Customer Reviews

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dante's Inferno is an incredible animated film! One of the best animated movies I've seen in a very long time, and I watch a lot! Especially anime, been watching it since I was little. Be careful though, I have kids, and I wouldn't let any kid under 12 watch this!!

This is a beautiful film to behold, with amazing animation and a story that is exciting, moving and deeply layered. A knight searches for the soul of the woman he loves... and what we perceive as a hero at first, changes til we realize Dante is really a bad person, not the hero we think from the begining.

Everyone should check this out. It's really good for an animated film!! One of the best I've seen in a long time, and I'm not even a big video game fan!! Warning: It does have lots of gore and nudity. Adults only. I don't usually watch gory stuff, but I really liked this.

Dante's Inferno is also made me think. About evil, morality, the nature of god, all that stuff. It is thoughtful and smart, with a story that makes sense. A lot of the animes you watch make no sense whats so ever, but this made perfect sense all the way through. There was a bit too much fighting, and it seemed to move a bit too breakneck fast for me. But I was watching every moment in anticipation.

This film is interesting because it's all about point of view. Dante is in his own hell. Beatrice is in her hell, and even the devil has a point of view here. He feels betrayed by God. He thinks god is the true evil, because it made him, then punished the devil... but God made evil knowing it would rebel. It made me think quite a bit, which rarely anything does.

An AWESOME film! A bit gory for my tastes, but it was very moving, exciting, and just plain COOL!!!

Featuring multiple animation styles, this adaptation of the video game released by Electronic Arts is a surprisingly good and horrific tale. Dante's Inferno tells the story of Dante, a crusader who returns home only to find his beloved Beatrice murdered, and her soul in the posession of Lucifer himself. As Dante plunges through the Nine Circles of Hell, it is slowly uncovered just how and why all this happened. Featuring some wonderful voice acting, a great score, an buckets of blood and gore; Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic is a pure blast. Though its ending is pretty underwhelming compared to the rest of the film as a whole, and the final animation style comes off as too cartoony compared to the styles that came earlier, this is still a worthwhile endeavor regardless, even if you have little desire to play the video game. All in all, if mature-themed animation is your thing, Dante's Inferno should be right up your alley.

I certainly see it as a good thing to be bringing old works of art new life... But this is certainly not the original Dante's Inferno. That being said the animation work is stunning. At first I did not notice that there were different artistic styles, but they blend very well together. Much like the Animatrix, but on a continuous storyline.

The designs used to depict hell are stunning and grotesque at the same time. The use of color and animation is great.

I have watched anime for a long time... All sorts of it too, and I must say I would like to see more like this. The story is well scripted and acted.

The morality is layered well into the story and brings about a nice perspective in the end. Very thought provoking....

A must have for fans of the game or anime fans... Even those who have read the original work might enjoy this recreation of the story.

This was a cool animated take on the game/poem. Quite well done. Not a lot of extra features on the blu ray however, which is always a disappointment. Which makes me think they should have just put it on the PS3 game disc and charged another 5 or 10 bucks. But cool nonetheless.

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic is based on the recent video game from EA and Visceral games. Dante Alighieri is a knight who has returned home from the Holy Crusades to find his father and wife murdered. As his wife's soul floats to Heaven, it is intercepted by Lucifer, who drags her down to Hell. Dante must follow down into the depths of the netherworld, battling through the nine circles of Hell to rescue his beloved Beatrice.

The film follows the path of the game closely...perhaps too closely. While it's fun to battle through the legions of Hell, fighting monstrous boss characters and absolving heretics of their sins, watching it isn't quite so fun. As in the game, Dante is aided by the spirit of Roman poet Virgil who guides him on his journey, which basically consists of one battle after another, some sage advice from Virgil, and Lucifer taunting Dante.

The film is told in segments with each representing a circle of Hell. In all, there are five different animation studios who worked on the film including Dong Woo Animation (Justice League Unlimited), Studio Manglobe (Samurai Champloo), Film Roman (Hellboy Animated), JM Animation, and Production I.G. With so many different styles and Directors, the film suffers from a lack of consistency both in terms of animation style and characterization. Some segments have a strong Anime look to them which doesn't work well with the Gothic/Medieval setting of the film. Dante himself looks decidedly different in the various styles, appearing alternatively has a hulking knight to a lithe martial artist.

The film failed to improve on the thick-witted personality Dante shows in the game. He has little to say outside of shouting, "Where's Beatrice!" Or "I must save Beatrice!" Game fans may (or may not) be happy that Circle Two's giant boss Cleopatra who pulled demonic babies from naked breasts is nowhere to be seen. Most of the other bosses of the game are present including Charon, Cerebrus, King Minos, and Dante's own father. The film maintains the game's theme of sin and redemption but like the game the end is left far too wide open. The game we can understand as a sequel will surely be forthcoming. For the film, the ending is unforgivable.

If you enjoyed the videogame you're likely to enjoy the film, if for no other reason than to see the story brought to life. But the film would have fared much better with one animation studio and director to maintain some consistency.

I think the word "Epic" is most definitely the right word to sum up this new take on Dante Alighieri's divine comedy. Having read the literary work, I was very interested to see how the nine circles would be visually presented, given the development of and adaptation of contemporary styles of animation, as well as the more accepted liberal views on religion of the present day; not to mention that the period in history in which the original story was constructed, the Catholic Church's view on life, heaven and hell were absolute. The combination of all those things had the potential for being something truely unique and inspiring. The final product, I'm pleased to say, turned out to be one heck of a thrill to watch.

Right on the heels of the newly released video game of the same name (concept and all) Dante's Inferno was an excellent piece of work. For those unfamiliar with the story, the plot breakdown is as follows:


Dante, a soldier who took part in the Crusade, comes home from war to find everyone in his father's villa home slaughtered, including his beloved fiance, Beatrice. As Beatrice breaths her last breath and Dante witnesses her soul ascending into Heaven, she is snatched up by Lucifer and dragged to hell. In an effort to free Beatrice from the depths of hell Dante dives head first into the Inferno, with the poet Virgil as his guide, fighting off demons, monsters, illusions, damned souls, and his own dark memories that plague him.


Now, given that this is basically an animated version of the game, you pretty much know what to expect: lots of blood and gore. If anything else is prevelant in this movie, its the blood. Dante goes into the Inferno swinging, hacking, slashing and chopping up anything in his path. Literally. So this isnt for the kiddies, or the soft of heart and stomach. However, just because this is a huge gore fest doesnt take away from how awsome this movie is.

Story: 5/5
The story is an awesome one to tell, albeit its been changed around a bit for cinematic enjoyment, but its a great action flick. There is a nice balance of action, drama, and suspense, and its ultimately a satisfying view.

Animation: 4/5
Since this IS an animated feature, the art does come into question. This part is kind of tricky to judge. The movie is primarily Japanese Anime style, which is great. Whats interesting is that the styles switch up as the film progresses. I'm not sure, but I think for ever couple of circles of Hell that are traversed, everything gets changed to a new style. This is a very interesting choice of presentation, and adds even more to the impressiveness of the movie, but it can a bit off putting, cuz as soon as your used to a new style and like it, it changes suddenly and you have to start over again. Its a minor annoyance, but still kinda cool. Also, the concepts for the characters of hell are amazing, and so very dark. Some of the levels are downright creepy. I haven't played the game, so I don't know how much influence comes from it, but everything in the inferno was beautifully envisioned.... well, as beautiful as one's vision of Hell can be anyway. In all, I think there are about 5, maybe 6 styles in the movie. Oh, and this looks GREAT on blu-ray on an HDTV.

Sound/Music: 4/5
Usually I'm a big critic of movie scores, but this time I let it slide. You dont really expect too much from the score here because your so into the action, there's really no room for anything fancy. Its ok, but nothing that would stand alone if you were to buy the score itself. Sound quality was pretty good, and it better be since this is a blue ray release. The voice acting was pretty good with a few voices you will immediately catch on to (Mark Hamill, for example). Some were better then others, but it gets the job done.

Replay Value: 4/5
This is a fun flick, good for people who like hack n slash, action packed type animes. Good for an occasional view, and even better for the artistic value packed into it.


Overall, I give Dante's Inferno: and Animated Epic a 4.5/5. If not for those minor gripes of mine, it would be flawless, but then again, not everyone is going to like everything. Either way, I still put out my money for it. Its a great movie, worth the price of money and time. Enjoy! I'm going to go watch it again.

Based on the first part of the Divine Comedy (with nothing funny about it, at all).

The story is centered around an unnerving journey through the 9 rings of Hell Dante travels to free the soul of his beloved Beatrice, damned because he broke his vow to her. In each ring of Hell he comes face to face with all of his past sins and his quest to free Beatrice also turns into a quest for personal redemption.

It's horrifying, gory, tragic, and uncomfortable to watch at moments. Everything it needs to be, as Hell lives up to it's name.

DO NOT LET CHILDREN SEE THIS! I can't stress enough the need to drop our bigot views on animation, just because it is not live action does not mean it is meant for children!!!

First off let me say that I have watched two recent bluray dvd's that were based off a game (Halo Legends and now this). The quality of this bluray is amazing. One of the challenges that this story faced vs. the Halo franchise is that there isnt a tremendous back story that they could easily fill in. This is essentially a anime version of the game and the story is kept in tact. I was very pleasantly surprised at the delivery of the story and the quality of the animation in this release. The voice over work was good as well.

Here is my breakdown:

Voice Over:
The narration and quality of the voice over is good to very good. I wouldn't say its excellent but definitely deserves merit.
4.5/5

Animation:
The animation varies a bit. Initially the art style is blocky and more masculine. As our hero descents into hell the art style changes becoming more feminine. There are several changes and this is part of the charm of the deliver.y I really liked this aspect of the story telling and to me it helped tell the story.
5/5

Story:
I cant help but feel that this is the part that could have used some more work. It almost felt like the video game in motion. I dont think enough was done from a screen writing perspective to really tool the story for the big screen. The story isnt bad just seems lacking considering the great source material. The dialogue as well was at times a bit cheesy but its wasn't prevalent and didnt detract from the overall experience.
3/5

Blu-Ray Extras:
Could have used more extras, maybe game content or something related to Dante's Inferno. If there is one area that always could use improvement its extras!
4/5

Overall:
I asked myself did I regret pre-ordering the blu-ray and how badly did I miss the extras or dislike the lack of depth in the story telling. I dont regret it and dont have any problems recommending this as a purchase for any fan of the game or the original story. This is something you will enjoy, its feature length and worth the watch.
4/5

The animation for the most part was good. However, I was not a fan of the different artists interpretations of the main characters. I understand the reasoning behind it but I felt it broke up the flow of the movie just a lil bit. The movie and game have essentially the same central theme but the execution is very much different. Obviously, since this is the movie, there is more focus on the storyline, which is something the game imo failed on. If you are relying on a the exact same sequences that happened in the game in the movie/vice versa, you will be disappointed. However, the movie does provide a better background on the Lucifer/Beatrice wager and what Dante did to get himself into that trouble. Some noticeable differences between the movie and game that I can think of off the top of my head are:
-Dante acquiring the Scythe(read: no battle with Death)
-Boss battles
-No Cleopatra/Marc Antony
-Fraud was really condensed down. But this is understandable as it could have tacked on another 30-60 mins.
-End battle with Lucifer. Felt kinda underwhelming

Maybe if I did not play the game, I would bump this rating up one notch. However, even the dvd case says this is a companion piece, so it's hard to not draw up differences between the movie and game. Not bad for a rental, I just cant imagine adding it to the collection.

I bought this DVD as I am interested in the video game adaptation. Of course their are differences between the two, but generally they follow each other. The art work is a little dated, but overall an interesting production.
Not for minors. Blood, violence, sexual overtones, nudity.
This is also a DVD that won't get a lot of replay from me. I saw it once. Might go back and watch it again at some point, but not like a favorite movie.
Overall, I enjoyed it and glad I bought it.