Directed by: Satoshi Kuwabara
Written by: Satoshi Kuwabara, Masahiro Hikokubo
Starring: Dan Green, Eric Stuart, Daniel J. Edwards
IMDb Link
I was a such a huge fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series when I was a child (read: right now), so be warned, anything I say may be laced with nostalgia. Please don't judge me too harshly for actually going to see this movie.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
After so many years and so many other series, Yu-Gi-Oh! decided to take a trip down Memory Lane and revisit the characters from the original series. Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, Tristan, Tea, they're all back for a last adventure, one that isn't a non-canon mess like The Pyramid of Light, nor a complete fanservice similar to Bonds Beyond Time; The Dark Side of Dimensions falls somewhere in between.
The film offers a plot that's over-complicated, even for Yu-Gi-Oh!. We have Kaiba obsessing over the Pharoah Atem, who has now passed on after losing in a fated Duel to Yugi. Kaiba carries the weight of the fact that he never defeated the Pharoah, and has gone so far as to create new Virtual Reality technology that he hopes will eventually allow him to travel between dimensions. There's also a new villain in Deeva, a student of Shadi (a character who died in the show), who's here now with a vengeance, using an energy called "Plana" (I believe) to try and reforge the universe. There's also some more elements involving Kaiba attempting to re-assemble to Millennium Puzzle to revive Atem, and the re-discovery of the evil Millennium Ring. There's so much unnecessary plot detail, and it weighs the movie down, bringing the running time to over two hours, which feels doubly slow because it takes an hour and a half of that just to get to what the fans want to see: Yugi and Kaiba Dueling. Before this point, there's an incredible number of flashbacks and reinforcement of Deeva's motivations. Some movies never try to clarify a villain's motivations; this film seems adamant on making sure that you know.
Even with an average-at-best plot, films like this get away with offering fan service. Any Yu-Gi-Oh! fan's heart is going to skip a beat if they hear Yugi or Atem say "It's Time to Duel!" (I know mine did, just a little bit), and no-one can complain if old favourites like the Dark Magician and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon show up. The filmmakers were more than aware of this; even though the Duel everyone came to see doesn't happen until the last half an hour, there's still plenty of moments where we see these classic monsters in action, including a scene where Kaiba imagines and then simulates his Duel with Atem. With that in mind, the writers seem to be in love with Kaiba; they wrote several moments where his psychotic obsession makes him look like a smug badass, including a scene where his technology is so powerful it overpowers universe-forging magic, and another where his will to win is so great he literally pulls the card he needs in order to win from the ground beneath him.
There's little more to draw from this movie; there's a moral of "fear leads to hate", but that been used a dozen times already, most notably by Star Wars (in fact, there's moment in the film where a character almost word-for-word quotes Yoda). The animation is fantastic compared to the original show, so it's great that these iconic characters and monsters get a visual update, but other than that, there's little the film can offer to a wider audience.
The Verdict: As a fan, I was satisfied just to see the original cast of characters and their iconic monsters on the big screen. However, as the film's plot is so convoluted and ties so deeply with the series, this film will only please people who were or still are fans.
Rating: I don't think I should rate this, my personal bias likely softens the weak points of the movie when compared to the perspective of a general audience. However, if I have to put a number to it, I'd place it somewhere in the middle of the ratings I gave for the other two Yu-Gi-Oh! movies I've seen, making it a 4/10.
Published Januray 27th, 2017
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