arthur_nonimus

I can see what they were trying for, I can see direction they were taking and the effort to get it there. But in the end it missed its mark and landed squarely in the middle of the 'not bad, not great' action movie flicks.

With sci-fi we have the capacity to explore deeply the human condition. We can hold a mirror up to ourselves vicariously through the characters. Did we explore? No, we were treated to a fell good bang bang action extravaganza. The sci-fi was just set dressing for a story told a million times - "good guys win, bad guys lose, something about family for a feel good ending".

I'm glad it went straight to streaming, you could have done so much more. I would have felt cheated in the theater.

This is a great story. A land carved in two by the actions of the past. Hundreds of years of blood and vengeance on both sides. Enter an elf assassin, two human princes and a secret that could save the world or kill them all.

It's so good it could have been an easy 10 star, that is if it wasn't for the budget cuts. The animation wanders between 5 and 15 frames per second, a well known way to save money in the industry. At 24 frames per second the animators would need to make 37,440 frames per episode. With the animation of The Dragon Prince they only need less than 23,000.

That saves money, but also breaks the flow, and pulls the audience out of their suspension of disbelief. It's jarring when the action ramps up and then character suddenly starts jumping across the screen.

It's 2018 - Come on Netflix, you can do better than that!

If you're into militaresque anime then this may appeal, that is if you can get past all the film noir soliloquies of course.

Now for the review: The story is first up. To describe it as forced would be kind. The drama is 'heightened' by deaths of characters and not much else. This would be a good tactic if the viewer is drawn into their stories. However, excessive fatalism, over-hyped fear by characters, what can only be deliberate blindness to the obvious by characters and there's not much to keep the viewer on board. The drip feed of the story is also maddeningly slow - all the action in an episode could be condensed down to half the time if the repetitive action sequences weren't drawn out.

Characters are next. Eren Yeager our protagonist (Pronounced Jaeger like the hunter - Chekhov's gun anyone?) Switches from whiny kid, moron, fatalistic moron, universal soldier wanna-be, and drill sergeant harda*se wanna-be. The rest seem to be either titan chow or natural born killers. You can tell who's who by how much you're pushed to like them. Hate them, they'll see the who series through. Love them, they'll die - usually by being eaten.

Animation. This is actually good, for the most part. Some scenes are over worked but mostly well done. If only they didn't fill up so much of each episode with recaps and intros and end credits.

All in all, AoT is not bad has massive problems that can't be brushed over by manipulative drama.