That it can be long 1h52 ... How tiring it is when for a good half of the film, the speakers grind your ears and the fight scenes make you squint your eyes. Adapted from the famous Japanese manga that made the heyday of the show "Club Dorothée" in the 1990s, "The Knights of the Zodiac" land in film this Wednesday, May 24 and... It is not really a success.
Directed by Tomasz Baginski, the producer of the series "The Witcher" on Netflix, this feature film is supposed to be the first part of a saga composed of six films! "They really have an interest in reviewing their copy," says Paul, a Parisian spectator in his forties who was not really thrilled. Nothing to do with the anime which was much more creative, it feels like it was made with a handful of cherries, because the special effects really suck." It's hard to believe that the film had a very comfortable budget of some $60 million...
Fans of the manga who venture into the cinema will find their hero, the teenager Seiya, but they will be surprised to discover that he is played by the American-Japanese actor Mackenyu who celebrated last November his... 26 years! Endowed with a strong character, he lives without parents and survives by participating in street fights. His sister disappeared when he was a child and he thinks only of finding her.
It is by finding himself facing a mastodon that the young boy discovers that he is endowed with mystical powers. And here he is for a long, and very often boring, adventure populated by knights in armor and reincarnated goddess. Because Seiya is actually the Pegasus Knight and his quest is to protect the young Sienna who is none other than the goddess Athena. To survive, we are told, the young boy must face his destiny and sacrifice everything and become a Knight of the Zodiac.
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Fortunately, the story holds up a minimum. Because on the side of dialogues and sets, it feels like a bad B series. As for the actors, having seen the film in French, we will refrain from being too severe. It is true that it was particularly beautiful this Wednesday in Paris, but in this beautiful room of the twelfth arrondissement, we were only three ... "I hesitated to come as the critics are severe," says Paul, not in a hurry to discover the second opus.
Editor's note:
2/5
""Knights of the Zodiac"", by Tomasz Baginski with Mackenyu, Famke Janssen, Sean Bean... (1h52)