Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie (2004) Reviews

• Over an hour and half long commercial

  petragreen2017-10-29

  One of the worst TV series based movies ever seen. Like the TV series it is a big cash cow commercial lasting over hour and half to sell a trading card game and sell out of cinema tickets because of a free exclusive trading card being handed out to everyone that purchased a ticket. The movie opens up with a narrative so the poor parents that took their kids to watch this movie could understand what is going on but it wouldn't change the fact that parents are guaranteed to be bored watching this. The movie takes place after season 3. The plot is just the same as the TV show predictable and obvious. The movie is mainly focused on kaiba's bitter rivalry with yugi because of not being able to handle being a sore loser after losing to a card game lasting 6 episodes from the previous season. The villain shows up at the last 10 minutes of the movie. The English dub is butchered with cheesy dialogue, the animation lacks in quality compared to the TV show and the movie itself is boring. I recommend skipping this movie and go straight to watching season 4 and watch the abridged movie.

• This movie should have a Surgeon General's warning!

  uzzman2004-08-28

  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.

• A Waste of Time

  Drake_Clawfang2005-12-31

  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.

• Just an extended episode of the anime

  nightlight19912013-11-02

  Yu gi oh was an anime I watched from time to time but I was never really that big of a fan. I was actually expecting the movie to be decent at the very least but, boy, was I wrong. In the movie, Kaiba defeats Peagsus in a duel and wins two new cards to help him defeat Yugi's god cards, one of them being the pyramid of light which prevents Yugi from summoning the god cards and Yugi, Joey and Tristans souls are sucked inside Yugi's Egyptian god puzzle. While Kaiba and the Pharoah are in the pyramid of light, any life points they lose will affect their physical life force. One problem with this movie is that It is the usual "Kaibi wants to defeat Yugi" plot that has been seen plenty of times in the show. It would have been a lot more interesting if they went in a similar direction to the Pokemon movies where team rocket are not the main villains but still somewhat relevant to the plot. Because of this direction, the outcome is pretty predictable. I normally prefer dubs over subs but the dialogue in this movie is pretty cringe-worthy. In one scene inside the Egyptian god puzzle, Joey says "I believe we're not in Kansas anymore" which just felt forced and unnecessary. The biggest problem with the movie is the main villain, Anibus who doesn't appear until near the end of the movie and by this point, you just know that the pharaoh is going to make quick work of him. If you are a hardcore fan of the anime, you may enjoy this movie but otherwise I do not recommend it.

• Pokemon meets The Mummy meets a rules booklet

  Krog__2004-08-20

  For five thousand years, it was not meant to be awakened. For five thousand years, it was not meant to be awakened. For five thousand years... I must've heard that phrase (or whatever the hell else they said) three times in the first ten minutes. Which is really, really stupid. Okay, so basically the plot is something about the card game, which is all the movie really is about. They spend a whole bunch of time explaining the cards that are played ("I'm playing Deck Virus or whatever! This means that you lose ten cards and it gets really annoying when I keep explaining everything! By the way, your shoe's untied! Ha ha ha! It wasn't! That's the joke, right? I told you your shoe was untied and it wasn't! I'm so witty! Why do I keep doing speed balls?"), which gets VERY daunting. The movie sucked, seriously, although I'm sure Roger Ebert just had a blast. Anyway, this is probably the worst movie I've ever seen; at the very least, it's the worst I've seen in a while. Right up there with Mystic River and The Dark Avenger. See it if you want to understand the way suicidal people's minds work. Otherwise, go see ANYTHING else. Unless, of course, you enjoy being bombarded by senseless images and explanations of a card game.