You know these puzzle games? Well, someone actually found it a good idea to make a movie about one, impossible as it may seem. The creators of this movie really were put in front of the daunting task of coming up with some sort of epic story that involves solving puzzles, and while the result is far away from perfect, I’m still surprised at how interesting this movie became.
Let me start with the good: the back-story. The story behind the mystery that Professor Layton and his assistant have to solve is imaginative, and actually a pretty good mystery-story. In the beginning it throws in a ton of red herrings and hints at you, and as the movie progresses it shapes together quite a nice overall story. This pacing, along with its ideas are bound to hold your attention and the characters that the mystery focus on are good and well fleshed out.
The animation by PA works also was quite interesting. The character-designs are simple, but quite varied and aesthetically pleasing. The animation is consistently fluid as you could expect from a movie, and the soundtrack is equally excellent.
Right, now that that’s out of the way: the bad stuff. Well, first of all, the movie assumes that its watchers are fans of the games. This means that you’re not going to get any background information about the main characters. Who is professor Layton? Why does he, one of the apparently most brilliant “puzzle scholars” (actual quote from the movie!), have a ten-year-old kid as his assistant? Who is that charming but mysterious Scotland yard cop? Especially the intro of the movie is just weird, unnecessary, confusing, stupid and never explained. Expect none of this to be addressed throughout the movie, even if they’re jarring. It’s just there to focus on the story of the Eternal Diva.
Then, the plot. As imaginative as it may be, there are just large chunks of it that don’t make any sense whatsoever. Most notable is the plan of the bad guys, which is just ridiculously complicated no matter how you look at it. The reason that this movie has so many red herrings is because of how incredibly needlessly elaborate their actions are, considering the goals that they’re trying to accomplish. You’d need to have looked at the script of the movie in order to be able to understand what’s going on (yes, that’s also a criticism to a bit more spoilerific part of the movie).
Overall, the movie is too forced. It’s too focused on its storyline (which really is quite good) and forgets the fine details as avoiding deus ex machina, completely writing characters out when they’re not needed anymore, making sense, that kind of stuff. Still, I’d especially recommend the first half of this movie, because that really is build up for a mystery done well.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Deus ex machina, lacks attention to detail, but is actually pretty good at building up and creating tension. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – No depth on the lead characters, but the side-characters are pretty good for a movie. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Pretty good for movie standards, though not the best. |
| Setting: | 7/10 – I’m very torn on this one. The setting behind this movie is very imaginative… it just doesn’t make any sense and really doesn’t seem to care about this at all. |
Suggestions:
– Laputa: Castle in the Sky
– Gedo Senki
– The xxxHolic Movie (just ignore that review. It’s crap)
OMG I LOVE the video game, I have both games for the DS. Didn’t think they would be crazy enough to attempt an anime of the series, given that plot has always been rather flimsy and its the puzzles that are the charm.
Love the video games and would probably wanna watch this
Ugh, it cut off part of my post. I asked where you’d seen this and if it was subbed/dubbed/raw
azule: there’s a subbed version available.
http://anonscanlations.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-haff-tvelve-subs-well-more-like-1050.html
I don’t think you can hold it against the movie that it doesn’t bother to reintroduce the characters. It’s for fans of the games (I’m guessing playing only the first game will be enough).
It’s like watching the second season of an anime and complain that they don’t bother to explain the backstory.
Puran, any addition to a franchise should have some degree of friendliness toward newcomers, the lack of this element is definitely a minus, especially so in theatrical releases such as this one.
I played the two games, yet to see the movie though. As far as story in the games,I have to say that the story worked well as a complimentary element to the gameplay: good mystery, simple but catchy characters (considering the medium/genre). And you always had the chance to take a look at Layton’s notes should the things get too complicated. The lack of those notes in the movie (obviously) can prove a problem if the creators indeed didn’t tone down the complexity a bit.
I’ve played the first two games, and the story can get sorta WTF deus ex machina. Remember the second game? But I still love the games anyways. I like the art style and sort of charm it has, and I do enjoy its ridiculous plots.
To be fair, even the games don’t really properly introduce the characters’s backstory until the fourth one.
Oh heehee ProfessorLayton Ineverthoughtyou’dreviewit
The flaws you stated about the movie were true. Even the games were like that, especially when it came to introducing characters. They were always horrible with that.
But for a video game movie, this got pretty high. How many video game movies have not sucked over the years? @_@
Jo: Tales of Vesperia? 😉
Totally forgot that. From what I’m heard, point taken.
Goshhh. I want to watch it, but I haven’t played the damn game. Will it be less satisfying to watch if I havent played the game?
Thank you for pointing me out to the subs… I’ve been waiting for this movie for months. Can’t wait to watch it!
its funny how all your bad comments were the same comments i had for the games story lol
i dnt think they ever explained the characters background and the stories go pretty wild but the puzzles are pretty fun!
Watched it…
I think the reason why they don’t reveal the characters’ background is because they want us to buy the games. (which for people who can’t speak Japanese, can’t because the adaptations come reaaally late. I want to play The Specter’s Flute (4th game) dammit!) Yeah, they don’t even reveal why Luke is with Layton until the 4th game I think. And in the movie they said that it was a continuation of the 4th game.
I like the ridiculous plots actually. It allows the story to be more creative. And the scenes actually make sense. (like in some series when the bad guys start talking the good guys just stand there and do nothing? I hate that kind of stuff. But it doesn’t happen here…) And the sad scenes do succeed in creating emotion into this movie.