply integrated into one longer film. We do not see much of the regular Titans anymore in this film. We will also see the origin of the Titans and the reason why Eren become a Titan recalled in flashbacks which I wished were treated with more details and clarity. 

Like the first film, and even more so in this sequel, we see over-the-top acting from most of the cast. The main group of young soldiers, led of course by the trio of lead characters: Eren Yeager (Haruma Miura), Mikasa Ackerman (Mizuhara Kiko), and Armin Arlert (Kanata Hongô). The Mikasa of the films was not at all like the Mikasa in the anime. We see at least one act of bravery from each of their friends as well, namely Sasha Blouse aka Potato Girl (Nanami Sakuraba), Jean Kirstein (Takahiro Miura) and Sannagi (Satoru Matsuo). 

We see more of the bespectacled,, incredibly (and hilariously) hyperactive senior female officer Hange Zoë (Satomi Ishihara).  We will get a surprising revelation about the enigmatic Shikishima (Hiroki Hasegawa), the character that replaced Levi Ackerman, "Humanity's Strongest Soldier" in the manga/anime. A similarly remarkable storyline follows the human antagonist Kubal (Jun Kunimura). Unfortunately, the film does not give us a satisfactory explanation about what happened to these last two characters.

This film just sought to close the main storyline started by the first film, direct to the point. No more side detours were included. It was all over in less than 90 minutes. Unfortunately, a major part of this sequel was just a lot of talking, with practically no action in the first hour. By the time it reached the battle-royale in the last thirty minutes, a lot of the audience may have already zoned out. It was not really much of a cinematic Armageddon as promised by its title. 4/10.


18 comments:

  1. Kids have been so crazy about this film! I'd love to watch it and check out the story line.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh man my husband has been bugging me to watch this with him. Definitely not my type of movie but I think I'm gonna go just to be a good wife :/

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's too bad, I saw the posters outside various cinemas and the synopsis sounds interesting, but over-acting is not really my cup of tea, it's like overcompensating for a bad script.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's quite unfortunate that this movie got such a low rating. Everyone went crazy with the first movie! :O

    ReplyDelete
  5. It look rushed. It still a good watch to close the story from the first part.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting. But not within my genre of movies. :D But would love to have a try on this movie.

    ReplyDelete
  7. i watched to catch part 1 but my friends told me it sucks real bad (as compared to the anime). So I definitely won't watch this sequel as well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. One look at the poster and I pretty much dismissed it as "not my thing"/ Your 4/10 rating sealed it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It sounds like an interesting movie. I'll have to admit it though that it is not within my genre preferences. Interesting review!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I watched the anime series and was grossed out. I don't know if I have the courage to watch the real live action film. Maybe I'll just stick to animation.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, 4/10. Good thing I have not seen the movie. I am surprised that it is a short film. But then again, that might be a good thing when it is not well-made. You can get out of the theatre the soonest.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've watched the first movie prior to watching its anime series. At first, I liked it because it's my first time to watch a movie like it but after finishing the 1st season of its anime, I felt a bit saddened that they changed a lot of important details in the movie. I still want to watch this second installment of Attack on Titan to see how they continued the story.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good thing of this film is the way the two films incorporated with each other. But my heart goes to "action films" all along.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 4/10? wow.. heard bad feedback from my friends on the first instalment too, don't think I'll catch this..

    ReplyDelete
  15. I thought at first this is a good movie to watch but knowing there's a lot of talking than real action, I bet that's already boring.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Haha, my friend tried to force me to watch but I refused! I'm glad I didn't! Not a fan of Japanese films.

    ReplyDelete
  17. 4/10 rating??? some of my friends liked this film though. maybe i have to see it for myself then

    ReplyDelete
  18. 4/10/, maybe its something I would wait for later on. The impresion seems nice though but then well... maybe not a film for me.

    ReplyDelete