not as good as all the hype

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Well, I am so glad to say that I have changed my mind about the best live-action video game movie as this certainly qualifies! It helps that it came from Japan, which is where the world's most popular video games come from. It's just great to see all of these characters looking just like their video game counterparts. At the same time, that can be kind of a flaw. I mean, a lot of them do look pretty goofy. It's just hard to translate animation of any kind to live-action. It's a little hard to take seriously. I know a lot about the "Phoenix Wright" games, but only because of all the Newgrounds parodies! Then again, the parodies themselves told very little about the actual games, so I guess I still couldn't understand it. At least I got to see a good representation of it. This happens to be the longest movie ever made based on a video game and I think the pacing was quite good. Yeah, it probably could have been a little shorter, but still good. The story and twists are very nice. The film is mostly just well trials, which I what I expected. There are so many awful live-action video game movies, it's great to see the best one ever made. It's a saving grace for Video Game Month! ***

'Ace attorney' is a courtroom drama about crime solving theme based on a popular video game called 'Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'. The trademark of this story either movie or video game is that main character Phoenix Wright shows his index finger like a style Ambedkar statue saying 'objection'.Its hard someone to understand who are not familiar with Japanese movies or culture. If you are then this movie will be so fun which is directed by one of popular Jap director Takashi Miike, the '13 assassins' fame. Not so long ago I watched an another courtroom comedy called 'A ghost of a chance' which these both are kinda totally enjoyable. If you like any one of these you will like another too.This is a story of a not-so-popular attorney Phoenix Wright who starts to claim best period of his professional when he bags back to back cases to his hand with successful results. The structure of movie plot was brilliant especially solving crime puzzle which opens new sub-plots instantly towards the last quarter of the movie. The story happens in the courtroom is like a wrestling match between two without physical contacts, if someone wins they qualify for the next round. Like I said it is a comedy genre so there's no seriousness in movie characters. I did not get a couple of jokes which I believe are pure Japanese which we won't get in translation. The movie was good to have once especially if you like Takashi Miike movies.

First of all, I'm a huge fan of the series Phoenix Wright. It's really an awesome game and has some unique qualities that in my opinion were totally destroyed in this movie. I don't think the movie HAS to be exactly like the game, but what happened here is that the movie is just awful by itself. If you played the games you will think the movie is terrible, and if you have never played it you will have a generic movie with many plot holes.Speaking about the plot, it has so many problems that it's hard to decide where to begin from (and without spoilers). Let's just say that the game is very famous because of the plot, especially on the trials, they are awesome. What happens in the movie is that the trials are just lame (and the monitor effects are bullshit that don't add anything). In the first case the attorney will prove that the witness was in the scene of the crime (therefore, he MAY know more than he is telling, or maybe be the killer itself), and then the judge will give a non guilty verdict to the defendant. Hell, it doesn't make sense! It just give an amazing jump to conclude something that he could not (at least yet). And the key case has problems like this one (I will not pinpoint them, just to avoid major spoilers, but the trial scenes will be as terrible as the first case).Talking about the characters, the only one that I liked was Larry, Phoenix was OK and the others were just terrible. von Karma was the worst. They tried to give some humor to the film by using some Japanese expressions. Hell, why not use the games expressions? The only character that will do it is Phoenix (and it will add to the movie).The sound was lame too, most of the soundtrack sounded like a generic thriller movie. Near the end they will play one of the games songs on an violin version, and guess what, it sounds great! I just don't understand why not using more of this during the movie, at least it would be less generic. The sound try to create a darker atmosphere that don't match the movie at all, they just couldn't balance the humor parts and the serious parts. In my opinion, this movie is just a waste of your time. If you like the game, you will hate the film, and if you never played the game, you can find many movies better than this one.

Gyakuten saiban or Ace Attorney is a Miike take on a story based on the popular games and manga. It brings Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Larry Butz and the Spiritual Fey family to life in a fantastic story of futuristic trials that are seemingly interwoven. Leave it to Miike to deliver a movie with incredible pacing control. The beginning races you through the characters to start with the crime that sets off the main plot to be followed. At times the movie is really intense in showing what the characters experienced, catering to the more understanding older viewer. However, he said so himself in the worldwide premiere today at the International Film Festival Rotterdam: you should watch this lightheartedly, like a kid. The way he adapts the famous series onto the screen is definitely one that combines his skills at bringing the best of a story with making it a very fun one. I can strongly recommend watching this if you're either a fan of his (later/(not lighter) work (like Zebraman) or of the games. I had my eyes glued to the screen except for a few moments where I looked at the audience and saw they were equally drawn into the movie.. It has great CGI for the court scenes and the spiritual moments with the Feys and as always with Miike; it caters to the idea of a greater plan. If you're taking the time to read this review; you should probably go see it already!