Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

I semi-willingly took my 7 year old to this movie as he loves the cards and watches the cartoons on TV. While he was staring and the screen in a comatose stupor - I thought....Why wasn't this stuff on TV when I was a kid.

Then I realized, "oh yeah...We didn't make this level of CRAP back then!" This movie is so boring, unimaginative, contrived, and cumbersome! I know that it is quite popular and undoubtedly will result in $$$$ from parents like me who want to take their kid to a movie they want to see...but HOLY COW!!! This movie has no redeeming qualities. It, albeit unintentionally, condones violence, and is supposed to have some kind of moral message about loyalty and perseverance...an average 7 year old will "get" the overly subtle (or weak) connections. Go rent Fantasia instead.

Taking two cards after being told there was supposed to be only one was stupid. The game part left me confused, maybe it's because I don't know the rules of the game.

Truth be told, I'm a big fan of Yugioh. I play the card game, the video games, and watch the anime all the time. So as a hard-core fan, even I have to say, this movie sucked. Big time.

Truth be told,the plot sounds good, and the movie had potential. Anubis, an evil sorcerer, awakens from a 5000 year old sleep and, like most villains, goes to destroy the world. And guess what? He's got the 8th Millennium Item, the Pyramid of Light (picture a blue version of the Millennium Puzzle) to help him do it. To defeat him, Yugi and the gang have to travel into the Millennium Puzzle to defeat him, and battle all sorts of mummies along the way. Now, had the movie focused on the gang's battle against Anubis, then it would have been watchable.

Then, the monkey wench came in the form of 2 words; Seto Kaiba. Maximillion Pegasus appears, but he ain't the villain. And even the evil sorcerer Anubis can't be the big bad, he only appears for about 10 seconds (egxagerating here). Nope, it's Kaiba and his obsession to beat Yugi (this guy needs a hobby!) that drives the movie, start to finish.

Anyone who has watched the anime knows how annoying Kaiba can be. You'd think that, if the guy runs a multi-national corporation, he'd have a brain. But even Kaiba can't figure out something's wrong when Anubis whispers in his ear, and the monster attacks physically hurt the duelist. Guess he doesn't have a brain! The movie simply combines 2 good elements that mix to form nothing: A card game and an undead evil. Picture the cast of The Mummy playing poker, and you'll get an idea of how bad the movie was. It was basically a 90 minute episode of Yugioh. It contributes nothing to the anime, and actually creates a huge plot hole (the opening sequence mentions Yugi has been dueling for 3 years, meaning that seasons 3 and 4 in the anime take place at least 2 years apart). And the Pyramid of Light is never mentioned ever again, nor is Anubis, and all cards seen in the film are never seen again either. If I, as a fan didn't like this movie, how enjoyable do you think it would be for a non-fan? Save yourself an hour an a half, and skip seeing this.

I probably spent 5 minutes debating how many stars I should give this. =/ I have mixed emotions on this movie. The villain was horrible. And not horrible in a villainy sense. He was just plain sucktastic, and the whole basic idea behind this movie deviates from the original plot so much it isn't even funny. Yes, even in the Japanese version (though things do tend to make a little bit more sense in that one, and I would recommend finding a sub of it if you possibly can).

However, most people reading this will be viewing the English version, so I'll just stick to that. =3

The soundtrack was horrible, as is the soundtrack to the dubbed anime in general. The animation could have been better, due to the fact that they had waaay more than just one week to work on it, unlike the TV series episodes. But it wasn't the worst animation I've seen. It did look a bit pointier than usual, though. But the art is kind of pointy in general.

Now... I still recommend this for anybody who is a fan of the series. It's so horrible, it's great to mock and laugh at. But it also has some highly amusing quotes and character interactions. And some of the new monsters are pretty spiffy as well. It's so stupid it's hilarious, and the sheer hilarity of it is doubled for any fan who sees it.

Heck, I think I was rolling even in the first scene. XD

(Though, there was no excuse for them leaving out Bakura yet AGAIN. Poor kid never gets any screen time.)

I remember seeing this for my friend's 13th birthday party. We were all huge yigioh fans and seeing yugioh on the silver screen was a dream come true, until we actually watched it. We went in the movie theater and we each got special yugioh cards. my friends got cool monster cards like blue eyes shining dragon or dark sorcerer. I got a pathetic trap card that I would never use. The movie didn't even start, and I was disappointed. For the movie, it was average. Some good parts, some bad parts and a lot of cheesy one liners. It's not bad as the people that give it a 1 say. Trust me, his is not a 1 star movie. Baby Geniuses was a 1 star movie. However the people that give this a 7 or 8 are also wrong. It assent as well written as the show and they did it include fan favorites like bandit keith or Mai valentine. Overall, it isn't bad, but it is not great.