Attack On Titan Part One Review: A Retelling

By Ethan

Attack on Titan part 1 is a Japanese film with English Subtitles. Personally I didn't mind this but some people may not like it as it takes a lot of reading and may sometimes district you from the action. It is based on a manga and anime of the same name. The story follows the life of Eren Yager as he seeks revenge on the Titans who destroyed his town.

The film lasts 1h 39m. It has a great pace and rarely feels like it is dragging on. Surprisingly there are hardly any filler scenes and most of it is relevant to the plot. However there are some scenes which really did not need to be included and some scenes that last much longer then they should have.

They Changed the setting from Germany (in the anime) to Japan (in the film) the plot is based on the manga storyline but does not follow it completely, meaning that if you have read the manga there will still be some surprises. If you have read the manga / watched the anime there will be parts which you recognise. Personally I like when they take scenes straight from it because you get to see the scenes come to life.

The CGI was great and this aided the experience a lot as a the main aspects of the film really rely on CGI. Like for instance when they are using the ODM gear and fighting the Titans. However there were some rare occasions were it was not so great, this was during huge fight scenes - which is understandable - but you think they would have spent more time polishing it up as the big fight scenes is what the audience came to see.

This film is great for fans of the manga and tv show. Some fans, however, may not like it because it strays a lot from the original story and there a lot of minor changes that may annoy them. But I think most fans will like to see a new take on a story that is familiar to them and finally get to see it come to life.

I give this film 3.5 / 5 because although I really enjoyed this film it was not perfect and there are parts that I would like to see tweaked or improved, like the CGI in huge fights and the couple of unnecessary scenes.

Image Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjY9s-jiMjLAhVJQhQKHaSoA74QjhwIBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liveforfilms.com%2F2015%2F11%2F18%2Fthe-live-action-attack-on-titan-part-1-movie-gets-a-uk-release-date%2Fattack-on-titan-live-action-part-1-still-11%2F&bvm=bv.117218890,d.ZWU&psig=AFQjCNGqbqJnSFRFeZKld-As7-hXfJO8_Q&ust=1458315889446876

The Revenant Review: Beautifully Boring

By Beth

As a film student, I feel like the only thing I've heard for the past month or so has been "The Revenant", "The Revenant", "The Revenant". Virtually everyone I know has told me about how much they love this film and can't believe I still hadn't seen it, so when the opportunity finally did arise for me to go and watch it I knew I couldn't put it off any longer.

When watching the trailer I was captivated by the epic feel of it but had been put off by the film's almost 3 hour run time. I'm really not a huge fan of long movies because no matter how good they are, there's a 99% chance I will fall asleep! Unfortunately The Revenant is part of that 99% - but more on that later!

When the film begun I realised why there's such a hype for it. It is visually stunning with the landscape shots in between scenes just getting more and more breathtaking as the film went on. I loved it even more when it started to snow because there's such a beauty and fragility to it like nothing else. I can see why this film is so exciting and inspiring to my film school friends, especially the ones with a keen interest in cinematography.

It took a while for me to understand exactly what was going on in the story apart from people killing each other and stealing their "pelts". I soon realised that this film was not going to involve a hell of a lot of talking, which for a writer is something hard to get on with straight away. However I think the lack of dialogue was necessary for many parts of this film and not only represents the spectacular story telling talents of Alejandro González Iñárritu, but also highlights the universal struggle which is survival. Anyone could watch this film in any language and come away with the same feelings and understandings than if they had watched it in their own language and that is something to be highly commended and aspired to.

Now you may have noticed in my title I labeled this film a "snooze fest" Not because I didn't enjoy it, or because I didn't appreciate it but because it was just way too long. While the scenes of Leonardo Di Caprio surviving on his own, fueled only by his burning need for revenge were incredible, I couldn't help but just wish for the character to die at some points so we could wrap this whole thing up and go home. There were parts where I literally couldn't believe he had survived, I'm actually worried what Leo will do next if he doesn't win that Oscar. He slept in an animal carcass, ate raw, live fish and gave the performance of a life time. Seriously what more has a guy got to do? These scenes definitely could have been shorter though, in fact the entire film could have been done in two hours and created the same effect if not more. Half way through I really did lose interest and found myself falling asleep until a loud "BOOM" in the soundtrack shocked me awake.

Di Caprio isn't the only actor to be commended in this film though. Of course I couldn't go this whole review without mentioning my fave Tom Hardy. I think my friend and follow Tom Hardy lover put it best: "He made me hate him". It takes incredible skill to make fan girls like us feel pure hatred for the guy but he did it. The only criticism I would have against Hardy would be his terrible accent which at times I couldn't understand at all. Another great actor of the moment is Domhall Gleeson. I first saw him in Ex Machina which in someways is a million miles away from this film and this character, however you could also argue that in this film his caring nature (his father was a doctor and he tries to help many of the characters who become injured) and willingness to protect people ultimately ends up in (SPOILER ALERT) his demise.

Overall this film was incredible but I feel like it is something that needs to be seen in the cinema to be fully appreciated and to stop you from ending it half way through. It wasn't my normal type of film and due to its long run time I'm not sure if I'd watch it again, but I did enjoy it and have to give it 5/5 stars.

Let me know what you thought about this film and if you agree that it was too long or if you were hooked for every single minute!

Image Sources:

http://nerdist.com/review-leonardo-dicaprio-goes-all-in-for-brutal-the-revenant/

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/04/the-revenant-review-gut-churningly-brutal-beautiful-storytelling

http://variety.com/t/alejandro-g-inarritu/

http://thefilmstage.com/news/tom-hardy-talks-wrestling-with-alejandro-g-inarritu-on-the-revenant-set-as-new-images-arrive/