The Attack on Titan series proves the point that you can make even the most ridiculous idea and make it all dark and serious. The Attack on Titan series is a pseudo flintlock fantasy world which takes place in a vaguely German like country. Mankind is under siege and lives in a massive walled city, with the upper classes living in the thickest wall in the centre, with thinner walled bits of the city protecting the peasants. The Roar of Awakening is the third ‘movie’ instalment of the series.
The threat everyone is hiding from are giant man-baby monsters with grotesque heads that walk like toddlers and eat people whole. These are the titular ‘Titans’. It’s utterly daft and the animated TV show and accompanying comic books are hugely popular across the world, especially in their native Japan.
The main protagonist is a chap called Eren, who shouts a lot and hates Titans. He works with a team of scouts who swing around on gas-powered grappling hooks smacking the monsters in their weak spots with huge swords. The show concentrates on the slow collapse of civilisation and the hidden mystery of the titan’s origins. Roar ramps up the conspiracy and paranoia, but it’s mostly lots of characters jabbering on at each other about nothing until another fight scene happens.
This is because Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening is a compressed and re-edited version of season two of the TV series. The editing makes for some interesting scenes; dramatic freeze frame with some dialogue over the top is used quite a bit in order to stitch the narrative into something vaguely understandable. The result is action scene after action scene, with lots of dramatic music, shouting, violence and the more shouting. The animation really shines at these points, with some great cinematic scenes of huge monsters punching normal sized people. Then eating them.
The problem is that if you didn’t know any about the series going in, well this is part three in an ongoing series; this is going to make no sense. It’s hard to really understand what this is for. Fans of Attack on Titan will want to five the full series a watch, rather than this butchered shorthand. At two-hours, it’s a heck of a long recap.
Silly, stupid, shouty stuff for hardcore fans.
ATTACK ON TITAN THE ROAR OF AWAKENING / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: MASASHI KOIZUKA / SCREENPLAY: HAJIME ISAYAMA, YASUKO KOBAYASHI / STARRING: YÛKI KAJI, YUI ISHIKAWA, MARINA INOUE / RELEASE DATE: TBC
