Devilman

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.

The weak teenager Akira Fudô (Hisato Izaki) has been protected by his best friend Ryô Asuka (Yûsuke Izaki) since they were children. When Akira's parents die in an accident, the family Makimura brings him to live with them, and Akira falls in love for the gorgeous Miki Makimura (Ayana Sakai). When the father of Ryô accidentally opens a gate to hell in Antarctica, demons are released, merging with humans to survive. Akira hosts Aman and becomes Devilman but keeping his humanity while Ryô hosts Satan. The hysteria and panic replaces reason and mankind initiates a war against the demons, but destroying also themselves.

I have never read any comic book of "Devilman", therefore I am not familiarized with this character of manga. But this movie shows a promising idea wasted in a messy but also entertaining screenplay. This apocalyptical story shows Akira and Ryô as best friends, but never explains the motive of the evilness of Ryô. Further, it seems that there are "good demons" and evil ones, and Akira is the last hope of the human race, but the story does not develop well the motives of the two friends. Anyway this movie is underrated in IMDb with 3.8 and I liked it in the end. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Devilman"

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.

Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the original series, and watched this movie only because the trailer was really cool. Thus, I went into it not knowing what to expect. I guess going in blind is an advantage in some cases. I actually liked this movie pretty well, though I didn't always understand who everyone was and what was going on. In some ways, this reminded me of a Romero zombie movie, and not only because it's kinda cheesy and involves evil dead things that attack people. It seemed to contain similar themes of social commentary, in this case mostly about man's cruelty and inhumanity towards other man, and the way fear can spark violence and paranoia. Based on that impression of the movie, the special-effects fight scenes seemed out of place, to me, almost like a distraction. I had the feeling the whole time I might understand more of what was going on had I been a fan of the original, but since they're said to be completely different, I doubt it would've helped much. As weird as it sounds, I'd have to suggest not seeing the original before this. It seems it's an easier movie to like that way.

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.