Review of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016) by Stephen P — 02 May 2017

It was almost 2 years ago when I covered the release of the first trailer for this film and ever since I have been waiting very, very patiently to see it. But now it is here and it is straight up awesome, especially (and well, only) for fans of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series. When that series came to an emotional close over 10 years ago I never thought id actually see a day where all of our favourite characters would return for a new original story. But it is here, 'Dark Side of Dimensions' is set around 1 year after the conclusion of the original series and opens right before the graduation of Yugi, Tristan, Joey, Bakura, and Téa from High School, meanwhile, Seto Kaiba is continuing his search for the Millenium Puzzle to resurrect Atem for one last duel and a new villain Aigami arises to put an end to Yugi and ultimately get his revenge. This movie brings back everything you love from the original series including the characters and classic duel tropes, and combines that with an original story and new villain. For the most part the way this new story plays out is great and the use of flashbacks was cool and easy to follow, but there are a few minor things to pick out that could have been better.

Firstly, seeing all of these characters be reintroduced was a massive nostalgia trip to the point where I was in a trance for the first 20-30 minutes of this movie that took me right back to my childhood. The characters are just as you remember them and every piece of dialogue seems to fit their personalities that were so expertly established and developed so long ago. There is a lot of great content with Yugi and his gang in here and plenty of crazy awesome moments for Kaiba that steal the show and are just way too good to spoil. Of the new characters introduced, there is really only one, maybe two who are fleshed out enough to where you can get into them. The main inclusion being Aigami who is the main villain within the film. Personally, I dug this new villain mostly and I thought their attempts to set him up with a fleshed out backstory were pretty successful. I really bought into the story and the past behind Aigami and although I didn't entirely understand what he was trying to accomplish in the long run the more focused parts of his revenge were well explored. There is one thing that happens with him later in the film I didn't particularly like but overall he was pretty good.

The duelling returns just as awesome as you remember it with a few differences here and there. There is a new form of duel referred to as 'Dimension Duelling' where the new 'Dimension Summons' take place and this is a really fun different style of duel that keeps this film feeling fresh. Also, as this is a 2 hour movie and not a 40 episode season the duels are as expected a lot more fast paced which is good in some sense but there was something about the pacing of the duels in the show which gave them a little more suspense overall. At least here you aren't getting hit with 'To Be Continued.....' 3 times in one duel. But the awesomely cinematic clashing of monsters and surprises you get with the perfectly timed execution of trap cards was just awesome to see again.

So in the end I think anyone who goes to watch this film should know exactly what they are going to get as this is a film only for fans of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series and those classic characters. Anyone who was a fan of that original series will love this movie but pretty much anyone else will be relatively lost the whole time. The fact that they were able to bring back the original voice cast too added another layer of authenticity to the film making it that much cooler to watch. Again, being a huge fan of that original series I loved this movie, it was a huge nostalgia trip bringing back all the emotions and a perfect way to celebrate 20 years of Yu-Gi-Oh! being in existence.

8/10.