Gintama

Having watched this in October 18, more than a year after the movie release, I have the fortune of watching Bleach and FMA live actions as well. And this is undoubtedly the best.

I'm a Gintama fan (anime and manga) until the start of the final arc, which was too serious for my taste. But wow, this adaptation is so fantastic I don't know what to say.

Basically, this live adaptation only has an intro, one small comedy arc and the usual Benizura arc (which was already covered in a 2010 anime movie covering only that arc). I never thought the day would come where that arc could be live action and it doesn't disappoint. The production team only covered the most relevant introduction of characters and scenes for character development and left out the excess details.

Greats: Actors, acting, faithful to original source for scenes covered, music, graphics, CG, well basically nearly everything

Cons: The shouting parts might be too loud for cinema-goers (well, though it applies the same to the anime and 2010 movie), and a few details were missing that would build up the characters more (e.g. Katsura's real identity)

Kinda shocked to see a 6+ rating... not sure why it's so low but it is really enjoyable and Gintama-style. To add on, Gintama has better sword arts and CG than Bleach... lol

If you have any concerns with this adaptation, don't worry I originally was concerned too, until I watched the parfait scene at the beginning, then I realized Gintama was in good hands here. The movie is literally just the anime but live action. The characters could be accurately described as their animated counterparts. I think Gintama is the only manga series to be translated into real world this easily because of its fourth wall breaking and anime parodies. Truly an amazing movie.

Lets get this straight, 1. Live action anime adaptations are terrible and 2. foreign films don't score high on western rating sites. Now that is out of the way, The movie totally breaks statement 1 by not doing what most live actions tend to do, which is change the story and are able to summarize their cast by understanding the genre this movie is as well as the audience members that have come to watch. So if youre looking for a decent live action anime adaptation this movie exceeds it.

The Gintama movie could have been better. The story was okay and entertaining and the characters interesting and likable. However, the CGI were very poor and the execution overall was weak, following the anime premisses so closerly, to the point that it was idiotic. Also, some, (not all) costumes looked quite fake. Other than that, the plot was nice, with many action scenes and some solid fights. The performances were good as well. So, five and a half out of ten.

Having neither read the manga nor seen the anime, I rate this purely on the movie itself. Some parts of the movie are fascinating, some parts ridiculous (as I suppose was intended) and it jumps the shark regularly. I didn't find anything it it that made it stand out above other movies. Unless one is really into boogar picking and flicking, this is a mixed-impression flick that isn't serious enough to make a good story, nor is it funny enough to be a good satire film. I didn't find it boring, but neither was I enthralled. As solid a 5-star film as I've seen. Good CGI, and fairly good directing. The music was severely over-the-top and in places over-rode the film itself (which is never forgivable). That about sums it up.