User Reviews

Having not read the manga on which this is based, I can only judge this as a film. And the reasons to see it are for the hand-to-hand combat scenes (which are well-shot and full of energy) and for the few satisfying moments of personal redemption and self-forgiveness sprinkled throughout.

Sadly these positives are few and far between, and the movie is too often bogged down by dialogue that's inhuman and stilted, a plot that's somehow generic and excessively convoluted, and visual effects that are laughably underfunded and unfinished.

The cast is full of capable supporting actors who aren't helped by the unintentionally funny script nor by the charisma-free lead actor.

Lastly, the movie takes itself far too seriously, and this makes the goofy stuff hard to watch rather than campy and enjoyable.

It had the pieces to be good, but it just dropped too many of them to work.

A Saint Seiya fan since 1991, I knew going in that this movie would differ from the source material. The trailers were clear enough. A faithful adaptation, I did not expect. But maybe there was a decent film in there, with some elements of the original manga/anime. While not a trainwreck, a good movie this is not.

So how much does it stray? Well, there *are* some callbacks to the original IP. A few notes in the musical score, taken straight from the anime soundtrack. Some visuals that made my heart skip a beat, including the very first, somewhat misleading scene. They are all too few, though. This is not the Saint Seiya we grew up with.

The armors are way too different - and not particularly appealing. The fighting scenes, heavy in martial arts, guns, and military vehicles, are not what the original series was all about. Hard to tap into nostalgia when you turn your back on 90% of what people liked in the first place. But again, the main trouble lies in the story.

It's bland. The characters are poorly written. Their arcs, poorly developed. Key scenes late in the movie are laughable, including some that were supposed to be poignant. It's not altogether surprising: rather than adapt the 80's masterpiece, this movie is based on the more recent Netflix adaptation, which flopped commercially and critically.

The film's about a young man struggling to accept his destiny as a knight while spouting that nobody's fate is predetermined and the reincarnated goddess he's supposed to protect, a spunky young girl who lived in fear of being unable to control her immense power, in a rehash of the (also poorly adapted) Dark Phoenix saga from the X-Men.

It feels all-too familiar, especially with Famke Janssen (Jean Grey in the X-Men movies) overlooking the action as the movie's antagonist. There's also Sean Bean (LOTR, GOT, etc.) and Marc Dacascos (Crying Freeman, John Wick 3) in there, but everyone's acting is flat throughout. Hard to shine with the run of the mill story and dialogue.

As for newer faces, Mackenyu looks the part, but there's something lacking. You feel he may have done a better job with more decent lines. Madison Iseman as Sienna showed some charisma, but she too fell victim to the plot holes and inconsistent behavior that plague her and all the other characters.

Could the sequel, with the expected introduction of some key characters, come closer to evoking the thrills the original story did? Perhaps, but I doubt they'll get the chance to do so after botching the launch of what was expected to be a multi-picture saga. Then again, I'm not confident this creative team could have done a good job at it.

No, this is not Dragonball Evolution. The glimpses - teases, really - we get of the original Saint Seiya hint at what could have been a great film. The action scenes are well-choreographed and the main two characters, sympathetic enough. It's all 100% watchable, but nobody's recommending it to anyone, and it will be forgotten soon.

It's a shame. You had some great source material. You could have gotten an awesome movie out of it. Why the lack of faith in it? I came away disappointed and suspect many others will, as well. You want to like or at least enjoy it, but you just end up frustrated at the missed opportunity.

(+) A select few callbacks to the original manga and anime, particularly at the very beginning, in the training scenes, and for a few seconds in the movie's climax. Some actions scenes are decent, albeit heavy in martial arts.

(-) Spotty plot. Lousy third act. Bland characters and storylines taken straight from Netflix's poorly received adaptation. Movie really strays from the source material to tell a rather unoriginal story - and tell it poorly, to boot.

If this movie was an original creation, i would understand why at moments it would look like one of those 'youtube fan movies'.

But, the source material is right there, - is rich, is vast, is deep, it has heart - and to come up with another B movie, is really sad.

Take the anime tv show from the 80s, you don't have to go to the manga, just the first episode has more soul than this. Take episodes 1-7 right until Phoenix steals the gold armor, and you have your first movie, with great stories, good character development with background depth, several heroes with rich, diverse origins, strong roots and clear purpose within the story.

It's a shame to have good and talented actors like Sean Bean, Famke Janssen and Mark Dacascos, limited by a poorly adapted and a lazy executed project.

This badly-made, badly-acted CGI fest was greenlighted by the people who made the 80's Saint Seiya animated Masterpiece, already a Classic with a capital C of superhero fiction together with the deeply life-changing experience that goes by the name of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, with the idea of competing with the likes of Marvel and DC at their own game the same time both Marvel and DC live action superhero schlocks are dying in the interest of both the general audience and american superhero comic book aficionados like myself. But the funniest thing is that this same company, or at least, another branch of this same company has a whole slew of live-action series under their belt in the Tokusatsu department, superhero series to be precise, that they don't want to release to the general populace in the west because they think only japanese people are interested in those, when in reality the likes of Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes etc. Etc. Etc. Would be immensely beneficial to people tired to death of MCU and DCEU garbage, and they would actually profit more by giving a proper release to those instead of letting fansubbers doing all the work for them! Nope, this is what the corporate suits envisioned for us western fans, this and the last unnecessary movies of the useless Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon remake. What the hell happened to this company? I don't get it. From producing masterpieces to...this. No sense to begin with.

They don't get tired of repeating the same mistakes of all the other adaptations. Those script holes that are solved with coincidences and a shameless adaptation of obsession with Americanize Japanese projects. Not to mention the special effects so Bad, people believe that to make a movie you really need billions. I think that the basics well done is already perfect and not even the basics well done this film has. Sadly bad, sad and creepy. I watched the movie hoping it would go fast and end. If I could watch it at a higher speed I would. I don't understand the need to transform details that are obviously part of other cultures and end up transforming even the personalities into something from the USA. Laziness.

This movie fails to send me back to the anime, and I know it was supposed to be based on the newest properties that are coming out targeting the new generations, but I think it swings and misses at all target groups.

I guess Seiya works well and he kind of has a good chemistry with Saori. His training with Marin is done well and the first fights that don't have the armor are nicely choreographed but everything else is terrible.

I couldn't care more about Famke's character, her motivations are so shallow together with Ikki, who is there mainly so there's a final fight. We have Mitsumasa who isn't Mitsumasa. The VFX looks straight from a 2012 PS3 game. There are so many futuristic ships I didn't know if the movie was supposed to be an alternative world or 20 years in the future.

But the main thing for me is that the movie didn't feel like Saint Seiya, it was like someone who saw the anime 30 years ago tried to explain it to a Hollywood producer who didn't bother to watch the original content and stick to the description given to him. In the end it didn't have the sense of humanity against gods and the sense that even when Seiya lost all his senses he would never give up.

In today's cinema, the lack of creativity is replaced by CGI. Sure, a movie like this should have special effects, but without an engaging story, decent acting, or interesting character development, we get an empty case.

The Knights of the Zodiac protecting Athena and fighting evil with Kung Fu parkour and slow motion capoeira throughout the entire movie. Bad.

Between the average performances and a flat story, you won't give a penny for any character. Bad.

In short, nothing new or different from Disney / Marvel movies with a ton of special effects and hype but no heart, I don't recommend it but everyone chooses their poison, I lost interest after 50 minutes, just bad.

We have yet another Dragonball Evolution situation here. Why Hollywood never learn? Let this film be another reminder that you can't adapt an anime for live-action with a half-assed production with a "self-taught" artist as director, screenplay written by three amateurs, low budget and mediocre production quality. Although, for a mid-level production budget I'm impressed by the VFX quality. The performances were flawed yet enjoyable, especially Madison Iseman and Mackenyu.

We have yet another Dragonball Evolution situation here. Why Hollywood never learn? Let this film be another reminder that you can't adapt an anime for live-action with a half-assed production with a "self-taught" artist as director, screenplay written by three amateurs, low budget and mediocre production quality. Although, for a mid-level production budget I'm impressed by the VFX quality. The performances were flawed yet enjoyable, especially Madison Iseman and Mackenyu.

First of all, I didn't know this was an anime adaptation, I saw this movie on Netflix and the title card look interesting to me so I watched it.

There is a plot, but they don't really do anything with it, but I didn't expect this after watching the first 10 minutes, and that's ok. That movie wasn't made to have the greatest story.

Action was Ok. The camera was kind of shaky in the action sequences and cut away from the hits.

The animation was in some scenes very bad but in other great. I watched this movie on my 23 inch monitor so its harder to notice bad animation.

The child actors were horrible. The adult actors were ok in most scenes but they butchered some. Nobody really stood out, but again it's an action movie where I don't need great acting.

I wouldn't say it's a boring movie, I was entertained, and that was the point of this movie, hence it gets 7/10.

Considering One Piece will come to Netflix, and this little TV Movie of Saint Seiya'a adaptation came. This pretty much the kind of stuffs Netflix would do to anime. Let's see:

First of all, no one in this production even knew anything about Saint Seiya and what it means to Japanese modern culture. Upon more thorough check, this is HK's production, that's why the martial art fight got more budget. The writer didn't understand what the story was about, the actors looked like idiots in costumes, the senior actors had no clue what their characters meant, and worse they produced this ridiculous monstrosity.

The Pegasus and Phoenix costumes were good at a glance, until you look at them carefully and see that these guys use Chinese war armors instead of Zodiac knight's costumes. That was the final blow I took and could only put the lowest rate of 1. It should be -5.

I personally think it's great movie. I have no idea about manga or it's previous adaptation(s) so it's independent view of a person who know nothing about Saint Seya.

When I began watching it, just after the first action sequence I felt a feeling, a feeling I once had when I watched Mortal Combat (1995) for the first time, a feeling I watch a great movie about great heroes and their great deeds. And I can say that I hadn't such feeling from the 90s. For that alone creators of this movie has my gratitude. And I can only add that this feeling was with me the whole movie, till the very end.

Before writing this review I read what people wrote here. And I don't get it. Cheap special effects? No, they're not worse that in any other movie. Bad acting? Quite the opposite. Not following the original to the letter? Well, what did you expect? It's a Hollywood movie. If you see there's base for screenplay, book, manga, play, another movie - it doesn't matter - Hollywood movie will always won't follow original. It's highly expected. And it's certainly not the reason to not watch this movie.

So, knowing nothing about original, I watched this movie as is - an action movie with classic approach to heroes and villains and their fighting for/against greater good. With not only black and white characters, with original plot twists. And I can say I'd really like to watch the continuation of this movie. But I guess not this time.

Unlike many of the reviews I watched this movie with no expectations or preconceived idea of who and what each character was. Perhaps that's the reason I enjoyed it. The visualization of this movie is wonderful. It's not the best acting in the world but the script might of contributed to that. There was great potential there but I think it was missed. If you are going to take a character like Athena she needs to be more, the "human" that was to become Athena didn't fit "the mold" of what we all know her to be. To enjoy this movie best, it's probably best to watch at without consideration to anything you might previously know about the characters. So, yes I gave it 6 stars, I think it deserves it, it was enjoyable to watch.

In ancient times, the Gods treated humans as playthings. Athena is the only one who helped humanity and trained knights to protect them until the age of Gods ended. Sienna (Madison Iseman) is the modern day reincarnation of Athena. Seiya (Mackenyu) is searching for his sister and trains to be a Knight of the Zodiac.

The special effects are fine although unimpressive. The fights are fine. I actually like the wire work and the long fights. It could be filmed better. A lot of this feels inferior. I almost want to say TV Power Rangers, but it's not that bad. It's the designs. It's Flash Gordon with CG glow. I don't know anything about the Japanese manga or the anime. I assume that the designs come from that. The story is rather basic and simplistic. The characters are one dimensional. I wouldn't say any of this is funny. It's a comic book B-movie with a middling budget.

If you're a fan of Saint Seiya like me, don't watch it 'cause you'll get extremly annoyed. I understand that not everything can be like in the anime or manga, but these dolts who constantly make live actions cannot stick to the basic lore EVER and they fail to understand that it's the stoy and the backstories, character development and replationships that drew in the fans to ANIME AND MANGA and those people should be their target audience and not the normies who, btw, think this is garbage. Visual efects are meh but I would endure it if the story was acceptable but it wasn't. It's basically Jean Grey creating her army of cosmo mutants to hunt down Athena. I won't even mention the butchering of plot and other characters, and if you're interested in Sean Bean or Mackenyu go watch some better movies with them.

Utterly a waste movie

bunch of people giving high rating on Google reviews to this movie don't understand what they like in the movie in the film digital effects and cgi are gone bad

Begining from a car chasing scene look like a cartoon an un impression.

And blast scene of palace that really gone bad visualisation is not good enough

I am not hard-core fan of Anime but this one really not worth of watching wasting time Athena- Madison iseman acting is good and the other main character seiya who is destined to protect her and protect the world.

One scene i most hated draining the power of God using morden technology is they really kidding is it possible.

Long dialogue Boring movie.

"Knights of the Zodiac" is a flat adaptation of the acclaimed anime "Saint Seiya", the script takes some elements from the anime and therefore the manga to mix them with "original" ideas, resulting in a boring movie with a poorly made story, practically non-existent. The performances are decent without standing out, the director's work is bad, the cinematography and filming locations fail to stand out or create a mythical atmosphere, the costume design is lousy, the soundtrack goes unnoticed and the special effects have an average result, in some scenes they look well done and in others they look fatal. A bad movie without being totally terrible, but it definitely should never have been filmed.

The worst movie over acted i have ever seen. I lost an 1h30 of my life in this piece of garbage. Fisrt that seiya actor, my god i wish he went first to acting school before making this classic. And dont even get me started o that athena girl. I would have love to see a true actress behind that character. But the fault is to that amateur director which as his actor dont have a clue about what their doing. They wrecked a classic tv show with this piece pf garbage movie. I have never being so upset of watching a a bunch of stupid scenes put together, because that is not deserve to even be called a movie. You should all be sorry about this what ever you want to call it.

I am not part of the target audience for this movie. Keep that in mind.

If someone made a movie about the ancient Greek Gods for the 21st Century, and used Asian martial arts action cinematic techniques, then this would be the movie they made. And they did.

The soundtrack is loud and obnoxious. All of the dialogue is ego-oriented; i.e. "Listen to how clever I am." And the fights scenes are out of late night Kung Fu fare from the 1980s.

For all that, it's technically a competent film like all big budget films, but it's agenda is about letting female energy reign in spite of a lot of hijinks by the males, ironically led by a female character., and it's a female instructor that teaches the main protagonist how to fight.

So ... it's pretty cliche and predictable, but is it a bad movie? Eh, I'm not really partial to it, I could see all the plot points and story oriented character moments coming a mile away, including the whole "date outside your social circle" motif, and the feminine angle regarding the responsibility of wielding power and who should and why.

It's a film made for teens and so-called "geek culture". I gave it a chance, and all I can say is that I liked it better than the first Guardians of the Galaxy, but again this is a movie made for the teen comic-book crowd, and not for an older individual like me.

Loud, over the top, predictable, lots of ego oriented moments, if you're looking for some updated martial-arts action with god like powers thrown in, then look no further than this movie. But don't expect high art.

The problem with this film, which is clearly a bad one, is that some of the bits in it are really good. Of course, this might be because the idea of the original manga shines through, but not having read it, I can't tell. I just watched the movie and enjoyed some things.

The structure of the movie is that of a children's film. It tries to be YA, but it is incredibly childish, from the editing to the special effects and action scenes to the characters themselves. And yet, instead of black and white characters that are either good or bad, you get a lot of shades of grey. Yes, you do get the young traumatized child that learns he has a cosmic destiny while being mentored by an older person who then (being Sean Bean) dies before any kind of structure was put in place, but that mentor is not that clean and the villain is not that bad and the henchmen have their own agendas and personalities. In short, I liked the characterization in the film, even if the film itself was ridiculous.

I also liked most of the cast. Probably nostalgia, but if you were in the 90s or early naughts and you had a movie starring Famke Janssen, Sean Bean, Mark Dacascos and even Nick Stahl you would have gladly gone to the cinema to watch it. Mackenyu is now famous in the West due to the One Piece of anime that got adapted right and I think he might have a bright future. Not much of an actor yet, but the potential is there. Probably Madison Iseman was the kink in the knight armor of the cast, but she wasn't terrible either.

Perhaps the wrong choice was to try to make this a film when it could have been a series, giving writers time to flesh out the characters, bring more knights into the story, kill Sean Bean a few more times, but I can only imagine the outcry of people who would go mad for the show not following the exact chapters of the manga. The thing is, when a mangaku writes a story about Greek gods they do it because that's exotic in Japan. I don't think they learn Greek mythology in school or grow up with the Legend of Olympus in their bookcase. When you adapt it to Western audiences, you should adapt the entire thing: replace the gods with Eastern gods or invent some new ones.

Bottom line: probably destined to be hated by the fans of the manga and ignored by the rest of people. If it weren't on HBO I wouldn't even had known about the existence of this film. Having watched it I can't say that I recommend it, but there were some bits of gold in the mud here.

P. S. "What are these guys made of?" "You don't wanna know". I kind of do!

Live action anime remakes that dont stick to the source material will always be bad Why Toei allowed this to be made is beyond me.

They could have made a decent movie if they had stuck to the manga/anime story.

The story is already written for you! But instead they get some guy who likely never saw the anime to write it.

PLEASE stop trying to make anime live action,

Live action anime remakes that dont stick to the source material will always be bad Why Toei allowed this to be made is beyond me.

They could have made a decent movie if they had stuck to the manga/anime story.

The story is already written for you! But instead they get some guy who likely never saw the anime to write it.

PLEASE stop trying to make anime live action,

This movie doesn't deserve such hate from SS fans. It's a decent movie overall. It's plot is just the beginning, mainly for Seiya and Siena (Saori). I understand that the story is somekind different from the original, but it's better this way: the original plot is incompatible with movie formatting. Also, an attempt to create something to compete against the original seems to always fail. This case is a movie that shows Saint Seiya in a different way. POSITIVE: good fighting, good video effects, good sound effects, good cast overall, Seiya's training and his motivations are genuine NEGATIVE: too high tech things, the armors could be better (Marin and the golden saints were great though).

I think that worse movies were commercially more successful that Saint Seiya is being today. Otakus and nerds seem to be hard to please... Let's take the Super Mario movie for an example: people were hating it before it even was shown! And the movie proved better than people expected. Critics? The public is more important than critics!

Lastly: go support Saint Seiya! Let's give the movie team another chance. They may use all this internet feedback to make the second one better. It's time to the community to complain less and support more!

Fan of knights of zodiac cartoons from back in the 90's, and this movie is just another example that some cartoons adaptations into movies with real actors should be avoided, but in the eventuality of such a thing to happen, at least try very very hard, cause CGI without a good story, actors, and so on, will not do any miracle, and this is the perfect example of it. Bad or basic story, bad actors, knights armors are a disgrace, Seya is a disgrace and Athena as well, not to even talk about Phoenix which wears an helmet bigger then him... Well, my sincere advice, stick with the cartoons and pretend this have never been released, trust me, you'll thank me later!