Berserk - Das goldene Zeitalter

After several months of anticipation I just got to watch Berserk - The Golden Age Arc Chapter I - The Egg of the King, and as a fan of both the Manga Comic and the animated TV series, I was not the least disappointed. This movie kicks ass! I was perhaps most amazed of the battles, which come off as extremely vivid and original.

Many will compare this movie to the animated series, and yes, some things have changed, as this format is much more time-limited. The exclusion of some scenes and moments to the benefit of other, might make the movie feel as a summary of the series. The much loved musical themes of the series have also been changed, something I expected, yet hoped would stay the same as I really liked them. On the other hand, we get to see Guts and Griffith swinging their swords in a much more vivid graphical universe, which I think the story deserves!

As the above mentioned mainly comes down to a matter of taste, the main problem with this movie is that it doesn't focus as much on character development as the original comic and animated series did. This will create some moments which new viewers couldn't possibly make full sense of. However, for any passionate Berserk-fan, this should not be a deal-breaker, as it is still a great movie, true to the original story.

If anything, the story of Berserk needs to be expanded upon, not shortened. Basically, they are taking a 10-hour long show, improving the visuals, and reducing to the story to 3-4 hours. I'm curious who thought this would be a good idea. Many pivotal moments that occurred during the series were completely glossed over in this movie, and in many cases, left out entirely. What was great about the show was the emphasis on the story and character development. How can you develop the characters when you're cramming everything into such a short amount of time? Sure, the re-imagined action sequences and animation are great to look at, but that was only ever a small part of what made the series so good. Berserk being my favorite (if not, second favorite) anime of all time, this was doomed to fail for me. This first part is entertaining, sure, but doesn't do justice to the original series. It's just not possible.

That being said, it might be a decent watch if you're a first time viewer of Berserk, but for true fans of the show, I don't see how this could be acceptable. They should have just redone the entire series and gave it a proper ending. Or, continued the show from where the original left off. I'm certain either of these options would please fans more, rather than giving them cheapened, hyped-up movies. I'll watch the rest of the movies just to see how they turn out, but I suspect I'll be disappointed with the rest. I can only give the first part a biased 5 out of 10.

The first in a trilogy of movies which follow the Golden age arc which is probably the most famous and well loved Berserk story. It's the origin of Guts, a hard as nails swordsman who joins a group of mercenaries called The band of the hawk and his relationship with it's charismatic leader Griffith. It all takes place in a semi-realistic medieval setting but it progresses to include supernatural and full on horror elements.

The movie isn't very long at 77 minutes so if you've seen the 1997 anime series which is based on the same arc then it might be a bit jarring at how quickly the story plays out and how it skips over important moments.

Just think of it as a streamlined version of the arc. The characters aren't as deep as they are in the series but it works fine for a what it is and the plot is easy to follow for non fans. Voice actors from 97 also return to play Guts, Griffith and Casca.

The animation is impressive with some beautiful backgrounds and the characters look crisp and vibrant, it blends 2D and 3D animation pretty much seamlessly. The large combat scenes are fast, fluid and more violent than the series with dismemberment, beheadings and eyeballs popping out. It's not for the faint of heart but if you like this style then it's pretty awesome. The animation in the original series is fine but hasn't aged all that well so it was a real treat to see such high quality work here.

I would say watch the 1997 series first because you will have a greater understanding of the lore and characters but this is still top notch action anime set in a dark fantasy world.

Berserk is eye candy great animation, they have done well with the backgrounds and scenery's, matching emotions with color and light and detailed action bravo to the sword fights, all in all it is a superb movie, character with masochism, best suited for male viewers who likes gore and well feel macho...whatever, anyway the story is good too has a mystery element to it the flow is great, it keeps you involved, in the situation, keeps guessing and keeps the viewers in the dark. sex and violence a lot of it violence that is and it has 18+ on it, that is the whole 3 movies altogether. There are some scene that does look a bit similar to some other movie situations, namely LOTR but it's not that distracting or even significant at this point, i really enjoyed it, i think any one who enjoyed, LOTR, final fantasy, medieval action movies, should watch it, sex and violence with a meaning well who could say no to that. enjoy the movie!

This movie is Short, whereas the runtime may be about 78 minutes but with credits and an opening "anime"-style intro, it's only approximately 70 minutes long. It's short, which Can work in certain films, the Main issue is that certain scenes that were Crucial in the overall Arc were rushed, badly. Especially one scene with Zod where this took up about 15 minutes in the 1997 series, a 10/10 series by the way, but the Movie made it seem less important than it was. Also, the lines are Very straight-forward, as in telling the audience exactly what happened with no room for interpretation. The Best way I've heard this described is "leaving no room for interpretation and just telling the audience what happened means bad writing," and there is a Lot of that within this film, compared to the series which is just superb. That being said, it is still a Great watch, especially if you like animation and anime-type cinema, and the story it goes on to tell is top notch... at least the 3 movie series and the 1997 anime which I recommend in English dub over the films; at least a first-watch. If the film was to be a 10/10, it would need to have edited the writing to make it more eloquent, extended the film to about 100 cinematic minutes Minimum, and certain Critical scenes needed to have been rewritten to be more obviously important rather than just line-dropping without time to absorb what was conveyed. Another great thing is many of the Original English Voice Actors Returned for this film series from the 1997 series! This is just amazing, as it was 15+ years and they came back. This is just Professionalism at its' finest.