KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC - Mark Reviews Movies

Knights of the Zodiac, Sony Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 12, 2023

It's not that Knights of the Zodiac doesn't make sense. It does as much as any story that starts with a goddess of Greek mythology being reincarnated into the body of a human baby contained in a golden capsule and being defended by a magical knight in golden armor can. One either accepts the inherent silliness of this material or is doomed to about 100 minutes of trying to work out some kind of logic within such nonsense. Director Tomek Baginski could have helped us accept it with at least some acknowledgment of how nonsensical and silly all of this looks, sounds, and is.

What's missing, essentially, is some kind of personality to take the edge off just how routine and formulaic this tale is, once one cuts through the magical and mystical and mythological surface of it. This is little more than yet another superhero origin story, albeit one with its own origins in a Japanese manga by Masami Kurumada, which is more a matter of trivia than any defining characteristic or quality of the movie.

Our soon-to-be hero is Seiya (Mackenyu, who, as another piece of trivia, is the son of martial arts star Sonny Chiba). After the movie throws a lot of talk—about ancient gods and wars and presumably some kind of threat against humanity, although it's a bit fuzzy considering how much aerial action and noisy bursts of energy are occurring on screen—at us, we meet Seiya, a slightly sarcastic fighter in an underground MMA league, and other than the fact that he has some hidden powers, that's about the extent of characterization we get for the guy.

There is one other detail. His older sister (played by Kaylan Teague) was abducted when Seiya was a child, and he is determined to find her—eventually and once he's done with his career in fighting, we have to imagine.

The plot here isn't much of once, since each of the characters is basically waiting around for another character to do something to set some kind of conflict in motion. Seiya shows off his mystical powers, called Cosmo, in the ring against Cassios (Nick Stahl), leading both Alman Kido (Sean Bean), the good guy, and Vander Guraad (Famke Janseen), the villain, to find Seiya and enlist him for their respective goals. By the way, if you're wondering how to pronounce the villain's name, do as the actors do here, and take your pick. Some say "Gore-ed," while others might say "Go-rid" or "Go-ret," and at one point, someone refers to her as "Goo-rat."

Alman wants Seiya to learn to become the Pegasus Knight in order to protect his adopted daughter Sienna (Madison Iseman), whose body is inhabited by the spirit of the goddess Athena—whom he believes will protect the world from other gods. Guraad wants Seiya out of the way so that she, Alman's ex-wife and Sienna's adoptive mother, can stop Athena before she emerges from Sienna in a glowing burst of purple energy and wreak havoc on the world.

As for which version of Athena is the real one in this "teach the controversy" back story, we have to wait until the anticlimactic final battle for that. In the meantime, we get to witness more of the movie's dedication to consistency in how the purple streaks in Sienna's hair change within scenes.

It's easy to joke about this, not only because nobody really seems to care enough to avoid such mistakes, but also—and mainly—because the plot amounts to so much waiting presented in such a humorless way. Seiya spends a lot of time listening to exposition spouted by Alman and Sienna. Guraad waits around with henchmen, including new recruit Cassios who wants to kill Seiya for dodging instead of fighting and kicking a cigar out of his mouth, for either Sienna or Seiya to give away their location by using their powers.

The action sequences, at least, are appropriately over-the-top, with blows emitting shockwaves as one might see in a comic and glowing energy fields adding even more power to strikes. The relative highlight here is, oddly, the routine training montage, in which the masked Marin (Caitlin Huston) teaches Seiya to focus his powers against the backdrop of a mountaintop with ancient ruins hovering in place. The sequence is mysterious and relaxed, as opposed to the rest of the narrative, which is in a rush to get nowhere as quickly as possible.

Ultimately, Knights of the Zodiac is a lengthy exercise in laying the groundwork for things to come. It's a flimsy foundation, to say the least.

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