Did you see “The Knights of the Zodiac” in your childhood and adolescence? Do you know the whole story of Seiya? This movie is not for you. Except for dubbing voices. As an adaptation, “The Knights of the Zodiac”, by Tomasz Bagiński, is a simplified version of the famous anime. And he took the risks of making a great anime as a Live action: we know that it is not easy.
But we cannot say that the film is bad: we saw it accompanied by people who did not know anything about the saga and they enjoyed it. The story has action, drama and is well spun. For the fans, the film fails to forget its fundamentals in favor of a simple and generic plot, intended for an audience larger than its fans.
A Hollywood movie: created to reach beyond the fans
The script, instead of delving into the most emblematic aspects of its story, creates a story to introduce us to different characters but “connected to”.
As is the case of Sienna, who is a girl from a wealthy family who is the reincarnation of Athena: with a very different personality from the remembered Saori. The film has a story for a wider audience. It seems that with this story, they seek to entertain by making more than anything “allusion” to anime, but trying to connect with people who have not consumed it.
A different story
The armor is not very similar to that of the anime and covers part of the face (Mortal Kombat style), but the fights still give us that necessary share of emotion.
Seiya’s story is presented to us like this: he is a teenager who fights (in a kind of street fights) to get money to survive, while looking for his kidnapped sister. In one of his street fights, he discovers that he has mystical powers that he was unaware of. Remember: this is a “based on” movie. If you can see it forgetting about the anime, the mysticism of it, the references of it and you sit down to watch it as “an action movie” you can enjoy it.
In simple words: it is a fantasy adventure. It lacks that depth that anime achieves from its characters. It is not understood how or why the knights “protect” Athena. It gives the feeling that there are anime pillars that they wanted to “install” but it was not achieved.
And there are strange things in the story: the antagonist is Athena’s “stepmother”, and she is divorced from “her dad” (the man who raised her on Earth). Is snow white you?
The dubbing voices: the fans will appreciate it
The cast of actors is led by Mackenyu as Seiya, Madison Iseman as Athena, Sean Bean as Alman Kiddo, Famke Janssen as Guraad and Diego Tinoco as Ikki from Phoenix.
And it is in the Latin American dubbing voices where the voices of yesteryear return with Maria Fernanda Morales as Sienna (Atena) and Marcos Patino like Nero (Phoenix Ikki). In addition to Carlo Vázquez as Seiya (Pegasus), and Dolores Mondragón as Marin. This is undoubtedly the detail that fans will appreciate.
As well as the presence of emblematic songs at certain times. If you’re a fan and want to go see the movie, go with a very open mind.