Review of Ace Attorney (2012) by Brandon W — 18 Jul 2016

Ace Attorney is directed by Takashi Miike, and the film is based on the Capcom game called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney that is about a rookie defense named Phoenix Wright (Hiroki Narimiya) that has to deal with three cases, all involved with murder, and it's up to him to see the truth to know whether the suspect is guilty or not.

I haven't played any of the Ace Attorney games, but I have seen videos of it before that I'm a bit familiar with the characters, the story, and the style of gameplay. So when I saw the trailer for it, I'm looking forward to it despite being skeptical of the fact that it's a video game adaptation film.

The only problem however, is that the DVD copies of Ace Attorney are not in North America, and it's been out for 4 years in Japan. Luckily I've managed to find one on YouTube, even if it's not in the best condition, and I can say that not only is it one of the most faithful video game adaptations I've seen since Silent Hill probably, but it's the best I've seen so far.

The acting is pretty good, which I know some people might have a problem with it being over the top, but it worked for the film's humor. The characters in this, actually look like the characters from the video game, and the plot is mostly like it too, which I didn't think was possible.

The way that it shows the evidence to the crowd was very clever, and it brings out some great visual effects. The humor in it is pretty funny, but then there were weird moments that were a bit too silly for me to handle.

There were some characters that are developed fine like Phoenix Wright, Larry Butz, Miles Edgeworth, and some others, but there are other characters that really could've been worked in and not be bland in this film.

It is a bit overlong, but those are the only problems that I have with it as I have a great time watching Ace Attorney, and I hope that we can finally find the definitive video game adaptation film in the US that is just as faithful to the source material as Ace Attorney is.