So for any of you that haven't heard of the Japanese Anime Bleach before, i would recommend going to watch the first 10 episodes before reading further.
This is a Review of the Live Action Adaptation of the Bleach Anime/Manga Series. Bleach is a story about a 17 year old Ichigo Kurosaki who is able to see ghosts. One day he meets a Soul Reaper (Rukia Kuchiki) and his life changes forever.
Now i have been a big fan of the original Anime version of this show and i am saddened to hear that they won't be continuing the Anime to finish off the Manga. However i heard about the Bleach Movie and thought, just maybe, that it could be a good film. Unfortunately that wasn't to be, as you see the first downfall came from the producers Warner Brothers Japan.
With them creating this film, it was guaranteed that it wasn't going to be very good, but i thought hey you know, it's still bleach, and i watched it. I couldn't have been more wrong, you see from what i can tell, they have taken some Core Elements of the series, and just Smashed it all together into a Film. Now don't get me wrong, i know that they have to make it easier to understand so that even those who haven't read/watched the previous iterations of Bleach would be able to get into the film, however they have completed ruined it for the fans in the process.
First things first, the characters are completely off, you can see elements of the characters in the film and you can see that they have genuinely tried to make an attempt to match the characters with the on screen counterparts, however you can immediately tell that something isn't right. The second thing was the pacing, the pacing of the whole film was rather fast, they have touched on some important aspects of the series, but cut out other parts completely. This has ruined the experience for myself.
Another aspect is that they have not just screwed the pooch with the pacing but also with the timelines, in the film you see Ichigo Fighting against King Fisher, which was to be part of deal to allow Rukia to stay in the human world. However in the original series, King Fisher wasn't a major plot line like it's shown in the movie. Don't get me wrong he played a vital part, but they've adapted the film too much that you've lost the original feel of the series, what made it great in the first place.
The last thing that they have done to completely ruin the film, is the specific details of the characters, events and so on. You see in the series, the dead ghost at the beginning was a girl, and Ichigo saved the boy from a different area. In the series Chad 'Sado' and Orihime didn't start seeing Ghosts or Ichigo until much later, and they were introduced to what Ichigo does by Yoruichi who was a Talking Cat to begin with.
For me it's these parts of the story that i was most interested in seeing, including the Hollowfication of Ichigo when he fights Abarai Renji, but alas these were not to be.
Now that my Rant is over i will give a general review of the film. The film itself and the adapted storyline isn't bad and you can get through the film relatively easily. The CGI that was done on the Hollow Characters themselves is actually pretty good, and they have done a really good job in bringing those characters to life on the big screen.
Because they have rushed the film along, you don't get the full character development that you would expect, and some of the film is different from the series, so it's hard to see if they will continue and create a carry on from this film in the future, however i for one, will not be watching it if it is going to be as bad as the current film.
I would give this film 8/10 for the CGI and graphics and just the general way in which the film was created.
I would give this film 4/10 for the storyline, pacing and development of the film.
I would give this film 5/10 for sticking to the original work for the fans of the series.
All in all it's a generally good film, which i would recommend to at least peruse at some point, as to whether you finish watching the film will be completely up to yourself. As a fan of the original series, i know i won't be watching that film again.
Bleach the Live Action Film, can be found on Netflix in most major countries.