First Review of Live Action Attack on Titan and What it Could Mean for Godzilla 2016
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G. H. (Gman)
AdminGodzillaJul-15-2015 5:53 PMWith the Attack on Titan live action movie zeroing in on its release, reviews are starting to spill. The first one is quite positive. Here's it is:
Attack on Titan: Part I (Live Action Movie)
For those who don't want to plow through the full review here's some excerpts relevant to the conversation:
"True to its roots, TOHO has re-imagined Attack on Titan as a kaiju film, with actors in makeup portraying the Titans rather than full CG, but in the process, this movie has also expanded on what kaiju films can be. The aesthetic here is not Godzilla, but Silent Hill, as human actors are blended with a hybrid of makeup and CG to create perfect uncanny night terrors. Against all odds, this movie is even gorier than the original comics and it somehow forces you to take the Titans very seriously. Unlike the more PG-13 anime, it is in no way comical when the Titans' repulsive mouths consume screaming actors in excruciating closeup. Blood and viscera rain down on panicked crowds as they claw over each other in packed alleyways and crush each other up against barred doors."
"All the movie's so-called limitations manage to blossom into a cohesive nightmare world thanks to the expert technique and direction of Shinji Higuchi, who is not only a kaiju effects veteran, but also knows a thing or two about the psychology of fear as evidenced by his extensive work on Evangelion. Instead of being campy fun, it's tone-perfect terrifying."
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The idea that Higuchi has pushed what a kaiju film can be with this movie is certainly inspiring considering he's declared Godzilla 2016 will be the greatest nightmare we've seen. It sounds like he's already accomplished a nightmare with this movie.
The fear aspect the review mentions is also interesting, especially in the way it ties the psychology with Evangelion. With Anno in charge of the script and directing Godzilla 2016, I can only imagined this will be amplified. Hopefully not into the level of ambiguity seen in the Evangelion series, but then we've never really seen that in Godzilla, so it might be worth a try. Regardless, if this review of Attack on Titan is anything to go on Godzilla '16 might just be a movie unlike any other. Not necessarily like 1954, but something terrifying and truly unique.
I'm not sure what kind of movie we're going to be getting, but good or bad, I'm betting it will be unlike anything we've seen in the last six decades.
