As must be obvious to real connoisseurs, I am hardly a natural consumer fit with this franchise. It may well play with fans, but will in all probability make no converts.
Just watched the movie. As a fan of the franchise for over a decade I was really waiting for that movie. And it was a great movie indeed. The antagonist was interesting and I liked that he did not meet the ordinary fate. It was also an interesting throwback to lore that was introduced very early in the fist seasons when they decided to expand on it. I will not lie though - the duels make absolutely no sense. I have been trying to keep up with them but just so often it just seemed like in the first seasons they just can play cards whenever they want and somehow it seemed that at least once they ignored their own established rules in the movie. I might find some answers when rewatching the movie but I am pretty sure that not all of it is consistent. Same goes for some other parts of the movie. Nevertheless it was very enjoyable and those who liked the manga or anime should definitely watch it. Like when people were very excited for Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods this is pretty much the equivalent for the Yugioh show.
Even after how many years the original Yu-Gi-Oh! is still strong. Even after all these years Dark Side of Dimensions is proof you can still make continuations of the original series and still have that amazing feel on nostalgia and more. Original cast returning, new villian story and soundtracks that are shown from the original. Not to mention it isn't censored in any way. If only 4Kids didn't do that I'd be completely fine but here? I think this is where it's at.
The original voice actors came back too. Dan Green and Eric Stuart. Just awesome hearing them again.
Pretty well done. Liked all of the humor and how very little was changed from the Japanese version to this English dubbed version. It was kept somewhat PG-13ish instead of PG. One of the only downsides was near the end. Definitely recommend for fans, new and old.
As a long time yugioh fan, I liked the movie in overall despite of there being a few flaws such as unnecessarily long run time because they couldn't help focusing on the villain's background that no one gives a crap, duel scenes are skewed mostly in the beginning and in the end which may cause some people to lose their focus, and you really have to understand the rules and stuff to catch up what is going on because each duel moves fast. The last two duel was sorta ridiculous and lack of explanation for me. I won't go in detail to prevent spoil but you will see what I mean. Kaiba's narcissistic characteristic as always probably was the main factor that everyone in the theater enjoyed the most. Animation was "Mostly" great, very nostalgic, great voice acting, somewhat interesting story in overall, poor duel scene distribution. That's all I can tell about this movie pretty much. I don't think it's worth watching twice or more for many people but it is worth watching for any long time yugioh fans like myself. Lastly, I recommend you to watch last episode of Yugi vs Yami duel before watching the movie. You will see why when you are watching Kaiba and Yugi's duel.