Lady Death

First of all, the critics of this movie are really over-exaggerating. Just because everybody isn't an anime geek that drools over animated (i.e. NOT REAL) females that are nothing more than lines drawn on a page doesn't make this a horrible movie. It's funny, I think I even heard Ralph Bakshi mentioned in one review. Yeah, the guy that did Wizards. sigh. Anyway, I didn't mind the story of a "heroine" in hell wanting to take out Lucifer. Gave it a more "casual watcher" appeal than to see a bunch of evil killing machines wanting to outdo each other. It wasn't spectacular by any means, but it's a cartoon for pete's sake. Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to offend the fanboys. I mean "animated feature". Whatever. Cremator was a cool character and they gave as much of a story to the main parts without overdoing it. Not something I would watch over and over but wasn't a waste of the time I spent watching it. I did wonder if things died in hell, did they just come back to hell? That was an anomaly I think you have to suspend disbelief about so you don't get a headache. Another thing was that they could have had a much better ending battle. But it was a basic animated movie with more violence than what you'd want a kid to be watching, so I didn't expect the moon and emmys. And for all of you freakshows that want "nudity" and "realism", here's an idea. Watch a movie with real people in it and quit complaining that you don't get to see "cartoon porn".

I personally liked this movie and am alarmed at the rating's some people have given it. It is a movie based on a comic book and it is animated, now if you don't like comic books or animation then of course you won't like this movie so why did you watch and bother to rate it is beyond me. Though, if you are a fan of Interesting, strong characters and heroic(sexy) women kicking butt and saving the world(hell) you will love this movie. I thought the story really pulled me in and it was a very cool movie. Quite anime-esque or more like some of the American movies following this new trend of adult animation. Like Titan A.E. meet's the live action version of Punisher. In the end I highly recommend this movie the comic buff and super hero fan or anyone with an open enough mind looking for a fun movie.

I must say that I was sort of thrilled when I found this animated movie by sheer luck on Amazon. I had been reading the Lady Death comics back prior to 2004, and then stopped, and gotten out of the loop, so I had no idea that an animated movie was in the works. And by sheer luck I happened to come across it, so of course I bought it to see what it was.

First of all, if you are familiar with the art style found in the Lady Death comic books, be warned that there is an Anime/Manga style influence to the art style in the animated movie. This might not sit well with just anybody, but personally, I found it to be alright. Although the original art style would have been (and is) better. However, I will say that in itself, then this particular art style was alright, and there were some nice details and appearances to some of the damned legion that were seen in Hell.

The story, quickly summarized, is about Hope, the daughter of Matthias, who finds out about her father's dark and unholy secret. Burnt as a witch, Hope calls out to her father and ends up in Hell. Here she sheds her identity and becomes Lady Death, hellbent on taking revenge on Lucifer, the Lord of Lies.

Right, well the storyline itself was simple and easy to follow, and would be a great introduction to those not having read the comic books. Was it impressive? Well, yeah, if you haven't already read the comic books. If you have read them, then this approach to the story of Lady Death is sort of a mediocre one.

If you watch this animated movie, forget what you know from having read the comic books, and just watch this for the entertainment. It have what you need in an animated movie; demons, carnage, Hell, and scantily clad women.

I enjoyed the "Lady Death" comic series. I enjoy anime. Let me rephrase that. I enjoy well done anime. This isn't well done. The script follows the comic series closely, the voice acting is competent, but the animation is every bit as wretched as an episode of Pokemon, and that can't be considered a compliment no matter how you twist it. With better animation, a whole series of direct-to-video films could have been launched. Now I pray that doesn't happen. Films like this have one shot to make it, so one would think that the producers would spend the money to make them beautiful. If they did that, then they could even slack off a bit on the animation quality of subsequent entries into the series. Instead, this one started with crap and has nowhere to go but downhill. I won't deny that some of the backgrounds are gorgeous, but animated film focuses on that which is animated... characters moving about. It is there that "Lady Death:TMP" fails dismally.

Well, I can honestly say that this is the first time that I experienced a film that had literally no meat or potatoes in it. The entire film felt like it was just the salad with no main course. The story line was fallible and laughable, the characters were one-dimensional, the realism was out the window, and the animation was done by four-year olds. Does that cover it? I have never been more embarrassed for a concept in my entire life. I have never read the comics or seen the other programs with this character, but from the looks of the other reviews I am not off base with my observation.

To begin, the story moved too quickly. For someone new to this character and situations, I needed more built into creating the reasons instead of finding the solution. I have seen other Anime (if you could call this one an Anime) that do great things with their characters because they take the time to develop them. There was nothing set aside for Lady Death. In a few short scenes, we see her train with Cremator and instantly become this aggressive she-beast of Hell. This was hard for me to swallow, considering moments before she was introduced as this weak and feeble woman controlled by her father. Suddenly, she is immersed with hatred and can do battle with an existence that has been around for millions of years. This was absurd. The presentation of Lady Death was poor, to say the least. I felt as if she was nothing more than an animated character instead of a desperate woman with revenge on the mind. For me, it just didn't work. She was nothing more than eye-candy for prepubescent boys wanting to ogle the mass quantities of skin that she suddenly grew on her chest when training with Cremator. Oh, I felt sick just watching her. The same goes for the character of Cremator. Who was this random person? The explanation they gave wasn't enough, and instead I was left with more incoherent babbling than actual development. It is a very sad day in Hell when we forgo characters to show more violence and action, especially in an animated feature.

Next, there was Lucifer himself. Let me just say that I think I could do battle with the King of Hell and survive. He was weak, his voice was laughable, and he just didn't represent the image that I had in my mind. It was as if Disney was in control and wanted to make him semi-PC. He lacked the darkness and corrupt nature that Lucifer embodies. He was not the ruler of Hell, but instead just a lackey that had a bigger place to live. Speaking of living or dying, how can you die again in Hell? That was a concept that definitely needed more explanation. Most of the characters were worrying about dying, when they didn't even consider the option that they were already dead. That is how they got to Hell. I think it was this level of thinking that ruined the film for me. I didn't quite capture the notion that your soul was still in a solid body in Hell, but that could just be me … or maybe it was because there was NO DEVELOPMENT in this story. There was nothing built, just preparing.

The battle sequences were hysterically bad. The animation in this cartoon felt like it was made in the early 90s. There was nothing impressive about the way that this film was drawn. Why are we, America, so behind on animation? It is huge in Asia, and it is creeping in hardcore here because we keep making films like Lady Death that do not challenge or use any part of imagination. We are cheap, and this film shows it.

Overall, this film was bad. The animation coupled with the horrendous voice work was cheap. I had head somewhere that this film as in production for a long time, which is hard to understand because I think I could have made this film on my credit card. The production was horrendous as well as the story. Nothing was developed, leaving huge gaping plot holes that nearly everyone fell into. The strength of the characters was missing, and nothing was explained. I wasted my time with this one and would like to warn others so that when Death does come, you don't find yourself in my state and regretting the fact that you wasted 80 minutes on this piece of garbage.

BLAH!

Grade: * out of *****