Kuroshitsuji - Live Action Movie (Final Thoughts)

Title (English): Black Butler
Director: Kentaro Otani and Keiichi Sato
Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa 
Theme Song: "Through the ages" by Gabrielle Aplin
Original Story: Yana Toboso (manga)
Released: Jan, 18, 2014
Movie Website

Story
Taking place somewhere in Asia in the year 2020, Shiori Genpuo (Ayame Goriki) is a young noble lady who is a descendant of the Phantomhive family (replacing Ciel). She's in charge of the Funtom Toy Company, but she disguises herself as a male, known as Kiyoharu, because only males can be in charge of the Phantomhive wealth. By the Queen's order, she is given a mission to solve a murder case that involves important official people turning into mummies. They call this the Devil's Curse.

Shiori is also seeking revenge on the people who killed her parents. Her demon butler, Sebastian Michaelis (Hiro Mizushima), serves and protects her until she has fulfilled her revenge. As payment for his services, he gets her soul. Together, they try to solve mystery which will lead them to a secret society that deals with the underground terrorists.

Thoughts
I really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I wanted too. The parts that I liked from the movie were Mizushima, the action scenes, the beautiful Asia/European setting, and Sebastian's love for cats. But the parts that I didn't like were the villain's cliche evil plan and the lack of chemistry.

I thought that the mummification thing was a cool idea, but when the villain revealed their motivation, it wasn't a big surprise for me. Because, I've already heard of this kind of story where the bad guys create a new deadly drug and use it for world domination.

I have no complaints about Mizushima's portrayal as Sebastian. I thought he was great in this movie and this is his second time in a butler role, his first role was in Mei-chan no Shitsuji. I was really disappointed in the chemistry between Shiori and Sebastian and it felt lacking. The movie makes it seemed like this was the start of their partnership, when they've actually known each other for many years. There were small moments that they had that were funny and bittersweet. But I still thought that their was relationship felt flat.

Overall, I appreciated the movie, but it didn't make a big impression on me. Visually, the film looks great and the action scenes were awesome to watch. The only problem that I had was that the movie's story arc wasn't compelling for me and it was predictable. The movie is easy to follow for those who are not familiar with the series because their story is completely different from the manga. If your are a fan of the series, then I guess you either going to love it, hate it, or be stuck in between like me. 

And, Happy Halloween!