Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco!

What else to say? If the Italian film industry keeps financing their movies with taxpayer's money, I believe they will never be able to be as relevant as they were after post WW2. Every film and television production becomes a money grabbing feast at the expenses of the taxpayers (and the industry itself). Millions of euros gets stolen from the budget for personal gain or to cover for their companies debt. It's mayhem, and it show in this miserable trilogy (and the overall state of Italian cinema).

The sequel beats the same path as Diabolik (2021): a stylistic throwback to the 1960s and the (European mystery) cinema of the time, with a close adaptation of the feeling of the comic book. Unfortunately this means that it carries all the flaws of its predecessor, coming across as somewhat flat in performance, or didactic in the exposition. The overall vibe of the first movie was interesting enough to make it worth watching, but now the novelty effect starts to wear off. Isn't the planned trilogy too much, an experiment that has gone on for too long not to come across as self-serving?

The new plot doesn't make up for it. Eva Kant is replaced as the real focus of the film by Ginko, the police inspector relentlessly trying to track down Diabolik (like Ganimard to Lupin). Unfortunately, he's not as captivating of a character as Ms. Kant. Luca Marinelli has been replaced by Giacomo Gianniotti as the actor performing Diabolik, and thankfully he's barely given any screentime: while he may be physically more convincing he's less skilled than Marinelli and he's nowhere mysterious or charismatic enough for anyone to believe he should be this story's lead. Monica Bellucci simply shouldn't have been cast.

Not terrible, but it's a notch down from the first and it's increasingly showing a lack of direction. I worry for what's to come.

I'm not a big fan of the character, but I like the dark and mature universe of the comic. The adaptation seems to me quite faithful to what I have read.

The costumes, the location, the actors, the script, all the ingredients were there to make a descent movie.

The only problem is the lack of talent of the directors (although two). The acting is not very coherent. There are a lot of weird and uninspired shots and the cutting reminds me of Sam Raimi's early work.

It's less mature and violent than the previous one, it has lost some of the toxic mood there was with it's psychopath hero and most murders are off-screen. The actor has been replaced by another with a more pleasant physique, but without the nuances of his predecessor.

Monica Bellucci doesn't bring much to the film, Miriam Leone (the hero's girlfriend) and Valerio Mastandrea (the inspector) do a good job.

The movie is overall very nice and enjoyable. Nice reconstruction of the Diabolik world. Nice costumes. Nice cartoonish scenography. Good overall acting for such kind of film. Just one big stain on it... and therefore a big question..... why to ruin an overall well made movie with the horrible acting of Monica Bellucci and why choose (or accept) to soft focus (or photoshop) her face (and only her) all around the movie when she appear in the scenes? I know... her presence will probably open additional markets to the movie... but I stil don't understand.... Maybe she paid to be in the film if soft focused?

No doubt, this movie is very bad, much worse than predecessor, even worse than the worst comic-book episode. Plot is naïve with lot of illogical points. One has to invest a lot of suspension of disbelief if wants to endure it. But... If you do not take it seriously, you can relax and enjoy it. So bad that it is good, great guilty pleasure, genuine camp. By the way, reconstruction of 1960s is nice, with great accessories and, of course, Italian cars and Italian cities (with my favorite Trieste).

Ms. Bellucci's acting was so bad that I think she was self-ironical and intentionally making fun of the movie. I prefer Mr. Marinelli from the first movie as Diabolik. Better actor with charisma and better looks for main character. Mr. Gianniotti luckily does not have a lot of screen time what is kind of ironic too. Ms. Leone is gorgeous as always.