Is another manga adaptation a good idea? – review of the movie “Saint Knights”

If watching Tomasz Bagiński’s new film you had the impression that you had a strange mix of Greek mythology and Japanese anime in front of you, then you hit the jackpot. Namely, we are talking about the manga adaptation by Masami Kurumada Saint Seiya . It is the first international feature film by the Polish director. Did he manage the difficult task of translating the magic of manga to the big screen?

Attention! The text contains spoilers!

 

The story from a layman’s perspective

Seiya, a young orphaned boy, is involved in cage fighting for an unspecified reason. It is there that he inadvertently reveals his cosmo, the cosmic energy of the Saint Seiya, and is found by Guraad, who wants to drain his power, and Alman, who intends to train him. Of course, they turn out to be an ex-married couple. The adopted daughter of Alman and Guraad is the human incarnation of the goddess Athena, and it is she who is supposed to be protected by the title Knights of the Zodiac. Yes, it is equally vague and confusing in the film. Supposedly, we have some kind of animated introduction at the beginning to outline the background of the action for the viewer, but unfortunately it still leaves many gaps that are not filled in this part of the potential film series. How they workKnights? Do other gods have their own too? How did the Phoenix Knight get the armor if Seiya had to give himself fully to Athena to get his? Are the Gold and Silver Knights separate categories of Knights, or are they tiers? Well, let’s hope that there will be more parts that answer these questions.

Faithfulness is a double-edged sword

We know how it is with anime adaptations for live-action films, we remember such gems as Dragon Ball: Evolution , Death Note or Avatar: The Last Airbender . Do Saint Seiya fall into the same category? Yes and no. On the one hand, we have an almost exclusively American cast, with stars Sean Bean and Famke Janssen shining brightest . Only the main character retains his original Japanese name, Seiya, even his sister was renamed Patricia. If fans of the original series are to be believed, the movie doesn’t follow the same path as their beloved childhood anime. It’s hard to say if it isgood or bad. On the other hand, the feeling of the film resembles anime. The fact that Seiya is in the same T-shirt for almost the entire movie is very cartoony. Effects, fight scenes, armor – all this brings to mind cartoon fairy tales from childhood, so this nostalgia factor makes it more enjoyable to watch.

A nail in the coffin

Unfortunately, even Sean Bean couldn’t save this movie. The main characters, i.e. the Pegasus Knight Seiya and Sienna, the incarnation of Athena, are off-topic to say the least. The boy is pretty, maybe a little too much painted, but his game is survivable at best. There is no chemistry between him and Sienna, they have exactly three conversations between them before Seiya decides to trust her implicitly. Madison Iseman, who plays Sienna , looks far too mature for an 18-year-old in the film, especially in her make-up. In addition, as Athena, she probably stole Mal’s wig from the second part of Disney’s Descendants , and that says something. The character of Guraad, Sienna’s adoptive mother andthe main villain in Saint Seiya , she is very flat and her motivation for destroying Athena seems downright petty. One of the final scenes, when Sienna transforms into Athena and destroys everything because “she is the goddess of war”, is comically reminiscent of the moment in X-Men: The Last Stand , when only Wolverine could get to Jean, who as Phoenix was destroying everything around . Here, instead of Wolverine, we unfortunately have Seiya, who hardly suffers his way to Sienna, and does not kill her like in X-Men , he just gives a motivational speech, how Sienna is not strong and good. Apparently , that was enough to bring Sienna back to her senses and everyone was happy

We would like to thank the Cinema City cinema chain for the opportunity to watch the movie Saint Seiya !