PixlBit

No objections here, except for the fact that there's no English subtitles

I'm a huge fan of the Phoenix Wright games; I've played them all, including Apollo Justice and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (the sad part is that we didn't get Ace Attorney Investigations 2 or Phoenix Wright 5). PW games are all about getting justice. The games involve Wright, of course, who is a defense lawyer, along with a sidekick (it's different every time) and a whole cast of characters full of personality and life. The first PW game was released in Japan in 2001 for GBA, later ported to North America in 2005 for the DS, and was developed by Capcom. The best part of PW games are the stories; unlike many games that depend heavily on story, PW always has incredible stories. If you enjoy murder mysteries, you will love PW games. 

As such, PW works very well for a movie, as any movie needs a good story. Several weeks ago I reviewed six video game movies, many of which had terrible plots, or the plot had nothing to do with the games. The PW movie takes its plot directly from the first game, specifically the fourth episode in the game (which is the best one!). Good plot? No problem. The PW movie probably has the best VG movie plot yet. 

The movie was directed by Takashi Miike, who is apparently a pretty famous Japanese movie director. The movie stars. . . a bunch of Japanese people that you don't care about. The movie was released in Japan in early 2012. I must admit, I'm glad this movie was made in Japan; correct me if you think I'm wrong, but if this movie was made in America, it would probably be horrendous. PW is more popular in Japan, and also, the team behind the games is Japanese. My greatest beef with the movie was that there were no English subtitles; don't they realize that there's a PW fanbase in North America? So I watched the movie, wondering what was going on at times, but still understanding the overall plot since I've played the game. 

     I felt that Gumshoe was far too serious and not bumbling enough, but still solid

When I first saw the trailer, I remember thinking that everyone looked the same. But watching the movie, I realized that each character was distinct. They did a great job with the costumes; Wright has the spiky hair, Larry Butz wears his jacket and ridiculous hairdo, Gumshoe has his green trenchcoat, the Judge has a huge gray beard, Edgeworth has his gentlemanly regalia, everyone looked just right. 

At the beginning of the movie, Wright's mentor, Mia, is murdrered. Wright goes to trial in order to defend her younger sister, Maya, who was at the scene of the crime. Wright and Edgeworth are bantering back and forth, and lo and behold, Edgeworth snaps his fingers and the roof of the courtroom transforms into a giant machine with several arms! The arms come down and produce holographic screens so everyone can see evidence or pictures. This was surprising since there was nothing like that in the game. While the movie adheres to the story of the game, they still take some liberties here and there, such as in the very opening scene, where some kind of psychic is shot. I have no clue what was going on there. 

There are glimpses of the first three cases from the game, then they get right into the main plot, taken from the fourth case. Edgeworth is placed on trial after attorney Robert Hammond is murdered and Edgeworth is seen with a gun in his hand. Things take an unexpected turn when Wright unravels a 15 year old mystery known as the DL6 case, which involved Edgeworth's father, and also his mentor, Manfred von Karma. This is no doubt sounding familiar to you if you've played the game. I'm not going to give away what happens in the end; suffice to say IT'S AMAZING, and you must play this game (it's available for DS, WiiWare, Windows, mobile phones, and iOS, so you've got no excuse). 

The actors did a great job. Never does the movie feel cheesy, even in its silly moments. The overall tone is very serious. The acting, story, and drama are all done very professionally. The movie even has some special effects, such as when Mia is connecting with the spirit world. The music is also great, many times playing themes from the first game, yet always staying in the background, keeping the attention on the characters and drama in the courtroom. I was really impressed by the giant Steel Samurai balloon, which looked exactly as he did in the game. Bravo! In fact, all the characters look exactly as they did in the game. The Blue Badger is even in the movie! The movie is a bit long, clocking in at 2 hours 15 minutes, and since I couldn't understand Japanese, I nearly fell asleep during times when characters were only talking. However, the movie is full of interesting flashbacks and things like that to keep you interested. Still, subtitles would have been nice. 

                                                Von Karma was fantastic

So where does this movie land? Is it good, bad, or amazing? Well, I can't give you an honest review since I couldn't understand what they were saying, and plot is huge with this movie. However, I can tell that they followed the story from the game right up to the end, taking some liberties I'm sure, but still, the plot is solid. So I would say this movie is between "good" and "amazing." I would say closer to amazing. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised the movie, calling it "the best video game movie ever." Once again, it was professionally done, top-notch, high quality all the way. Hopefully sometime I'll be able to watch is again with subtitles. You can watch the full movie for yourself right here. And check out the game if you're interested, it's amazing, believe me.