Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Rectangular_businessman This is a very poor adaptation of one of the most famous creations of the manga artist Go Nagai, "Devilman", which is often considered one of the most influential mangas of all time, and also has some animated adaptations, each one of them much better done and more entertaining than this movie."Devilman" is a dark, violent and bleak story which was way too ahead of its time, and sadly this terrible adaptation doesn't make any kind of justice to the source material: Not only the special effects are terrible (The combination of CGI with live-action actors it's pretty weak, personally I think that I would have been much effective to make the whole movie using computer animation) but also the performances were pretty bad as well, making some of the most dramatic parts of the story into a big, bad joke that isn't even funny to watch.It almost feels like a parody of the original story.It lacked of the impact and emotional strength of the manga and the anime versions, being almost laughable at moments.In what concerns to the violence and intensity, it pales in comparison with the source material, being way too tamed and banal, unlike the manga.This movie is a huge disappointment like most all the live action versions of animated shows and video games. The Devilman OAV and "Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman" are much better than this.

dbborroughs Gô Naga's comic story comes to the big screen in a big mess of a live action film. If it were enough to survive on looks alone then this might have had a snowballs chance in hell, but as it stands now this is a movie thats tough viewing.Where do I start? The plot is whats best described as episodic. Telling the story of two friends who are become changed when a scientific experiment goes wrong and demon energy comes into our world. One becomes "Satan" the other becomes Devilman, a demon with a human heart.There are other demons on the loose, many hiding in human form and they go about killing and eating any human they find. The remaining humans fight back and a war between the demons and the humans ensues, which becomes a war between nations. As Devilman battles his friend and humans and demons battle each other it looks like its the end of the world.The simplicity with which I recounted the plot is misleading since the story makes no sense except on the simplest of levels. Things happen and are important until they are not. We learn of the creation of the demons in such a way that makes you think you've missed something. Who are these scientists? There is a newscaster giving news reports in English in the middle of a Japanese language film. We are given endless scenes of goofy soldiers in white suits and gas masks shooting people they think are demons. An old lover of Devilman's demon side shows up for no reason but to have a fight. Events take a global turn except only to suddenly end up back in Japan. Characters come and go and we have no idea who they are, even though they seem to be important. Nothing holds together.The two leads are awful. Apparently they are non-actors, having made their mark a J-Pop idols. They should stay in the music field. They stand and stare. They walk or run then stand and stare some more. Mostly they look stoned. I've never seen a movie where the leads looked so completely fried outside of Dennis Hopper's Last Movie, certainly I've never seen a movie where the leads were so fried that they couldn't at least phone in a performance. They have no personality. Worse the kid who becomes Devilman is quite ugly for an idol and one makes you wonder why he was chosen to star.The effects are from a bad video game or from some of those low budget animated series. The design is good but for the most part they never drop into the world of the film, they are forever outside of it. At times the fights between demons shows its manga/anime origins by using the frozen image that artists use to produce an effect of action on a limited animation budget. It doesn't work here and just produces laughs as the two demons in question suddenly become statues instead living objects. its a WTF moment. I won't go into the makeup effects which are even worse, as spiky bones act like comes of latex rubber.And yet there is some good things in it. There are some nice designs, Devilman, his demonic lover and Satan all look great, at least in theory.The designs were what attracted me to the movie in the first place, and had they not been as good as they are I would not have even bothered with the film. The reaction of the frighten crowds is quite good, even if there is no logic, other than the need to move the story, for most of what they do. And there are some genuinely creepy moments such as the last moments of people's consciousness showing up on the back of the demon that ate them, or the weird eyes of the father of a little boy who doesn't know his dad has been taken over. These moments are sad because you get the sense of just how good this movie really could have been.I can't really recommend this movie. It's one of those annoying films that could have worked but doesn't so sinks to the bottom of the pile. They actually got some things right, but the fact that the leads, the story and to a lesser extent the effects don't work destroy this films hopes. (Though if you study film visuals, then you might want to look, if you can see it for free) A sad major misfire.

nat43 I bought the movie without knowing anything but the anime movies. Before I watched it I checked the ratings here in the IMDb, and started to panic after reading some very negative comments and saw the 3.8 rating. I really thought about returning the movie before breaking the seal of the DVD. but I risked my money 25euro, and watched it. And look at that, it is not bad, no it is pretty good. OK the Japanese movie makers somehow still don't get it and use the wrong camera and film equipment, which turns the movie in TV production optics, but beside this Japanese brain problem, the movie is much better then 95% of all US Movies. There are no real big logic mistakes like in US movies. You can see that the fights were reduced radically in terms of length compared to the anime, which sure was a money problem, to expensive effects. the cg graphics are totally up to date, I saw much worse in spiderman the movie, or blade 2, for example. The story changed a lot, but this is not making the movie bad, and if you read the booklet you know that go nagai does this retelling with changing elements of his story already for years. I personally think that this version of devilman is the best. I like it more than the the 2 anime movies released here. If I just focus an violence and fight scenes, than the anime is better, but story and co. is much better in this movie. I don't know the original comics(mangas), but I know this movie is great, and you won't find a US production being so hard, showing the worst side of humans. Somebody complained about the actors, I can only say that there are sure better ones but they are actors and they do their job not so bad. For me the worst is the picture quality, produced by the cameras and film used in this movie. It looks like a cheap TV drama, until the cg graphics come and rule. That is all.

mdjoot Be warned: this film is a failure on every imaginable level: inept direction / laughably unconvincing special effects / atrocious, incoherent dialog / gross miscasting of virtually every important character (the film is peopled with Japanese pop stars and boy bad idols, none of whom can act) / a heavy-handed and utterly uninvolving narrative whose sorrowful attempts at social commentary come across as insultingly banal. Such a wasted opportunity too, given the wealth of the source material; DevilMan is easily one of the most iconic manga/anime characters in the history of the medium, and there is simply no excuse for the disaster this adaptation turned out to be. Don't let the advertisements fool you - the only proper way to appreciate a film like this is to receive it purely as camp, but when a film is this genuinely bad, even that'll prove a stretch.