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Ace Attorney
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Ace Attorney
Comedy / Japanese / 2012
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Having played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, I've been wanting to see this doomed-to-fail movie since I heard about it.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*Given my familiarity with the source material, I'm going to review this in two parts as I believe all adaptions should be reviewed. Firstly as an adaption, and secondly, but most importantly, as a standalone movie.
AS AN ADAPTION:
I'd say Ace Attorney is [Pretty Good]. At least it's about as good as almost any given live-action adaption could conceivably be.
All of the characters are instantly recognizable, the plot is ripped directly from the original game, abridging the first, second, and fourth cases to present a singular super-case and it all flows pretty much just like the game with the only significant deviation being the crazy far-future technology that appears in the courtroom to logically substitute the presentation of evidence that was simply abstracted out into a user interface in the game.
A couple characters are obviously missing as a result, but all the key ones are here and they all play the part with my only gripe being Miles Edgeworth, who was honestly really disappointing. Edgeworth in the games is initially presented as an uppity smarmy sarcastic buttmongler who acts as Phoenix's foil and rival, but after a while you begin to see chinks in the armor and he becomes quite likable as a reluctant ally in difficult cases.
Here though, Miles is just beyond emotionless and there's nothing pretentious about him besides his hideous outfit. No drawl, no smirk, no shrug, no dice. That sucks, dude, Edgeworth was my favorite character.
Final Verdict: [Meh...]
AS AN ADAPTION:
I'd say Ace Attorney is [Pretty Good]. At least it's about as good as almost any given live-action adaption could conceivably be.
All of the characters are instantly recognizable, the plot is ripped directly from the original game, abridging the first, second, and fourth cases to present a singular super-case and it all flows pretty much just like the game with the only significant deviation being the crazy far-future technology that appears in the courtroom to logically substitute the presentation of evidence that was simply abstracted out into a user interface in the game.
A couple characters are obviously missing as a result, but all the key ones are here and they all play the part with my only gripe being Miles Edgeworth, who was honestly really disappointing. Edgeworth in the games is initially presented as an uppity smarmy sarcastic buttmongler who acts as Phoenix's foil and rival, but after a while you begin to see chinks in the armor and he becomes quite likable as a reluctant ally in difficult cases.
Here though, Miles is just beyond emotionless and there's nothing pretentious about him besides his hideous outfit. No drawl, no smirk, no shrug, no dice. That sucks, dude, Edgeworth was my favorite character.
Another issue I have is just the choice to go with a live-action adaption. So much of the charm and humor of the games came through it's presentation, much in the same way that gags in manga don't always translate well to anime (it's why Kiyohiko Azuma refuses to license Yotsuba&!), a lot of the humor in Phoenix Wright is dependent on the cartoonish medium it's rooted in. Seeing live actors perform a Face Fault is wicked jarring and once again, seeing this movie run over 2 hours, I have to wonder why they didn't just do an all out comedy? Everyone has anime hair and absurd outfits and they take it SO ******* SERIOUSLY, jeez guys, I know the games were supposed to be moody, but if that's the tone you were shooting for, you missed it.
It probably doesn't help that you left out a lot of the instantly classic tunes by favoring dead silence so much of the time!
AS A STANDALONE MOVIE:
If you're like me then you probably enjoyed the games, but felt that the concept would probably be best served as a movie, or anime, or manga (basically I'm saying the game sucks).
Well, I hate to rain on your parade because if you're like me then you also didn't appreciate the nonsensical spirit medium sideplot and the ridiculous leaps in logic. It's the same deal here.
Maya's character in the games ALWAYS came across as a disgustingly weak excuse to shove a young tsundere love interest in there. The whole spirit possession angle at best served to justify a barely used hint-system game mechanic.
Here, there's no excuse, and Maya isn't even developed to the point of even qualifying for the low low status of Stock Tsundere. All we know is she's set up to have legit spiritual possession powers that barely impact the plot at all. Could this clash ANY harder with the caricatured courtroom drama?
The stupid leaps of logic are also on full display here, so to clue you in, here's just one example:
+ Two shots were fired from the gun.
+ But only one bullet was found at the scene of the crime.
+ Therefor the second bullet must have hit none of the three people there and instead struck the imaginary fourth person we have no substantiating evidence of ever existing who for some reason must be THE PROSECUTOR! *SHOCK GASP ********!*
Yeah, that's a nice twist there. You know it's gonna be a real surprise when no one IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD COME UP WITH IT.
Honestly, there are moments of Ace Attorney genuinely finding it's groove, but it's shrugged off so easily with how seriously it takes itself and how scarcely it just cuts loose and does something absurd, like having a parakeet testify in court (which I lay as a strike against the movie by the way).
There was one moment where I actually burst out laughing by an intentional sight gag, and... wow... that has got to be one of the biggest WTF moments I've had in a long time.
All told, it's far from the best adaption of the Phoenix Wright series I've seen. THAT would be THE FAN-MADE 9-HOUR MY LITTLE PONY CROSSOVER (yes, that exists, and I strongly recommend it, even if you don't like My Little Pony).
However, I did discover that a brand new Phoenix Wright anime series just started. LIKE... TODAY.
I totally didn't plan that, I just now noticed that this was a thing. Count me in!
The moment when a silly video game movie about courtroom trials
transitions into FULL-ON NIGHTMARE FUEL.
It probably doesn't help that you left out a lot of the instantly classic tunes by favoring dead silence so much of the time!
AS A STANDALONE MOVIE:
If you're like me then you probably enjoyed the games, but felt that the concept would probably be best served as a movie, or anime, or manga (basically I'm saying the game sucks).
Well, I hate to rain on your parade because if you're like me then you also didn't appreciate the nonsensical spirit medium sideplot and the ridiculous leaps in logic. It's the same deal here.
Maya's character in the games ALWAYS came across as a disgustingly weak excuse to shove a young tsundere love interest in there. The whole spirit possession angle at best served to justify a barely used hint-system game mechanic.
Here, there's no excuse, and Maya isn't even developed to the point of even qualifying for the low low status of Stock Tsundere. All we know is she's set up to have legit spiritual possession powers that barely impact the plot at all. Could this clash ANY harder with the caricatured courtroom drama?
The stupid leaps of logic are also on full display here, so to clue you in, here's just one example:
+ Two shots were fired from the gun.
+ But only one bullet was found at the scene of the crime.
+ Therefor the second bullet must have hit none of the three people there and instead struck the imaginary fourth person we have no substantiating evidence of ever existing who for some reason must be THE PROSECUTOR! *SHOCK GASP ********!*
Yeah, that's a nice twist there. You know it's gonna be a real surprise when no one IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD COME UP WITH IT.
Honestly, there are moments of Ace Attorney genuinely finding it's groove, but it's shrugged off so easily with how seriously it takes itself and how scarcely it just cuts loose and does something absurd, like having a parakeet testify in court (which I lay as a strike against the movie by the way).
There was one moment where I actually burst out laughing by an intentional sight gag, and... wow... that has got to be one of the biggest WTF moments I've had in a long time.
All told, it's far from the best adaption of the Phoenix Wright series I've seen. THAT would be THE FAN-MADE 9-HOUR MY LITTLE PONY CROSSOVER (yes, that exists, and I strongly recommend it, even if you don't like My Little Pony).
However, I did discover that a brand new Phoenix Wright anime series just started. LIKE... TODAY.
I totally didn't plan that, I just now noticed that this was a thing. Count me in!
The moment when a silly video game movie about courtroom trials
transitions into FULL-ON NIGHTMARE FUEL.