Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time (2010) User Reviews

Didn't live up to the hype.

[michaelwilson-72502 · 5/10 · 29 September 2018]

The original Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of my favourite childhood shows. Because of that, I continued watching it as is went on to GX an 5D's. So when I first found out about this movie I was really excited. My friends and I were looking forward to seeing Yugi, Jaden and Yusei team up against the bad guy. But when I finally saw it, I was pretty disappointed.

First, the movie was way too short. It basically dove directly into Yusei chasing the bad guy and quickly teaming up with Jaden and Yugi, and then the big duel of the film. The movie should have been 80 to 90 minutes. That way the story would have had time for development, and the characters from the three generations would have spent more time together. Before I watched the movie, these were the two things I expected the most, so I ended up feeling let down.

Second, the duel against the villain was also too short. You would think that a duel with the three protagonists teamed up would be just long enough for people to enjoy, but it wasn't. It should have been a fair amount of turns, like when Yugi and Kaiba teamed up against Dartz in the orginal Yu-Gi-Oh!. That way we would have seen a lot more famous cards we remember from our childhood.

So for those two reasons, I wouldn't recommend this movie.

Why did I watch this?

[briancham1994 · 6/10 · 13 July 2020]

I genuinely don't remember why I watched this. It was utterly absurd. Card games on motorcyles? Time travel? Three Yu-Gi-Oh! series crossing over into one? I still got the gist of it and it wasn't badly made.

A Celebration's Missed Potential

[inazumaarion · 4/10 · 6 September 2023]

Bonds Beyond Time on paper, sounds like an epic idea for a film. What better way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Yu-Gi-Oh than with a time travel, crossover adventure featuring the main protagonists from the previous generations. All the pieces are in play, the old voice actors are back, this should be the highlight of the entire anime. But instead, what we received on the big screen, was a half-asked job.

In this adventure, Yusei runs into a mysterious masked man known as Paradox. Who steals his Stardust Dragon to wreck havoc across time. Hoping to change the future. So using the power of the Crimson Dragon, he travels back in time and teams up with Yugi and Jaiden to defeat Paradox, and stop Duel Monsters from being erased from history.

The biggest flaws in this movie stem from its lack of creativity. Rather than having a well thought out story bring our heroes together for this epic finale. Everything is instead brought together by convenient elements and poorly explained elements. Also, the film has a lot of missed potential.

Why not include more characters from the franchise to spice up the chaos? Kaiba could invent a time machine to collect new cards to take revenge against the Pharaoh. Jaiden could return to Duel Academy to get secret cards to take on this future threat. Yusei could gather the rest of the signers. There are hundreds of possibilities to take from these settings and yet only the bare minimum is fully realized.

Paradox is also a very boring villain. I really like how he gathers all the most powerful dragon monsters from the past and future and turns them into their evil counterparts. But his motivation for destroying Duel Monsters is very weak. Even when I learned about the true story of 5Ds in the Japanese subbed version with the grim origin stories of the time travelers. I found Z-one to be the only interesting villain in the bunch. I'd rather see a fight against evil Yusei rather than an angry man who wears a shadow mask for no reason.

Thankfully the monsters advertised in this special are much better than the ones from the Pyramid of Light. My personal favorites being Elemental Hero Neos Knight and Malefic Truth Dragon. The set pieces are still very entertaining during an action scene. But is that really enough?

I had a more entertaining time seeing these characters together in the Bonds Beyond Time event in the Duel Links mobile game than in the actual movie. At least in other Yu-Gi-Oh shows like Arc-V it felt like we were exploring previous generations and taking advantage of the chaotic setting. This is a movie about three guys meeting each other for the first time and then somehow forming instant bonds of friendship by the end of the adventure.

It may be minor improvement from Pyramid of Light, but upgrades aren't noticeable if they fail to leave an impact. And because of that, this ultimate Yu-Gi-Oh movie just feels like...another Yu-Gi-Oh movie. If another crossover film is done in the future, I hope it has more passion behind the story. You can't set the stage for a big battle without setting up the background. I hope fans at the time, had fun celebrating ten years of Duel Monsters. Because this film was clearly, the weakest way to celebrate it.

Not What I Wanted

[madamemoviemonsterheart · 10/10 · 18 March 2015]

Sadly this isn't what I wanted. When I heard they were making a Yugioh movie and involved the three main characters from the spin- off show I was honestly excited. Then I remembered that I had to see the 4kids version and the not the Japanese. However I kept an open mind and decided to try. Sadly though it's not very good.

1. The movie feels long and boring. I'll be honest I was hoping it would focus more on the original Yugioh cast since most of the audience was old school Yugioh fans but I guess we can watch 5Ds (It's better than GX.) The duel is a four way duel so the turns feel longer and made me start checking my watch.

2. The characters are like what they are in the shows but they should have spent more time together to build their bond. It's called bonds beyond time and yet when they do talk (not counting the duels) it's mostly exposition for the audience. They don't have a bond which is ironic because that's what the movie is called.

3. The villain looks like a mix of Dartz from season 4 of the original and Jack Atlas from 5Ds. So his appearance wasn't creative. Say what you will about Pyramid of Light. At least Anubis looked more menacing sounded more menacing. Plus his goal is to destroy the world of duel monsters because apparently the card game destroyed the future. Which not only sounds unlikely but also how did Duel Monsters destroy the world? How could it destroy the world? We don't get an explanation.

This movie felt like a huge waste of time and someone making fun of you by saying 'we got your money now'

I wish this was more about the characters since it would've worked better as the title says the word 'bond' in it. Sadly though there is no bond. Everything about this movie feels empty. Plus none of this affects anyone's continuing story line in the show.

Sadly I have to give it a 1/10 because it was a 10th anniversary and they forgot about caring for the movie so the fans can enjoy it.

A Very Bad Movie!!!

[timn6630 · 19 August 2020]

In this movie the main characters from three different shows in the yu-gi-oh universe come together to fight the bad guy. The movie is bad and I'll explain why.

In good old yu-gi-oh tradition the card game "duel monsters" is the most important thing in the world. Evil people have used the game to gain power over others and the world. Heroes have used the cards to defend the world, because thats how the universe wants it to be. A duel can determine the fate of the world.

Paradox, the villain of the movie, has realised this and has therefore decided to erase the game from history by killing the creator of the game Maximillan Pegasus and everyone who plays it. In order to do that, he goes back in time to the Domino city tournament arranged by Pegasus. He success in his plan, witch costs the life of Yugi's grandfather. Because of this Yugi, Jaden and Yusei have been teleported into the past to returne the timeline back to normal by beating him in a card game.

Just three problems: 1. Yugi, the main character of the first yu-gi-oh! series, seems a little star-struck by seeing Pegasus. This is odd considering that last time he mead Pegasus, things went a little bananas. In short: Pegasus is a pretty nasty Guy and Yugi would probably hate him.

Here is some background from the tv-show: ( skip this paragraph if you don't want to know this). Maximillian Pegasus is a Millionaire, who wants all the millennium-artefact. The thing Yugi has around his neck is the millennium-puzzle. To get the millennium-puzzle Pegasus abduct Yugi's grandfather by trapping his soul in a card. Yugi is now forced to travel to Pegasus island, participate in his tournament, and defeat Pegasus in finale to get his grandfather back. Sound a bit cruel right, well further more if Yugi looses, he has to give Pegasus the millennium-puzzle, that happens to contained a 5000 years old spirit whom Yugi happens to be friends with. Also, Yugi possible has to give his own soul to Pegasus, ass well, if he loses. That much I don't remember.

You can argue that this movie takes place in an alternative timeline, hence Yugi isn't mad at Pegasus and the tournament they are playing in never happened originally, and you would be right. It is the only explanation. This is done purposefully of cause, so the audience can actually empathise with this person whose life is on the line. Here is the problem! When I know, what Pegasus did originally, it is very hard form me to forget that and simply imagine some alternative events were Pegasus didn't try to kill Yugi's friends. The movie never gives me that alternative, so It is too much of an ask that I would just ignore 20+ episodes of characterisation. If I didn't know all of this it wouldn't do much either since I don't have a reason to care about Pegasus in the first place. I care about Yugi's grandfather though, a little bit, but only because I know him from the tv-show. 2. Only Yusei tries to have an arc in the "story". In the beginning of the movie we learn that he has a hard time letting go of the past, because of something that happened. At the end of the duel Yugi tells him, that it is up to him to finish the duel agains Paradox, and that everyone is behind. Yusei then sees all of his friends from his time in the background. I have some questions though: a. Did Yugi know that Yusei needed to hear this? No. He just says it. This is both problem with Yugi's characterisation witch I will get in to later, and a very forced why to highlight a theme that the movie doesn't spend much time exploring, witch I will also get in to. b. Did Yusei actually need to hear this. Does Yusei ever doubt that his friend are there for him? Does he feel alone? I am not into Yu-gi-oh 5D, so I don't know if that is a part of his character in 5D. In this movie, at least, it isn't dramatised. How do one dramatise this? Maybe if he mistrusted Yugi and Jaden, that would create complication in their teamwork. Also, Yusei could have problems focusing on the duel, because he his too caught up in the past. That is one way to do it. This character arc is underdeveloped and forced. c. Yugi's characterisation. He has barely mead Jaden and Yusei, and he immediately assumes a mentor role for these two dualist. "Jaden, if I were your teacher at the academy I would give you an A for that move". Then his aforementioned line to Yusei. This makes him come off as a bit arrogant, and over-involved. He acts like the supportive teacher, though he isn't their teacher.

3. Did paradox die in the end? He just disappeared. Also, why am I supposed to take his motive seriously? Does he have a point? I guess duel-monsters is used for evil and destroying them would make a better world. That is a big "maybe" though, and the mass genezide that he commits doesn't seem to be worth it, and isn't he too doing evil with the duel monster's cards. He did come from a future were the world did fall apart. But how? I guess I just have to take his word for it.

4. The plot is extremely thin. They are teleported to some time after being shortly introduced, and then they play the villain in a card game and win. The end. Is that entertaining? What about twists and turns and a bit of mystery and character arcs. All I am getting is a duel between a villain with no personality, and three characters that I am expected to connect with from other works. The movie expects me to know all of the entire yu-gi-oh story-lines and then conveniently "forget" a substantial part of them. All in the favour for so little.

4. What is the point of the movie? Yusei says at the end of the movie, that it's about the friends we make. Maybe that applies to him and his friends from 5D, but I doubt that he has gotten much of relationship with Yugi and Jaden from playing with them for 20 minutes, and he is probably never going to see them again. And the movie hint at a moral discussion of wether or not people should be allowed to have a dangerous weapon even if that weapon is a card game. It might even be a metaphor for nuclear-possession. This potential never amounts to more than one argument from Yugi, that "duel-monsters" has also provided good things. What is left. Watching a card-game is 10 times less interesting that actually playing it yourself. Without a compelling story to make me care about the game, what is actually left?

I guess a 1/10

How do I rate?

1/10 = bad 2/10 = ok 3/10 = fine 4/10 = good and so on.