O Grande Diabolik

To say I had a great Hype for "DIABOLIK" would be an understatement. Truth to be told, it was one of my most expected movies of the year.

Based on the premises, from the directors to the cast, from the settings to the various elements, I was pretty much sure to give my full trust to the whole project.

And I can say that my expectations were satisfied for the most part.

I sincerely can't understand what all those people who bailed this picture as a total failure, both professional critics and general audience, did actually watched.

This movie is veeeeery far from the disaster many declared (seriously, some folks almost put this on the same level as VENOM, what gives?!)

Of course, we're not talking about a perfect movie, but still a pretty decent one, and THAT should not make you think it's worthless.

As an avid reader of the original comic, I can say that for the most part its atmosphere was totally respected. Maybe a bit more, because one problem many will have is about the style.

The directors voluntarily reproduced the narrative and technical style of a '60s movie, and this won't suit well with modern audiences. But is it really a major flaw? I don't think so.

To prove my point, I'll say that I watched the movie with a friend who doesn't know ANYTHING about the original comics, or about those kind of movies ... and yet, he was never bored and truly enjoyed the picture.

There are several benefits, starting with the two protagonists, an always diligent Luca Marinelli as the dark thief, and a simply stunning Miriam Leone that shows both the incredible beauty and the solid competence of Eva Kant, way more than a mere "femme fatale".

And the technical side, from the cinematography to the production design, serves perfectly to put the audience in that period.

But still, there are some big flaws, like the way certain plot points are solved, and the most important, at least for me: Valerio Mastandrea is just not credible as Ginko, or as a policeman in general, like my friend said. Luckily he appears for the right time, without resulting too invasive in the plot, but still plays a very important role that he can't just give enough justice (quite ironically XD)

But all in all, THIS IS NOT A DISATER, but a pretty decent experiment that deserves a chance, and maybe a bit more of mental opening from audiences. Really, I assure you that it won't be a waste of time.

Long Live Giussani Sisters, and long live Diabolik!

Michael Jackson would know - I mean no pun intended of course. First things first: neither have I seen the Mario Bava movie (60s I believe) nor have I read the source material. So no idea how this fares to either of those. I did watch the direct sequel though (part 2, part 3 was not out at the time of writing in Germany).

Even without seeing that there is a Bava movie, I would have said this feels like a throwback. In many senses - the main female character may be a bit more "modern", but almost everything in the movie has a 60s vibe to it. And I am not just talking about the time/era this plays in ... we do get to see a partial nude behind ... not sure that was something that movies did back in the 60s ... but let's not get hung up on ... well "butts". Again no pun intended as always.

The main character (see title) is quite the interesting anti hero. He is anything but a good guy ... and yet we may find ourselves rooting for him. There is a big twist that does not make much sense - (non existing) dialog wise, but if you suspend your disbelief you will have fun with the movie ... and its roller coaster ride!

As a huge fan of the character, and having felt let down by the 1968 cartoonish effort to bring Diabolik to screen, I was really pumped to learn that this film was being made and had great expectations for it.

Well...

Truth is that I sat in horror during the entire first act as I could not believe the absolutely incompetent direction, writing and acting displayed on screen. The Manetti brothers should stick to TV films and soap operas as they are clearly not cut for this genre.

But hey what do I know? They are already working on the second and third installments lol.

I want to mention that when Claudia Gerini entered the screen, for a moment I forgot that I was watching a mediocre school play. I wish she was in for more. I also really felt that Marinelli, although he did a decent job, was wrongly cast as Diabolik as he does not have the phisique du role. Same for Leone, which beauty and hair pulled up are not enough to make her a believable Eva Kent. Music score was generic and did not help propel the story.

Although I was hoping for the contrary, Diabolik 2022 doesn't stand a chance against the many international titles out there in the same genre, and as a first installment of what it appears to become a trilogy, unfortunately it is not really promising.

"Diabolik" is nowhere as bad as people make it out to be: it's certainly flawed (mostly from pacing issues) but it's solid, well-directed and acted, and fairly respectful of the source material. Is this a masterpiece? No. Is this the "rebirth of Italian genre movies"? No, but it's fun and entertaining to watch if you don't expect to go see Citizen Kane.

A note: obviously, Italian press reviews are hating on this movie only because they tried to make something different from the otherwise monotonous theathrical panorama: it's beyond me why every single time someone tries to make a genre movie in Italy, press is always demolishing the effort, there's no surprise the film catalogue isn't evolving much as it should.

It is an entertaining movie.

The soundtrack is beautiful.

It is clear that they put a lot of effort to crete the 60s vibe with a lot of liminal spaces.

You have all the tropes in it: the sensual woman, the attractive and skilled villain and the determined detective.

I think that the masks part was an inspiration from "Fantômas".

I had mixed fellings about how should I feel about a movie that glorifies crooks and killers but now I'm sure, I hate it because even if some of people killed haven't been clean they haven't been dirty enough to justify a killing and most of them have been regular people anyway.

This is a '60 movie for the "modern" audiences where the bad must be presented as good.