Debiruman

I saw the first Manga back in the day, and I happened to get a chance to watch the 2004 live action movie "Devilman" back in around 2004 or 2005. But truth be told, I couldn't remember a single thing from the movie. So as I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2004 movie for a second time here in 2021, I did so.

And it sort of was a waste of time. First of all, the storyline in "Devilman", as written by Machiko Nasu, just wasn't all that entertaining or impressive. The movie progressed at a rather slow pace, and there just wasn't enough contents to the storyline to actually maintain interest in it. So director Hiroyuki Nasu just wasn't stepping up to deliver an impressive movie.

Sure, the cast of actors and actresses in "Devilman" was actually rather good, and they had made some good choices with certain performers. Just a shame that the actors and actresses that were part of "Devilman" didn't have much of a solid script to work with.

As it is with a lot of movies that make a transition from an animated media to live action media just doesn't really live up to the animated work. And such was the case with the 2004 movie "Devilman".

Now, the most noticeable thing about "Devilman" was the horribly outdated CGI effects. Wow. Just wow. The CGI special effects in this movie are so aged that it is reminiscent of a computer game. In the aspect of CGI effects, then "Devilman" hasn't aged well.

Overall, then "Devilman" just wasn't a great movie, and it is not one that I would be returning to for another round. My rating of the 2004 live action movie "Devilman" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

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.

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.

Having no preconceived ideas about what this movie should be like I count myself fortunate or I would have found myself irritated and frustrated rather than merely confused and disappointed.

I have little idea about the actual plot of Devilman but this disjointed jumble of scenes was anything but smooth. While I finally understood the actual storyline by the end I think the only thing that really came across (and by no virtue of the terrible acting) was what my already somewhat fan-girl mind had conjured up at the beginning wasn't far from the mark.

With the CGI, scenery, acting and plot coherency the only thing that buoyed this rating up was Susumu, and perhaps the end.

after seeing the first two devil man anime on video some time ago, i was pleasantly surprised to find a real-life version of it on DVD. but after watching the first 10 minutes it became abundantly clear that this movie couldn't live up to the standard of the original series.

while the special effects didn't suck that much (but sometimes reminding of a beat em up on your average console) the rest of the move was brain-imploringly bad. even with the knowledge from the original series this movie just makes no sense. not at all. the single scenes are barely connected, in parts even contradicting each other. the dialogue of the German version (which i watched) was painstakingly bad and sometimes even made you laugh out loud ("ich bin schliesslich Satan!") , the actors (if they even are actors, that is) mostly manage to keep the same expression throughout the entire movie. the fights aren't that bad, but mostly over after like 5 seconds and cant redeem the rest of the movie at all.

conclusion: "normal" viewers shouldn't touch this movie with a ten foot pole, even fans of the original series should have problems understanding it, not even counting in the various logical errors in the story as the movie tells it. i want that 90min of my life back.