The Phoenix Wright games are a series of clever, wildly entertaining mystery adventure games in which a defense attorney must trip up witnesses with clever deductions on the evidence he finds himself at crime scenes. The games have weird, eccentric characters with odd hairstyles, prosecutors dress like 18th century poets, the courtroom follows no sane rules, with the judge constantly and prematurely about to declare Wright's client guilty before someone shouts or bursts in or Wright shouts OBJECTION.
The movie emulates not just the formula of the game but its over-the-top wackiness. Wright's hair appears to have been vaselined during a windstorm.
Many characters look like they're badly disguised as other people. The courtroom audience is dressed for a hip New Year's Eve party.
This emulation is a double-edged sword if you know the games. Miles Edgeworth is dead-on, but Phoenix Wright's hair is mainly wrong, and the character is too boyish and not square-jawed enough. A less literal version probably would have worked better, but the attempt is certainly an interesting and quirky one.
The bigger problem is the characters. The movie gives us the same thunderous moments, crazy graphics, and sudden plot terms, but it is less successful at bringing the characters to life with life actors than the game was with still images and text dialogue. Characters like Maya and Gumshoe have gone from being interesting characters to props. And while the movie is humorous, it is never as funny as the game.
Still, at its best, as in the final courtroom scenes, the film delivers a strong concoction of mystery, drama, and surprise. I'd recommend the games over the move (the movie's a 7, but the first game is a 9), but I'd still recommend the movie.
