Newest Post
// On :Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Hey guys, kanna here. I love that these are getting more and more frequent, don't you? Unfortunately, this might be the last one I post for a while, as I'm nearing the last few weeks of the spring semester before summer starts. In other words: the workload is getting heavier.
But...the new Yu-Gi-Oh movie, The Dark Side of Dimensions, comes out in Japanese theaters in SEVENTEEN (well...probably eighteen if we're going by Japanese time as I'm writing this) DAYS! And given it's a movie, and what I'm reviewing today is a movie, I figured the only way to wrap up these Yu-Gi-Oh reviews was to review the first movie to get an English dub, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light.
Not much to say here about development, so let's dive right in!
This movie takes place just after the Battle City finals ended; in between seasons 3 and 4. So, unlike Bonds Beyond Time, we do have some idea of where this takes place in terms of continuity...kind of. See, no one is really sure as to whether or not this movie is considered canon, due to the alternate explanation it give of Yugi solving the Millennium Puzzle, and it introducing a new character that was never referenced before the movie was even released.
If you saw this movie in theaters, chances are you received one of four cards in honor of the release. These cards were Blue Eyes Shining Dragon, Watapon, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, and Pyramid of Light. It was a good marketing tactic for those who played the game, or watched the show and wanted to start playing, but for those who didn't, well...I'll get to that later.
Anyway, all of the characters are there, including our favorite protagonists, along with Kaiba, Mokuba, and Pegasus. We also get a movie-exclusive character. And the cards actually look like the cards that we use in real life, complete with descriptions and everything.
This movie is about...Yugi vs. Kaiba.
OK, that's the short version.
The long version is that archaeologists unearthed the tomb of Anubis, the Egyptian lord of the dead, who was sealed away and killed by a brave pharaoh. The archaeologists are amazed by the treasure of Anubis, the Pyramid of Light. However, some spiritual force frees Anubis, kills the archaeologists, and now Anubis is out for revenge.
Cut to present day, and we see that Kaiba is looking for a way to beat Yugi's Egyptian God cards, which are supposed to be unstoppable. Test after test reveals that this is impossible, however, Kaiba, being the obsessed antagonist he is, decides to go the creator of the game, Pegasus. He challenges Pegasus to a duel. Kaiba wagers his three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards against Pegasus giving Kaiba the card to beat the Egyptian Gods. So, the two duel (something we've seen before in season 1), Kaiba wins, and takes the cards.
Just one problem. Pegasus claimed that there was only one card he created that could beat the Egyptian Gods. Kaiba refused to listen, and took both cards anyway. Mokuba quickly got Yugi to come with him, Yugi switches with Yami Yugi and faces Kaiba, and blah, blah, blah. Oh, and there's some stuff about the Egyptian lord of the dead, Anubis, who took his sweet old time coming into the movie. To paraphrase the abridged movie, who does he think he is; Venom?
Anyway, Yugi fights off Anubis, and the good guys win. Kaiba walks away claiming he would have won the duel had it not been for that incident. Yugi thanks his friends for their companionship as Yami Yugi agrees with him.
So...overall rating: 3 out of 10
Why: When I was a kid, I LOVED this movie and watched the show every Saturday. I even looked for reruns of it on TV during the week. I had a deck (which I still have), a duel disk (I think I gave that away), and begged my parents to take me to the local game shop where they sold trading cards every now and then. You could say I was a tad obsessed at the time.
However: I'm much older now, and while the voice acting and everything was great, the animation could have been much better, and...well, here's where I get to the part about what the critics had to say about this movie.
Forgive me for sounding redundant with this next paragraph. This ranked 68 of the "100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s." It was met with an overwhelmingly negative response from critics and ranked a whopping 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. This movie was a box office bomb, right behind Happily N'Ever After. And here's the redundant part: critics said that if you weren't a fan of the game or the show, you wouldn't enjoy the movie.
And again, I have to agree. If you want to know why, read my review of Bonds Beyond Time. And speaking of Bonds Beyond Time, this movie was actually worse than Bonds Beyond Time. Why? Because this movie basically repeated something that could have been done in a couple of episodes. It was Yugi vs. Kaiba, for the umpteenth time, and we've seen plenty of that in the show. I don't think a movie was necessary for this. This literally could have been a filler arc of...I'd say about four or five episodes, easily.
On the bright side, we did get a good soundtrack. And, as we all know, I'm a sucker for a good soundtrack. The soundtrack was pretty good, and one of the more notable things was that the Black Eyed Peas actually contributed to the soundtrack. My personal favorite song off of the soundtrack is "You're Not Me." But all the songs are pretty good.
Once The Dark Side of Dimensions makes its way into the US, or when someone uploads a subbed version online, I'll review that. But given this movie won't be out for a while, we have some time to wait. Hopefully, it will be better than both Pyramid of Light and Bonds Beyond Time.
Until next time! ~k
