Gyakuten Saiban (movie)
Hello dead blog!
Finished the movie last night.
Basically, I didn't like it. And there are a lot of raving reviews; people love it. It's quite alarming to find oneself in the minority.
Anyway. here's my opinion in my little corner. Get it out of my system, or something. Disappointed and rather amused by chrysan's and my disappointment, generally. Hahaha, snotty, cannot-be-pleased fans that we are. No, really, I wanted to like it.
Similar to this person, I spent the first 15 minutes or so rather distracted. I'm not sure why - wasn't doing anything else, just couldn't really follow the story. I blamed it on myself though. Sometimes it just takes awhile for me to get into things. Besides, chrysan, watching beside me, didn't seem to have the same problem. Although she agreed when I later tentatively commented that the beginning was too fast-paced, non-gamers probably wouldn't follow?
I haven't refreshed myself, so my memories of the story are rather foggy. For a 2-hour condensation of the game, I was also expecting and ready to close an eye to differences. Also, I was wanting to like the movie. The trailer looked fantastic, and I liked the casting of the two leads - especially Takumi-san, since his Tenimyu days.
The first hour was spent in mostly contemplative silence, with mostly neutral comments made. A couple of positive ones from chrysan. Any negative ones were voiced rather mildly ("Why would he, a law-trained person, pick up the murder weapon...? Oh, comic effect, I guess..."). Mostly, I suppose, I didn't want to influence the 'tone' of how we're receiving the movie. After one hour, somehow, we went from ._. to D: to DDD:
Mostly, we blame it on the director.
In no particular sequence,
Phoenix
He's cute and has the game look, alright, and comedic expressions, but that was about all I approve. I mean, yes, he's a rookie at this point, and frequently acts like a fool in the game and appears to win by luck, but where is his underlying intelligence? He sees a dead body and first thing he does is to pick up the murder weapon barehanded; he seems to do research in the magician-feel study but always starts a court session unprepared like "um, um, I don't know what I'm doing here". Of the times he falls into a pinch in the courtroom, Mia or Maya or Larry or Edgeworth or someone comes in to save the day with hints or dramatics 90% of the time. He's slow to draw the connections. I kept waiting for the photo of the 11.30pm shot on 24th Dec to show up, but he only remembered it near the end (because Larry talks about the DJ; why, is it bad if he simply recalls Lotta showing him the photo?). He couldn't have discovered the final proof on his own - by recalling that Mia was investigating the case and said the clock was no longer a clock, for example - but had to chance upon it when he accidentally knocked over the ex-clock and made it break apart unrealistically. When asked to prove the Lake keeper was Koutarou, his idea of proof is that his pet bird has Koutarou's dead wife's name. I would laugh in his face too if I were the judge/prosecutor. He had to be prompted by his client to bring up fingerprints.
There might be reasons for his behaviour - comic effect, or showing that he's not a stickler for law/rules like Edgeworth, or whatsoever, but the bottom line is, not impressed.
I also wish he was more BAMF especially during the final showdown bringing down Von Karma. Where went the slamming desk and rapidfire confident reasoning (especially after he trapped a lying criminal)?
credits to The Court Records
For LOLs
Hanky-panky Phoenix
Maya
Rather dull. No special feelings for the character either way but the movie version is just dull. No bubbly cheerfulness from the games. Justification is it's shortly after Mia's death. Well, alright.
For LOLs,
What's with the thick furry boa? It feels like the weather was too cold and the actress demanded it. And why a scene of her playing the piano? What kind of spiritual medium training do they put you through in the mountains, anyway?
I'm an attorney's sister, of course I play the piano
Edgeworth
For 90% of the whole show, he wears this expression:
Of course, Edgeworth is stoic and acts cool and stuff, and he spends most of the movie being framed for a murder and owning up to man-slaughtering his dad 15 years ago (pity that his showy prosecutor act was so brief).
This is how he looks when it's revealed a complete stranger lied about seeing his face clearly on the boat where murder supposedly happened:
Just an attention-seeker that almost sealed my guilty verdict. Boring.
When Phoenix first proposes that Von Karma is the murderer, the camera shows the audience turning to one another, muttering their surprise at the turn of events. Somehow, Von Karma's protege Edgeworth's reaction is less important than the audience, and we only get to see his face (unless you count his backview, which looked impressively impassive) after Phoenix continued with his lines. This is the first reaction we see from him:
"It's no use," he informs Phoenix, coolly, "He'd already have covered his tracks."
Um, were you suspecting your mentor of killing your dad all this time and were actually working undercover as his protege?
You'd think they could at least spare a one-second shot of his eyes widening fractionally after Phoenix accuses his mentor but nah, too mainstream.
There's no trace of the tsundere!Edgeworth that made him so appealing to me. The director seems to think the best use of his character is the comic effect of having a cool character pull off silly things, which he does in the game, but in a different way (such as an unexplained love for Steel Samurai), not this:
I think I was supposed to laugh, here.
I really don't think it's the actor. It's how they wrote Edgeworth.
Larry
From the beginning, it was clear he gets a lot of screentime. He was present at all the court cases, making an unnecessary din at defiant witnesses when not giving the obligatory hint/break to Phoenix. I mean, we even get a few seconds of him standing and clapping monkey-style at Phoenix going "sugoi yo!" during Edgeworth's case. Edgeworth himself hardly gets such attention on his reactions to how the case unfolds. My guess is for the comic relief. That or the director favours him and resents the leads. The actor did a good job, I think. But the boisterous loud kind of comic relief doesn't do much for me. (I do like the dumb way Larry acts in game, though).
Gumshoe
Handsome-nified, though not my cup of tea. Doesn't have any of the blundering kind fool charm, or the dogged loyalty to Edgeworth. When he appeals to Phoenix on Edgeworth's behalf, it seems out of nowhere since due to time constraints, we don't see his loyalty develop. His reason "because he places trust in police work" sounds hollow to me as a result. Unremarkable, overall.
Others
Cute-funny game-judge become this boring, sleepy-sounding judge.
Mia, helpful and suave in game, becomes the standard cryptic, not-very-helpful ghost.
Von Karma tucks his hair behind his ear more than any woman I've seen.
Cheesy humor
Payne (?) throwing his wig at Phoenix and his expression was quite funny, yes. Not a LOL, but a "oh that was in the game :)". But the
"Past 12am of Christmas eve... specifically speaking... that is... Christmas?"
*everyone falls down*
What.
Funny?
I haven't seen the 'falling down because someone said something really dumb' thing for so long. Excuse me while I forget to laugh. And this was in my forgiving first hour. I was just vaguely horrified at the attempt at humor.
This was really disappointing because I found the game dialogue really clever and LOL-ed at parts. The whole movie barely got an amused smile from me and I wasn't watching with bias.
Incoherence
Between the time of Edgeworth's dad to now, besides the invention of funky hologram devices, court-goers and jury apparently have developed the habit of cosplaying. No reason whatsoever but hey, it's part of the crack -shrug-
Why Mia wrote Maya name in blood was ignored for the rest of the movie. (Was it really her? I forgot)
Edgeworth's dad's scream before dying echoes in his mind - but in the True Flashback with Von Karma shooting Gregory, he dies silently. Oh well. Traumatized kids and their messed up memory.
Phoenix's "logic" comes off as leaps of logic to me. Don't remember all, but near the end, he jumps to concluding that Von Karma is the murderer, apparently based on the facts that he 'faced Gregory in court' and "took only 1 (unknown) day of leave in his 40 years career". Huh? His reasoning/evidence for his motivations come only later. Which meant he had no idea when he accused Von Karma. I don't remember if it was so jarring in the game. I plan to replay.
Director's self-indulgence in horror film elements
10min into the film, helped by Mama Fey and Papa Edgeworth's performance, I recalled the director had a reputation for horror movies. The rest of the film continue to reflect that. The flashback of the keeper's wife was a nice addition, I thought initially. Shows you the life that was destroyed and possibly sympathize with his actions. Until it came to this:
Correction: I might have LOL-ed at this. In a OMGWTFBBQ way.
Even if we were to understand that the bird had been the wife, couldn't you just let the lady be holding the cage instead of looking like she died with her head stuck in the cage?
That said, there were many dramatic still shots and cryptic zoom-ins on seemingly-innocuous objects. Dark gloomy haunted-looking cells. Gothic sort of Lawyer's Office. Mia was crypti-fied to fit the mysterious ghostly stereotype. We spent a rather long time watching Koutarou-san's tragic past and resolution with ghostly Cagehead that it feels like it had to be the director's favourite scene, Phoenix and Edgeworth be damned.
You know, GS is many things and you could focus on the humor, giving the film a comedy feel, or the investigative/intelligence aspect, or even the homoromantic. What is this horror focus?
The Mystery of the Blue Badger
Once again, the guilty verdict was almost passed, and by now you're kind of expecting Larry, Maya, or maybe even Phoenix to shout or do something drastic to stall the verdict. In a 'surprising twist', we get the 'cute' and at-times creepy Blue Badger:
Who physically stopped the mallet from coming down with its paw-hand-whatever.
"What? What is the mascot doing here?"
"Sent ahead by Gumshoe, of course," I said confidently, recalling the Badger sheltering Gumshoe with an umbrella. "See, Gumshoe's making his entrance with some new evidence."
So everyone's attention shifted to Gumshoe, and the costume started to drop...
Ok, what? It's obviously deliberate. So it's not a person inside. Was I supposed to feel chilled? Not really, the courtroom continued in a buzz of activity and no one commented on it, so it isn't supernatural. Did Gumshoe throw it over? No it did stretch it's hand-paw onto the desk and then lifted its head in a quiver. Is it some new technology? Maybe, but a somewhat sentient android/AI thing out of nowhere just seems ridiculous.
But, whatever.
Flashbacks are too mainstream
I remember the long flashback of Sayuri-san, of course, and the multiple ones of Mama Fey and Papa Edgeworth, and a couple of cute ones for the three kiddos, of course. Flashbacks were however conspicuously absent for when Phoenix starts to piece together evidence. The only one I recall seeing is of Mia running away in some tunnel - again, a lovely typical horror-ish scene - after she got hold of The Evidence. I don't see what could've hurt if, say, having been reminded by Larry's DJ story, he flashbacks to the 24th Dec photo Lotta showed them before they asked for 25th Dec. Instead, he simply pulls up the evidence - didn't even think he'd have it on file, since he acted like he thought it insignificant till Larry brought up the date - and throws it in Von Karma's face. When discovering the evidence hidden in the clock, there could have been a quick flashback to Mia's teleconversation to Maya "well, it's no longer a clock...". It reminds audience, some of whom may not have made the link, and even if they all did, it's still nice to reference back the hint from the beginning. Overall, there's no sense of Phoenix's thought process and it ends up he just seems to jump from one place to another (please don't tell me it just shows how quick he thinks. That's not the way. Sherlock thinks damn fast and you still see how everything falls together). I don't think he knows a thing about making detective sort of stories interesting and fun to watch.
UST? What UST?
You know, if all else failed, you'd think you can count on the Ho-Yay. Everyone is selling homo-romantic by now. Apparently, some are touched by the way the friendship between the three was acted out; good for them. Friendship-wise, the elements were just taken from the game so I wasn't too impressed - maybe also because I was busy wondering why Larry stands out so much. Phoenix/Edgeworth, now that was lacking. The elements from the game were there too, but it just didn't work for me. Phoenix stalks Edgeworth, gets coolly dismissed. They faced off in courts, and Edgeworth drops his case once Phoenix proved the witness was lying. Then Edgeworth gets arrested, and Phoenix gets concerned and eager to help. So far, so standard.
In the cell scene, Edgeworth opens with "you're the only one I didn't want to see me like this". Ooooh ♥. Except in this abridged version where they haven't interacted much by this point, with my new-viewer glasses on, I can't help but think "what are you on about?" and wonder if it isn't simply rivalry/pride speaking. Knowing the backstory later doesn't help either, because the Classroom Trial is only significant to Phoenix; for all we know from the limited material, to Edgeworth, Phoenix is just a childhood friend from long ago. (Whereas in game, he built up his feelings for his rival-friend across 4 game chapters; that line would make more sense). It was around here that chrysan said something like "well one thing you can count on is they can do UST well" so I made an agreeing sounding response and tried to see the UST. I failed.
Edgeworth proceeds to reject Phoenix's offer of help. You're a rookie, there're better ones out there, why would I want you? Tsuntsun.
Nick hints at his debt to him, is walked out on, is approached by Gumshoe who says no other attorneys would help him, goes to find more clues. He revisits Edgeworth to reoffer.
After persuasion, Edgeworth accepts rather reluctantly, giving two reasons: 1. Nick found himself a reason to get involved, via the Fey sisters, and 2. no other attorneys would take the case.
Someone forgot the deredere in tsuntsun ._.
I liked the let-me-help! scene in the game. Even with Maya there giving comedic relief. There was awkwardness and tremor-phobia Edgeworth and Phoenix explaining Edgeworth's behaviour to Maya. ("Well? Go ahead, laugh at me!" "Um, should we laugh, Nick?" "No, he'd cry if we did laugh." Why would you remove this gem?)
Here, even though they were alone, for some reason, nothing touched me. Edgeworth's reaction to the Phoenix's Important memory was a mostly expressionless "Naruhodou..." and proceeds to accept his offer saying no other attorney would take the case anyway. With his reaction, he could well have forgotten the incident. It's in child!Edgeworth to defend any injustice after all. It felt like he was mostly tired of getting rejected by other attorneys by this point. Phoenix's determination to help was okay, but somehow felt a lot like more of repaying a debt (maybe the repetition of "this time let me do for you what you did for me!") instead of the emotive vibe I got from him in-game.
It doesn't help that for the rest of the court case, Edgeworth was proven right to be worried.
Enough of retelling the story, let's look at tell-a-thousand-words pictures.
We have more-than-friends looking at each other from Taiwan, 1995:
深情款款有木有 (pre-jumping off cliff together)
And more-than-friends in London, 2010:
Context forgotten but UST, anyone?
And more-than-friends, Japan, yaoi-land, 2012:
Not even a full view of his first and only non-smirk smile in the movie. Did you piss off the director, Takumi-san?
While we're at it, here's how one emotionally-challenged brilliant mind looks at their working partner:
Context... maybe studying a corpse in between them but... hello UST!
And here is the one in Japan:
For someone who pulled off sultry Oshitari and a slutty model in the movie Boys' Love, you look ready to put a knife through Phoenix more than anything else. Did you piss off Takumi-san, Narimiya-kun?
Chemistry seems to be non-existent. I'm sure the actors could still pull off UST with proper directing. I've no idea what happened. Homophobic? Deliberate stir away from the mainstream? I don't mind that, but I didn't even get a "beautiful friendship awww". As it is, all the Ho-Yay in the movie was already in the game, presented in a very half-hearted, no-so-coherent manner.
Conclusion
Disappointed despite my best efforts. Maybe not all my expectations are reasonable, but that's what personal opinions are about, after all. The box office seemed to be good. That's good for them and future game development.