Brief Story Line
Seiya (Mackenyu - Rurouni Kenshin: The Final Chapter, Pacific Rim Uprising etc) had been trying to make ends meet by becoming a street fighter while trying to search for his older sister Patricia. After showing some sort of energy burst (cosmo) when he fought with Cassios (Nick Stahl - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Carnivale TV series etc), Seiya was approached by a mysterious wealthy man named Alman Kido (Sean Bean - Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Golden Eye etc) who was locating people with such cosmo. Despite his reluctance, Seiya had no choice but to cooperate with Alman and his trusted assistant Mylock (Mark Dacascos - John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, Double Dragon etc) as a group of cyborg soldiers tried to capture him.
Apparently Alman was trying to recruit Seiya to become the protector of his daughter Sienna (Madison Iseman - I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series, Jumanji: The Next Level etc) who was said to be the reincarnation of Goddess Athena. But in order to do so, Seiya had to learn how to control his cosmo by training with Marin the Eagle Knight (Caitlin Hutson). However Guraad (Famke Janssen - Way Down, The Poison Rose etc) and his bodyguard Nero (Diego Tinoco - On My Block TV series etc) had different ideas as they also tried to capture Seiya and Sienna.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, I was a bit confused with all the very negative views of this movie. As a fan of Saint Seiya series from my adolescent years, I was quite looking forward to the live-action adaptation and to be honest, I was not extremely disappointed. Although it was far from the best version, but it was not exactly the worst either. There were few elements that I felt good enough, especially the fight scenes. I thought they were pretty well crafted, and did not over-use the CGI. I mean they obviously had to use some to show the cosmo and during the major fights. However some of the fight scenes were nicely done with the agility of the lead cast Mackenyu.
What I thought could have been done better were definitely the armors. They did not look like the ones in the anime and felt like something entirely different. And there were no those trademark Seiya's skills shown here (or I might have missed them because they were too brief?). I also truly missed that classic uplifting opening song of the series (Pegasus Fantasy by Make-Up band) in here, as there was only the instrumental slow version in one of the scenes before Seiya prepare for the climax fights.
Talking about Mackenyu, I thought he truly excelled in the action sequence which should not be surprising considering he had learnt Karate since 8 years old and gymnastics & wrestling in high school. Plus he had quite large amount of experience playing in action movies. Obviously the fight choreographer Andy Cheng (known as Stunt Coordinator for films like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, 6 Underground etc) had to be given credit for this. Mackenyu's characterization as Seiya might not be truly perfect (lacking a bit in the excessive behavior commonly seen in anime series, though it could be understood seeing this was not full Japanese version). He did bring a bit of humor to the Seiya who was always so serious in the anime.
Other cast were not so impressive, particularly Famke Janssen's character. Madison Iseman was not so convincing at first, especially her looks did not exactly scream Goddess material, but as the film progressed and towards the end, I felt more convinced with her. Mark Dacascos was surprisingly quite warm in here, even if his character was not entirely similar to the one in the anime. Btw, the manga was written and ilustrated by Masami Kurumada which was a huge success that it had spawn several spin-off and made into video games and so on.
Since the movie focused on Seiya (the title in Japan was Saint Seiya: The Beginning), there were no Seiya's best friends appeared yet. Too bad as his friendship and what he endured together with them was what made the anime series so memorable. However, I do understand that it would not be possible to show them all in just one movie. Plus they seemed to want to show more modern stuff to attract new generation of fans, sadly it did not have the desired effect. The writers probably need to stick to the original story line to make it more interesting (and hard core fans more satisfied), Oh the film was directed by Tomasz Bagiński best known as Co-producer of hit Netflix series The Witcher.
Overall to me this was a movie that brought fond memories of my teen years. Though it's quality was not high, but it did have some part that was interesting enough like I mentioned above. However, I could not help thinking that probably making it an entirely Japanese production of live-action movie would be better as they would likely be more able to capture the essence of what made the manga and anime series so wonderful. So if you are major fans of the manga & series, I guess you would be disappointed in this. If you are not familiar at all, it would be best if you watch the anime series so you would know why so many people love it so much. But if you just want to see some cool action movie regardless of the story, then it might satisfy you. I myself was OK with it, though of course I would be more delighted if they made it better.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
And here's the opening song of the anime series for you to enjoy:
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