Review of Ace Attorney (2012) by Cam D — 11 Jul 2013

A review from an avid Ace Attorney fan. *note: I watched the original Japanese version with translated subtitles* To start off, this film is based on the original GBA version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and doesn't feature the popular "Rise from the Ashes" episode introduced in the DS re-release (in fact, the movie mostly only focuses on the second and forth episodes of the first game; the first and third episodes are made into footnotes and happen at the same time).

Some of the problems I see in this movie is that some of the actors don't look at all like the characters they're playing (Shunsuke Daito as Dick Gumshoe being the worst), some aspects about the cases primarily featured are altered for no reason, some of the characters have had their personalities somewhat altered and they are nowhere near as endearing as their game counterparts, there are several awkward moments that come up and is a bit too much on the serious side.

However, watching this film one can feel a true passion from the director that he wanted to create a live-action video game film that is (for the most part) true to the games, it is enjoyable to see some of the actors that do resemble and act like their game counterparts in the film, the soundtrack is very good and the rearrangements of the music from the games are done well, some of the comedic moments did get a laugh out of me and as a fan of the series, I did enjoy the plentiful references.

Overall, this is an okay movie; not the best film based on a video game but still a fairly enjoyable film that will simultaneously please and annoy fans.