Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

I semi-willingly took my 7 year old to this movie as he loves the cards and watches the cartoons on TV. While he was staring and the screen in a comatose stupor - I thought....Why wasn't this stuff on TV when I was a kid.

Then I realized, "oh yeah...We didn't make this level of CRAP back then!" This movie is so boring, unimaginative, contrived, and cumbersome! I know that it is quite popular and undoubtedly will result in $$$$ from parents like me who want to take their kid to a movie they want to see...but HOLY COW!!! This movie has no redeeming qualities. It, albeit unintentionally, condones violence, and is supposed to have some kind of moral message about loyalty and perseverance...an average 7 year old will "get" the overly subtle (or weak) connections. Go rent Fantasia instead.

Scientists estimate that the average human being has around 100,000,000,000 (100 Billion) brain cells (or neurons) and that after the age of 20 we tend to lose them at a rate of around 9,000 neurons per day. There are activities that can enhance that, such as sniffing paint or glue, which can accelerate that loss to about 300,000 a day...remarkable to say the least. In my own research this past week, I have discovered that exposure to the new movie "Yu-Gi-Oh!" makes the paint huffers of the world feel a little better about their eroding brain cells, as I believe I may have lost in the area of about 1.6 billion neurons in the time span of an hour and a half.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a fantasy card game that has taken over our children's lives and depleted our (parents) pocketbooks of hard-earned cash and has given us some of the most confusing conversations we have ever been subjected to. The cards have turned our sons (and some daughters) into poster children for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder without any help in sight. Either my son is OCD or he is a genius, but to follow this game with any type of success, I suspect he would have to be a mixture of both.

This leads me to "Yu-Gi-Oh!" the movie. My 9 year-old son has problems with his handwriting, he has issues with the use of pencils upsetting his tactile senses and his reading could be better, but he can utilize the internet to find the release dates of ANY movie that may, or may not be, in production at any moment. I, on other hand, am lucky if I can remember to shave in the morning. Anyway, he knew months in advance when this movie was coming out and quickly began to pine away the days with a sense of wistful yearning that is usually reserved for Sonic the Hedgehog and Spiderman...I knew at that very moment that my brain cells were at risk.

In the weeks preceding the release of "Yu-Gi-Oh!", I thought of so many ways to get out of seeing this celluloid nightmare. Maybe I would be called away to business in a Third World country...maybe I would be forced to sell soap to the criminally incarcerated...maybe I could pay a babysitter to go to the movie with him. In the end, after debating with my ex and also realizing I was too poor to afford a babysitter, I subjected myself to the experience.

We arrived at the movie theater; my son a portrait of unheralded joy with a hint of trembling angst, and me, saddled with the look of a man who has realized that the Governor is not going to call with a stay of execution...I am resigned to my own fate. As I expected, we got MORE cards upon payment of the tickets, though I did save some money by going to the matinée, so that's a positive. We started to the theater and as providence would have it, the movie actually started early, so we missed the first 3 minutes or so, which probably saved me approximately 300,000 neurons.

I cannot remember that much about the actual movie, but I do remember the "plot" (and I use that term loosely) was just what I thought it would be. It can be broken down into this easy to understand dialogue:

Enemy Guy: "I have this incredible card!"

Yu-Gi: "Oh yeah? Well, I have this incredible card!"

Enemy Guy: "Well, you may think that, but I have this card which combined with this other card makes your card obsolete!"

Yu-Gi: "Ha! You only think that, but I have this face down card that when combined with this magic card and this other spell card combine to create the ultimate monster that you could never dream of stopping!"

This goes on for an hour and a half. I am not kidding. I got you...you got me...I got you again. Finally someone got someone else and a card that was never before seen makes an appearance and changes the dynamics of the film. It was like watching theoretical Dungeons and Dragons geeks if they were to spar on ESPN, only the latter would probably be more entertaining because of the commercials. Speaking of commercials, this is literally an hour and a half infommercial.

Finally its over...its over...its over. I keep having to assure myself that this is indeed the case. In the moments after, I realize that I cannot remember the names of any of my teachers in grade school and that I can no longer pinpoint the exact moment when my hair began to recede. Thankfully, these memories are not as important as others and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" has not taken everything from me. The only thing I can actually remember from the movie is that the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon is not one to be trifle with.

In closing, I would be remiss if I did not quote that great sage Dean Vernon Wormer, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son". After seeing "Yu-Gi-Oh!" I might tend to disagree.

This is a movie for KIDS. Adults aren't supposed to be mesmerized by a spectacular plot and stirring dialogue. It is an hour and a half of excrutiating hell for parents and absolute nirvana for kids who love the card game and the TV show. It is a way to get more kids into the card game and, thus, make more money.

Just remember, adults bring a pillow for a much needed nap (or at least a cell phone with games on it!) and don't buy the kids popcorn and drinks. Mine was too fascinated by the movie to remember to eat the candy (which went straight to my butt) or drink the lemonade (which was thrown out).

Truth be told, I'm a big fan of Yugioh. I play the card game, the video games, and watch the anime all the time. So as a hard-core fan, even I have to say, this movie sucked. Big time.

Truth be told,the plot sounds good, and the movie had potential. Anubis, an evil sorcerer, awakens from a 5000 year old sleep and, like most villains, goes to destroy the world. And guess what? He's got the 8th Millennium Item, the Pyramid of Light (picture a blue version of the Millennium Puzzle) to help him do it. To defeat him, Yugi and the gang have to travel into the Millennium Puzzle to defeat him, and battle all sorts of mummies along the way. Now, had the movie focused on the gang's battle against Anubis, then it would have been watchable.

Then, the monkey wench came in the form of 2 words; Seto Kaiba. Maximillion Pegasus appears, but he ain't the villain. And even the evil sorcerer Anubis can't be the big bad, he only appears for about 10 seconds (egxagerating here). Nope, it's Kaiba and his obsession to beat Yugi (this guy needs a hobby!) that drives the movie, start to finish.

Anyone who has watched the anime knows how annoying Kaiba can be. You'd think that, if the guy runs a multi-national corporation, he'd have a brain. But even Kaiba can't figure out something's wrong when Anubis whispers in his ear, and the monster attacks physically hurt the duelist. Guess he doesn't have a brain! The movie simply combines 2 good elements that mix to form nothing: A card game and an undead evil. Picture the cast of The Mummy playing poker, and you'll get an idea of how bad the movie was. It was basically a 90 minute episode of Yugioh. It contributes nothing to the anime, and actually creates a huge plot hole (the opening sequence mentions Yugi has been dueling for 3 years, meaning that seasons 3 and 4 in the anime take place at least 2 years apart). And the Pyramid of Light is never mentioned ever again, nor is Anubis, and all cards seen in the film are never seen again either. If I, as a fan didn't like this movie, how enjoyable do you think it would be for a non-fan? Save yourself an hour an a half, and skip seeing this.

I probably spent 5 minutes debating how many stars I should give this. =/ I have mixed emotions on this movie. The villain was horrible. And not horrible in a villainy sense. He was just plain sucktastic, and the whole basic idea behind this movie deviates from the original plot so much it isn't even funny. Yes, even in the Japanese version (though things do tend to make a little bit more sense in that one, and I would recommend finding a sub of it if you possibly can).

However, most people reading this will be viewing the English version, so I'll just stick to that. =3

The soundtrack was horrible, as is the soundtrack to the dubbed anime in general. The animation could have been better, due to the fact that they had waaay more than just one week to work on it, unlike the TV series episodes. But it wasn't the worst animation I've seen. It did look a bit pointier than usual, though. But the art is kind of pointy in general.

Now... I still recommend this for anybody who is a fan of the series. It's so horrible, it's great to mock and laugh at. But it also has some highly amusing quotes and character interactions. And some of the new monsters are pretty spiffy as well. It's so stupid it's hilarious, and the sheer hilarity of it is doubled for any fan who sees it.

Heck, I think I was rolling even in the first scene. XD

(Though, there was no excuse for them leaving out Bakura yet AGAIN. Poor kid never gets any screen time.)