Flick Review: Lupin III

9/28/2014 12:13:26 PM

Okay. So the hype of Lupin the Third the movie came just during the much hyper (and according to my friends, much-acclaimed and more appealing), Ruroni Kenshin, huh?

Here’s the problem: as Rurouni’s widely recognized by otakus inside and outside Japan, Lupin III appearance rolls as if on a wrong timing basis. Despite this, I found their trailer appealing.

However after seeing the flick for over two hours, I had a conclusion: it’s funny yet horrible. It’s entertaining yet also a disappointment. In other words, I can tell it’s beautiful, yet also had a lot of flaws.

Yes, there are lot of flaws, like there are scenes where these Japanese actors tried to speak the picture’s foreign linguistic (which is by the way, English). And the way the spiels were delivered in some “trying hard” fashion? Oh, that sucks big time.

Another: some parts of the storyline have their loopholes, something I’m afraid the technicalities were not able to handle.

Some camera angles during the action scenes were another buster. It’s like for every body movement, for every bullet fired, they switched shots as if they are operating strobe lights. Though I could recall it right there are scenes during the animation series which went this way.

And the catastrophic of them all: subtitles. It’s okay to put up these translations if the actors were speaking Japanese. But, English subtitles on English audio dialogues? You’ve got to be kidding me. Another insult to injury: some characters (those similar to 'greater than' and 'less than,' in fact) which used for technicalities (unfortunately for some I don't know reasons, can't be published here). It’s like you’re watching some pirated movies on DVDwhere such are applicable.

However, the good side though is that, Lupin’s humor exists, and that’s what this series should be really about. The wits he brought to chase and action, the undermanned intelligence this thief has? He’s like a one-man show that can rock the house down by himself! But with Jigen seemingly to exposed his eyes more often? And Goemon’s rare cameo? And Fujiko, which is very usual sexy-but-hard-to-get hot chick?

What a criminal dream team.

But out these characters, I admired three: Lupin, Michael Lee, and Koichi Zenegata. Lupin,  maybe because of his typical signature. Sure we can argue about the changes brought by adaptation regarding his styles of bringing wits and intelligence. But as always, in general what can you expect about adaptations at all?

Michael Lee, portrayed by Jerry Yan, was arguably the film’s huge “round character.” Switching from a traitor only to realized he formed the wrong camp, and discovered a huge regretful truth. He then revert himself into a Lupin ally, seeking avenge in the process.

And Zenegata seemed to be the most untouchable character here. His style in the mangas remained in the movies: Loudmouth yet airbrainer.

The soundtrack seemed to be average. I know, one review said it sounded like porn. But if you understand Lupin better, listened to the Anime soundtrack, you’ll know that was a typical scoring.

But I admire Trick Attack’s work more. Sounds like those old school anime series. Yes, in the 60s or 70s, I could even incorporate the likes of Maskman, Voltes V and Daimos on this one.

Overall, I can only give a bit fair take on this one.

The verdict: 6.2

Author: slickmaster | ©2014 september twenty-eight productions