Knights of the Zodiac

One of the first films I publicly reviewed was the infamous Dragonball: Evolution. Its story was underdeveloped - I don't mean its loopy takes on its source material - but it's weirdly amusing looking back at it. 14 years later, I now come to another live-action version of an 80s manga and anime, Knights of the Zodiac, based on Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya. I'm a weekend late, so let's go.

The eponymous Seiya (Mackenyu) opens the film an orphaned street fighter. He's been looking for his sister, Patricia (Kaylan Teague), who was seized by the evil Vander Guraad (Famke Janssen) years ago. By chance, her ex-husband Alman Kido (Sean Bean) is looking for Seiya. It seems Seiya is adept in Cosmo, basically the Force for Olympian Gods, and he's destined to defend Kido's adopted daughter Sienna (Madison Iseman) as her Knight. 

Sienna is the reincarnation of Athena, whose Knights are powered by the various constellations. Seiya's armor is powered by the Pegasus. But Seiya has to earn that armor, first. That involves training with Marin (Caitlin Hutson), the masked Eagle Knight, to master his Cosmo. Meanwhile, Guraad, who was injured by Athena's Cosmo years ago, drains other folks' Cosmo to sustain herself. She and her personal Knight, Nero the Phoenix (Diego Tinoco), plot to neutralize Athena, who if left unchecked, can destroy the world. That would involve killing Sienna. Seiya can't let any of that happen, can he?

For those interested, the film draws more from the franchise's recent Netflix series than its original incarnation. That includes a few character names and the character Guraad. That may or may not interest the franchise's long-time fans. At least the film retains the services of the show's composer Yoshihiro Ike, who also composed the Legend of Sanctuary film. His score's pretty good, overall. But Seiya first donning the Pegasus Armor is awe-inspiring due to its instrumental of the anime's first and most iconic theme song - Pegasus Fantasy. It's somewhat undermined by the poorly integrated CGI (much of it is), but it still works. 

Director Tomasz Baginski (Oscar nominated for the 2002 short, The Cathedral) and his writing team get the ball rolling with Seiya's first cage match. Seiya faces off against the brutish Jaki (David Torok) until the even-more brutish Cassios (Nick Stahl) literally kicks Jaki out of the ring for his own shot. It's an audacious development, to say the least. The ball keeps rolling with its outstanding fight choreography and Seiya's palpable tenacity. It gets delightfully goofy with one unlucky mook who fights Alman's bodyguard, Mylock (Mark Dacascos). Visually, the bad guys' black armors are fine, though downgrading Seiya and Nero's armor to dull blue is a bit off. Yet, Sienna as full Athena is a perfect recreation of her original counterpart - complete with purple hair.

Now for the cast. Mackenyu livens up Seiya's standard hero journey with a wry personality. His best acting comes when Seiya realizes Alman had a hand in his sister's disappearance. The resolution of that arc, though, is somewhat underwhelming. Sienna gets the film's best line, "I feel like I'm a guest in my own body." When Athena's Cosmo periodically overwhelms her, we fully comprehend how dire the situation is. The climax is basically lifted from X-Men: The Last Stand, though with a different outcome, which is fortunate as Sienna and Seiya's relationship is quite likable. 

Meanwhile, Guraad is a sympathetic villain who still cares about Sienna. Their last scene together is well-acted. Sienna and Alman have an equally compelling relationship. Still, the film's attempts to smooth over Alman's complicity in Guraad's actions aren't the best. He still tries to make up for them in the end, though. Mylock is the film's best character, a man who gives a great a peptalk as a beatdown. To conclude, Cassios is quite funny, while Marin's body language is quite good.

Knights of the Zodiac's take on its source is sounder compared to some other live-action anime films. The visual effects and story weren't perfect, but the cast does a good job with the material. Its release is so limited you'd think that Sony, its distributor, doesn't want anyone to know of its existence. The nearest theater showing it in my area wasn't exactly in my area. You might want to wait for streaming, supposing you're able to see it theatrically at all. Still, if it sparks some interest in the source material, even if you haven't thought about it in years, watching it theatrically won't be so bad.