Debiruman (2004) Reviews

• Very disappointing

  david-meredith-985-9929042011-02-23

  If you admire the animated Devil Man, do yourself a favor,SKIP THIS ONE! I am a fairly tenacious Devil Man enthusiast. I have a few mangas, the TV- Series box, Devil Man OVA Collection and Amon: Devil Man Apocalypse. The animation runs rings around the live-action movie. I had high hopes for this. I had it set in my mind that the quality of this movie would be on par with the live-action treatment of Casshern but it most definitely was not. Here's where the movie fails: flat acting, stiff computer animation, bad make-up and a giant lag in the middle of the movie. Put it this way, I had the Swine Flu and that was allot more fun than Devil Man: Live Action. I hope Go Nagai (Devil Man's creator) finds those responsible for this abomination and urinates all over their mothers. The ONLY saving grace of this movie is that Devil Man model looks pretty cool.

• THE Shame of Japan

  dantsuji2004-10-18

  Based on famous Japanese comic book series which has been loved for more than approx.30 years. TV anime based on this comic is also known as one of the most favourite classics of all time to many Japanese.By expending 1000,000,000Yen budget and making movie based on a legend, many of the Japanese movie fans expected this to be gorgeous, if not their favourite. However... What is this piece of crap? I'm starting to feel sorry for the word "crap" for using it in criticizing such a bad movie. First of all, the main casts are NOT actors or actresses. They are teen-idols and a fashion model who can't play their role properly. They don't even LOOK like they are acting.This may not matter for those who don't comprehend Japanese language. Don't worry, there are plenty of other reasons why you wouldn't be able to watch this thing until the very end. The scenario is ridiculous (I'm not saying this because it was no way similar to the original manga.) It's incomprehensible. Nonsense. You won't fully understand the background of each characters or the reasons why they take part in the story. Not because you don't have enough brain to understand what the scenario writer wanted to say, but because it's 10 million light years away from perfect. There are only three main scene shots. A local shopping arcade, a church and some indoor scenes. And the stage of this story is supposed to be all around the world???It's a joke. A terrible one too.One thing I must not forget to note is the CG. YOU WOULD SEE BETTER ONES IN SOME PS2 GAMES!! I kid you not. The company which is responsible for making this movie is wanting this crap to be exported to other countries but if or when it did, boycott it. It's so awful that you won't even be able to laugh. Guys, I wish I could write my comments with better English skills. There are far more to bash about this one!

• better than expected

  nat432005-08-07

  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.

• Kill me before the shame of defeat breaks my heart.....

  KnightofLeo2010-07-06

  I have been a fan of Devilman since I first saw the cartoon when I was 3. Later years, I got my hands on more and more stuff, like the bilingual mangas, the complete anime series, and the 2 amazing volumes of the OVA.(The bootleg and the hilarious English dubs). I have a lot of the action figures and other forms of collectibles. So....I AM A HUGE FAN of Devilman. Than I saw the trailer for this movie....my god I was so excited...I even excused the fact that Siren wasn't a naked demon lady with wings on her head... When I got the chance, I purchased a copy from China through ebay. I watched it.....sigh*....It was awful...The actors were horrible, they changed around the plots and story and interactions. They never explained or even attempted to fill the GAPING plot holes. SO...being such a big fan of Devilman, I am choosing to officially disassociate this movie completely.

• Devilman = (Un)Holy Crap!

  bowieeno32005-09-14

  I just received my DVD copy of Devilman along with some other Japanese films (Survive Style 5+, Izo, Zebraman, Vital) I had ordered. I love Japanese cinema, from Kurosawa and Ozu, Fukusaku and Suzuki, to Miike and Ishii. I also love anime. Though I have been aware of the Devilman character, I've never actually watched an episode of the series so I didn't have any preconceived notions of what the film should be. My only expectation was that the movie would be enjoyable if nothing else. Well, Devilman fails remarkably to even entertain. I've heard people compare this movie to Casshern, and beyond the films being based on classic properties and employing a substantial use of CGI, that is where the comparisons end. Devilman is just plain awful. I like a good "bad" movie and Devilman can't even be enjoyed on such a level. The acting by the leads is horrendous, the special effects would be better served in a CGI animated movie, and the narrative is just not involving. The viewer is never drawn into the story. The lead actor who plays Akira does not engender any sympathy as his performance is so flat. Two scenes in particular really display his ineptitude: When his girlfriend's father discovers he is a demon, Akira let's out a wail of anguish that does sound painful, but more like the type of pain accompanied by a rectal examination -- and when Akira discovers the severed head of his girlfriend he again bellows in agony, not once but several times. Rather than being swept up in his loss, the viewer is taken out of the scene because of it's unintentional hilarity. I do have to say there is one really startling sequence in the film. It occurs during the finale when the Earth is engulfed by a massive wave of destruction and there is a depiction of "hell on earth" with bodies intertwined into enormous columns of suffering. That is the only moment in the film where I thought "cool." If there is one small service I can do for mankind it would be this: I implore each and everyone of you who reads this to stay away from this movie. If you really must see it, try to see it for free. Don't be like me who has to learn lessons the hard way. God bless!