Customer Reviews

Lady Death - The Motion Picture

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

LADY DEATH THE MOVIE is terrible! Among its good points is the fact that the story is faithful, for the most part, to Lady deaths first mini-series THE RECKONING, with some changes. The voice acting is decent, but the animation is horrible. For a movie that has been in prodution soooooo long i must say i was expecting a LOT better. Other reviewers have rated this anime movie 4 and 5 stars, GHOST IN THE SHELL, SPIRITED AWAY, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, if you compare these high quality anime movies to LADY DEATH, she just can't compete. EP

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 *****

I have to admit that I hadn't read the comic book version of "Lady Death". I rented this out of sheer curiosity when I saw it on the website of my online dvd rental service. The premise of the film sounded intriguing. A young girl Hope is the daughter of a mercenary named Matthias who isn't what he appears to be. When villagers make accusations against Matthias for a fiery incident at his castle, Hope is punished for her father's crimes by the townsfolk and is burned at the stake. When Hope is reunited with her father in the underworld, she finds out his real identity as Lucifer. She quickly rejects her father's offer to rule the underworld and conquer the world together. Her rejection automatically sends her to Lucifer's former comrade Cremator. Under Cremator's tutelage, Hope slowly transforms into Lady Death both physically and emotionally. Lady Death is determined to bring down her father once and for all.

I personally liked this movie. It isn't perfect. I have seen better animation from other anime films. The animation just seemed dated and didn't lack the vibrant colors or the amazing visuals that films like "Ghost in the Shell" or any of Hayao Miyazaki films possesses. The dialogue was terribly cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. I bet a chimpanzee could have written better dialogue than the humans that came up with this script. Despite the unimpressive animation, thin plot, and unintentionally funny dialogue, I still found this film rather entertaining. I guess I can chalk it up as a guilty pleasure for this reviewer.

Lady Death is a great movie!I am one of the biggest Lady Death fans with having comics,litho's,statues,and a full picture tattoo of her from head to heel on my back and even with all the so-called negative reviews I still love this movie.The anime style actually works really well for this picture.Hope is wrongly accussed by the town of devil worship after her father escapes into hell leaving her behind.She is then burned at the stake only to be saved by a prayer her father taught her.Hope realizes her father is Satan after he saves her and Hope is delivered to hell.Satan has his own evil plan in the works the whole time.Hope receives help from an unlikely ally and is transformed into Lady Death during her training.Lady Death must now stop Satan in a battle for hell.The movie does stay true to the comic and the origins of Lady Death for one hell of a thrill ride from start to finish.This is an awesome movie that any true Lady Death fan will love.If you want to nitpick about every detail then you won't enjoy it,but if you take Lady Death for what she is,a sexy as hell, ass-kickin,demon slaying vixen that will set your heart racing,then you will appreciate this picture.There is plenty of blood,and gore with sweet battle scenes that are very cool with the anime style.Bottom line take the good with the bad and enjoy Lady Death kicking some ass!!! Lady Death Rocks!!!

I just wanted to add to everyone else, and say that this movie sucked if your a fan of the comic or just someone who like more adult animation please skip this movie. The animation is terrible, and the voice acting is craptastic. When the devil is speaking you cant even hear what he is saying. The audio on his voice is way lower then the rest of the cast. The frame rate on the animation is so pore that sometimes the characters look like they are moving in slow motion. I am a fan of the comic and I can say that this movie diserves a 1 out of 5.

I just finished watching this movie and I can honestly say I am truly dissapointed. I am not very fussy with animation as I am a big fan of the genre but I highly doubt this will remain in my collection. The cover art is soooooo good you just can't wait to get home and watch it but the animation is actually very poor (for a motion picture) and lacks that detail and shading you enjoy in most anime's. It is of the quality of your saturday morning cartoons (I have seen some with better). I also found a lot of the action sequences very repetitive. The story moves too fast and you feel no connection with any of the characters introduced. This is a real shame as I can see potential in these characters.

In regard to the dvd the sound and picture quality are fine and it has a couple of extra's.

In conclusion don't waste your money unless it's super cheap!! You will enjoy Vampire Hunter D or the short film Blood much much more than this.

Director Andy Orjuela drags us to Hell, where the Devil's minions rebel and bikinis are the only protective gear you get. Based on the comic by Brian Pulido (who co-wrote the script), the film centers on the daughter of a Swedish warlord--actually Lucifer in disguise--who challenges her father after taking the rap for his rampage on Earth. One of the movie's selling points (besides the obvious) is the solid plot that it could've had. But Lady Death spends so much time sword-sparring, sleeping, and dragging around severed heads, that it makes her hour-and-a-half run feel much longer. Add to that the stiff animation and endless bloodshed and by the film's climax, you just stop caring. It feels like you've lost years of your life, and that's how I'll remember this.

This film contains graphic violence and is recommended for mature audiences only.

I have seen several bad reviews and thought I would add my two cents. I had no idea that this was based on a comic series when I saw it.

The plot is simple and easy to follow. A girl in dark ages has her world turned upside down when it is discovered her father is actually the Lord of Lies (Satan). He escapes into a gate to hell and leaves her behind to face the villagers. They burn her at the stake for the sins of her father. At the last moment she recites the prayer of her father and decends into hell. (This all happens very early in the movie so I'm not giving anything away really.)

She discovers she has been tricked by her father, that whole Lord of Lies thing. She vows revenge. The movie then follows how she goes about it.

If you are looking for a mentally challenging anime this isn't it. If you are looking for one you can follow easily and just enjoy then this is a good anime for. A kind of popcorn anime. Just something nice and light even if the premise is dark and slightly disturbing.

This movie is best enjoyed for accepting it as it is. Comparing it to Vampire Hunter D is unfair as they are very different in concept and style. Just remember anime is like American live action movies; they are all different and not meant to be all alike.

I was inmpressed with the animation and detail. The storyline was good, but not all together based on the comicbook story line, but good none the less.

I'm a pretty big Lady Death fan I suppose. I have all the comic books (including most variant covers) and I have most of the comics published by Chaos! Comics in general. I didn't go as overboard as some people, where they own all the other products produced aside from comics, but I really liked a lot of the characters they put into comics. I got into Lady Death when I was in junior high; naturally my motives weren't completely intellectually driven, as you should be able to tell from the cover of this movie. As I got older I still appreciated the character and comics for what they were, but I certainly wasn't expecting anything profound at this point, nor was I when I picked up this movie. I was pretty excited at first because I thought this story would be a great animated movie. I was looking forward to seeing "The Reckoning" in film format... that's definitely not what us fans got.

Unfortunately if you're a fan of this comic then this does not recount the tale like you read in the comics. This feels way more haphazardly thrown together and really doesn't do the original writing justice. Frankly, I don't exactly know what happened. What I do know is that Chaos! Comics ended up going bankrupt during this time. They actually filed for a chapter that requires you to sell off all assets, not the one where you get government protection to keep your business going, no, everything had to go. However, Brian Pulido did manage to hold onto his rights of the Lady Death character and she now appears with him under Avatar Press. During this fiasco this motion picture was being made, and I suspect that because everything else was tied up in legal issues he couldn't use the original story line from "The Reckoning". Maybe he no longer held that copyright. I think Pulido wanted to give his fans a film somewhat in the spirit of Lady Death at least, but his original story line was so much better than what we got here. I know the man is a film major and really into film in general, but I really think this could have been done a little bit better. Personally rather than recounting the origins of Lady Death I think maybe he should have written a whole different tale considering everything else was tied up, but maybe he couldn't? I really don't know.

In the end we have a film that is very loosely based on the original "The Reckoning" story line, but with a way more disjointed feel. Like Lady Death ends up in Hell for totally different reasons, also her father is a vastly different person as well. Cremator's role isn't explained very well at all, but they probably weren't allowed to use his original concept. Not to mention whoever did the voice acting for Cremator was not a good fit at all, in my opinion. However, I thought Lady Death's voice actor was suitable, so for that I was glad. Even Purgatori's character was all wrong in this and she's my favorite Pulido character! I don't know what more to say about this because I don't want to give too much away, because it doesn't make a lot of sense anyway and people will just get confused. But for example, Lady Death ends up fighting all these demon lords that aren't even in the comics, never mind the fact they have nothing to do with her rise to power in Hell story line, but yet they're worked in? Lady Death's realization of her powers in this is so sudden and haphazard, that it doesn't show that she was in Hell for a while before she really started figuring out how things work there in the original concept.

Overall the animation is on par with cartoons you'd watch in the early 1990's. I know this will seem quite poor for a 2004 release, but you have to remember the creators and artists are into nostalgia. It's really no different than the art we saw in the original comic book series back in 1994. I can see why people would complain about the animation in light of today's work if they never read this comic from 1994. The most impressive thing about this movie was the soundtrack, which I thought was excellently powerful. However, I really can't see many people buying into this film, fans of Lady Death and anyone else for that matter. I can see what Pulido was trying to do, but I really don't think it worked overall. I mean, I don't remember "real" Death showing up at all in "The Reckoning" and then her stealing his powers? Basically she realized desire is power and then made the eternal graveyard in the comics. That didn't really happen at all here... ah well, if it comes to take it or leave it, I'm leaving it.