Oh my, where to start?

sfterrytsuguri

I'm sure that if you're a Devilman fan, you're going to watch this movie regardless of what anyone says about it. So with that in mind, I'm not going to tell you to "avoid it at all costs." Afterall, it's always better to experience a terrible movie first-hand and form your own opinion about it rather than simply trust what others say. That being said, I'll move on with my review.

The first major annoyance I had with the movie was the way it completely altered the plot. Structurally it's pretty much the same, but the specifics have been changed so much that it's not even really the same story. It's still unknown to me whether the characters' personalities were written differently than they were in the manga/anime or if the acting was just so bad that these so called "actors" were unable to portray their character properly. Actually, it's probably a little of both. And to make matters worse, the complete absence of that infamous dance club scene where Akira first makes his metamorphosis is sure to kill what little enjoyment a hardcore Devilman could have gotten out of this film.

If your hopes haven't been crushed just yet, then you're probably still hyped up about seeing the battle between Devilman and Silene. Well, I have bad news for you. Even if the battle lasted longer than 20 seconds, it still wouldn't have changed the fact that it looked more like a college student's 3-D animation project than a live action adaptation of arguably one of the best anime fight scenes ever. In fact, pretty much all the fight scenes looked like they would have been put to better use in a Final Fantasy game than in a live action movie.

So there you have it. This much anticipated live action Devilman movie is completely lacking in every aspect that made the original work so great. Pretty much everything you liked about Go Nagai's masterpiece is missing from this film. But if you're a hardcore Devilman fan, you may as well see it anyway just so you can warn others not to see it.

score 1/10

sfterrytsuguri 14 August 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1150555/