Given the popularity of the franchise, couldn't they have outsourced the effects work to a studio that didn't make the CGI look at home in a cheesy TV spot for a video game?

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Still Japan, they have smaller budgets to work with. Can't believe they're Kill Billing it into two parts though. But I guess that's the thing these days, Kenshin, Twilight, Hunger Games, etc;

Except that movies like District 9 show you don't need a huge budget to have good looking CGI. It depends on what company you use (and if your director actually has an eye for what actually looks good in terms of CGI).

But given the typical state of young Japanese actors these days, I'm sure lousy CGI will be the least of this movie's problems.

One has to remember that Japanese films work on miniscule budgets compared to even third-tier Hollywood films. There is practically no international market for Japanese films beyond hardcore cinemaphiles.

I thought the anime was wildly over-rated and badly written.

I guess that explains it. I do forget at times how insular the Japanese really are.

I've never seen the anime but know that it's wildly popular. That's why I expected them to go beyond the typical Japanese cheeseball approach to these types of movies.

As a big fan of Japanese cinema, I thought the CGI in the trailer looked above average. I watched and enjoyed the anime series, and for me, the film just needs to nail Mikasa as the proper bad ass she is to be successful for me.

Phantom Stranger is crazy. The anime was amazing. After watching the first season, there is no way they can top that in live action. The soundtrack, story, animation and voice acting was perfect.

Thanks RocShemp for the trailer but I'm not even going to click on that. I'm waiting for S2 of the anime.

I liked the show but it's pretty flawed too.

They are also trying to do a lot more, scale wise, than District 9 and on a presumably much smaller budget.

The anime was better in concept than execution.

Armin isn't blonde? Shinji Higuchi raped my childhood!

Curiosity got the best of me and I watched the trailer. It's okay I guess. It looks too much like I'm watching something play out on a movie set. The premise worked well in the manga almost because of the crude and amateur style of the illustrations. The anime worked because everything is animated so you can't say the human characters look real but the titans don't because they're of the same medium. The movie though doesn't have that benefit.

@Phantom Stranger
That explains why I've never seen a Japanese live action Evangelion movie.

I'm totally looking forward to this. Really stoked we get both part 1&2 this year.
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mmmm....by the looks of that probably not for me.

I like it. But these anime and manga adaptations usually disappoint.

The reviews for pt 1 were brutal.

Yeah, I'm sure only hardcore fans of the show will enjoy it.

It's actually 'streaming' ...

I enjoyed the anime when it wasn't about the characters and plot. Most of them are very very very annoying. The funny scientist chick and badass chick were the characters I gave a damn about, and that was pushing it cuz they weren't all that great either. All the male characters are wildly annoying.

And isn't this movie by the directors of the new Toho Godzilla? Jesus.

Has there never been a successful live action adaptation of an anime? I know Manga's have had good adaptations, like Oldboy.

Kind of depends on what you mean. Disregarding what the answer is. The anime is based on a manga. The trailer makes note of that... but I think people really gave a damn about it only when it was an anime.

But I don't think so. Not something from an anime source to good movie type of thing.

I'm not terribly familiar with the genre. I was just referring to this wave of CGI-heavy Japanese (all Japanese?) live-action movies. Like, here is a list: http://anime.about.com/od/toppicks/t...daptations.htm

I've watched some of those. And I just can't connect.

Watched the Part 1 and Part 2 preview; that is some really awful CG.

Didn't care for the anime and don't know if I'll bother with the live action films. Part 1 is out there if you can find it, though.

Bored. In Denton doing nothing. Took the day off.

I just watched pt 1 on bluray.

Was actually a little dull until the 2nd battle withe Titans.

I had a very ahrd time trying to figure out who was who.

I swear I saw the same character eaten at least twice a few times.

Anyway the biggest issue I had was that no one in this movie
made mention of the one giant Titan that appeared near the beginning
of the movie.