Warner Bros. Officially Greenlights Live-Action Akira

[boag]

It may have not been a terrible film, but it wasnt good either.

There are lots of scenes implanted just for visual cues,

Not sure how that's a bad thing. Sounds like a common storytelling tactic.

and a lot of the plot points from the manga are skipped even when whole arcs of the manga are used because they are memorable.

Ah, the classic "It's bad because it cut things from the original." Yeah, that's not really valid. Unless you're talking about things that are actually relevant to understanding what was included in the film, in which case I'd ask for some examples.

1: the one the Title character is nothing more than a plot device,he is not introduced, nor given development, he might as well have been the magic glasses from Transformers.

In the Manga you get an idea of why he is important and what goes around him and why he is needed, hell he even gets some development.

2: Tetsuos powers are not explained in the movie, he suddenly develops them and nobody has any idea how, he just has them.

In the Manga its explained how he develops his powers, why he was taken by the army, why it was needed to rescue him from the amy research facility and the role the 3 children played it in all.

3: the Protestors in the streets, they make a passing comment that they are following tetsuo, but they are never again mentioned.

Again, the manga explain why Tetsuo gains a following and what these people want to accoplsih.


4: Tetsuo is suddenly a prick, when 30 minutes ago, he was a headstrong person that was loyal to his friends.

In the Manga the transformation is gradual, having lots of events that formed him from a loyal friend into a self centered power hungry dictator.

Your comment about this being valid or not, isn't that exactly why people are bitching about an American Adaption?

Arent you being Hypocritical to defend the animation while condemning this live action adaptation on the same merits?

 

[boag]

I just see this turning out like the American attempt at Gundam, G Saviour, where the filmmakers put in elements from the original but just miss the point entirely.

Kinda like Gundam Seed, G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam 00, Gudam Age.

 

[ckam]

One, apparently a trusted source from not exactly a trusted writer on Cracked wrote about the script, which basically forces people to care about 9/11 like it was the worst atrocity ever. Completely different from the feeling of inevitable destruction like the Akira movie was.

Two, the relationship between the main character and the main female character is a subplot that doesn't really get expanded upon other than they're tolerant of each other. The LA adaptation would probably ruin it by making her a femme fatale of sorts and they have a sexy relationship with each other.

Three, everyone is ugly. This kind of highlights the large realism and slaps to the audience's face that Akira is not going to pander to anyone. LA movie skips over this just by considering that Hedlund dude.

Four, Hollywood always fuck up on Japanese adaptations. Dragon Ball, for example.

Five, whitewashing is terrible and we should take every chance to stomp it down.

Six, the experiments are probably not going to be portrayed as victims or just considered as worthy as a normal human being.

Seven, low budget and a bad director are ingredients for terrible direction and special effects. Duh.

Eight, LA adaptations are almost always terrible.

I can't seem to think of anything else at the moment.

 

[Reaper195]

Personally, I have no problem with this. Akira, the original, pissed me right off. For most of the time, I had no idea what the fuck was going on, and still didn't near the end. Next to little made no sense, the characters were about as bland as I could tell.....the only thing I found interesting was that dudes super-powers about midway through when he's in that place with those random green kid things.....which also made no fucking sense!

 

[sapphireofthesea]

So, ummm, Akira is a big deal, right? Like one of those shows that fans shun you for not seeing and ban you from all their conversations until you have seen it because they're jerks like that?

And Hollywood MAY be ruining it by not offering it the "respect" that it deserves?

Is this different to any other adaptation that Hollywood does of something from Geek Culture that's NOT superheroes?

Calumon: Is this another show you're gonna watch and be miserable after watching for another month? : (

Biggest issue I have (and somewhere in the morass, the fan boys have) is that Hollywood basically screws everything to do with anime up. The best comparison I could think of is them making a world war 2 movie and casting a black jew as Hitler.
They mess things up on a fundimental level because they try to adapt it to another culture, and that in itself makes it loose alot of what made it great. Comic based movies already have some basis in the same culture so there is no culture change loss (or very little compared).

Oh and Calumon, it is mostly likely so, so get the digimon vidoes ready to save him. A football and some line chalk might also come in handy, even if it just to entertain yourself ^^.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

...what? I don't even know what you're trying to say here? A manga adaption of the story, released in Japan, is somehow a worse crime than George Lucas' various edits, revisions and retcons? [/quote]Have you fucking seen that manga? They actually managed to make Chewbacca more annoying than Jar Jar Binks. Nothing Lucas has done reaches that low.[/quote]


I am sorry but here I must say, Lucas actually made Jar Jar Binks.

I personally ignore all the movies that came out after the original 3. Regradless of how you think of them on their own, they completely fucked the story (every Jedi throws things around randomly and Vader is a God, yet come the old movies/future events, the force just about manages basic telekentics)

 

[The3rdEye]

Just because it has to be played in this thread.

But you know what, I'm gonna wait and see. Who knows, they might have learnt to STICK TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL IF YOU WANT THE TARGET AUDIENCE TO LIKE IT after the whole Dragonball evo fiasco.

You never know, can live n dream ay?

Within the first 10 comments no less. *sniff* Well done.

Dragonball and now Akira are going to force either the release of or an additional delay to an Evangelion movie. WETA was already signed on for the SFX, they avoided (via a swift kick in the bojangles by fans) "reworking" the main cast...

Just make NGE already. If it sucks we won't have to put up with another shitty anime->live adaptation for at least a decade. If it rocks, it will finally free up cash for future and more ambitious projects.

 

[The3rdEye]

I think ENG is a bit too ambitious for this stage. It's a massively contradictory theme for someone who doesn't know enough about it. On the surface it's just another big robot punch up. But it's actual plot is at complete odds with that. You'd end up getting Bay or someone directing it because on the surface it's just big robots. And they'd completely ignore the meat and potatoes of the story.

I say that's the ambitious project that gets green lit if we see a few well executed ones. I'd say this one is the proving stone. If this works, we may get a bit more attention to the classics. Ghost in the Shell hopefully.

How many titles are we going to let them ruin before they get to NGE though? At this rate anime>live transitions are going to look like a studio's suicide note.

At least with Evangelion you can still have the giant robot punch-up with all the blood and gore the masses can handle to default to in order to get a good review or box office return. The Akira movie was rather hard to follow in it's original format, so I doubt a western live studio could do much better. A problem with both series is that they revolve around young teenagers, and with story events like suicide, sexual assault and murder all rolled in, I think we would have unrealistic expectations of a western audience to be able to understand that, not just having a studio green light it.[footnote]I'm not sure if doing a live action GITS would gain very much from the change in format. There's GITS the series and movie, Stand Alone Complex, etc. All Evangelion has are the original OVA, EoE and the new movies (which are awesome imo).[/footnote]

As directors go, as much as I'm sure Michael Bay would love to stick his... fangs... into another giant robot franchise with even more of an excuse for his military fanboyism, I don't think that would be the case with NGE seeing as how it's the Japanese SDF and UN involved, not the star spangled banner. If they managed to get Neill Blomkamp to sign on though... that's a guaranteed opening night for me, and with WETA backing things up...

Spoiler: Nerding out in 3... 2...1

 

[The3rdEye]

I guess in the end I'd rather just see them attempt the NGE movie so I can be done waiting. Dragonball and Avatar aside, it's had it's own case of "development hell" and that alone is enough of a harrowing experience.

As far as an Akira live action goes, I fear that the Harry Partridge parody will prove to be disappointingly accurate.