Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction Review. Yes, guys, this is a brand new themed marathon that I'm gonna be doing, and it's NOT related to comic books. So yes, if the title of the marathon didn't give it away, I'm gonna be dedicating the next 2 months to me covering video game related movies. And we're gonna kick things off with a rather unique animated film. At least, to me, it's unique. This movie came out in 2009. That movie is "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva".
Now I say it's unique, mainly because I didn't even know that there was a movie based off the Professor Layton games. Now I should mention that I haven't played a whole lot of games from the Professor Layton series. The only two that come to mind are "Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy", and the crossover game with Ace Attorney, the latter being a pretty good game. I also know that the Professor Layton series started off back during the Nintendo DS era, and it became a huge hit with the handheld market. So, I'm obviously kinda behind on the Professor Layton series, because a lot of those games were from an era that I skipped out on. Also, I'm not a huge puzzle gamer, but I'm still willing to give more of those games a chance as soon as I can find them for a reasonable price.
So, going into this movie, I have no idea where this thing fits into the series, chronologically. Not that it matters to me, but I know that there are those that are more knowledgeable about Professor Layton than I am. The only things I know about Professor Layton is that the main character's full name is Professor Hershel Layton, he has an assistant named Luke, and the series is centered around puzzles. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect from this movie. I'm also curious as to how much of the "puzzle" element is going to play a factor into this movie. So, the only thing for me to do at this point, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva".
9 minutes later
You know, guys, this movie has some really solid animation. But the CG on these vehicles, at least so far, looks absolutely hideous. It really is kinda distracting me from the awesome-looking animation. Mind you, the movie so far has been really fascinating. I'm really getting into it, but these CG vehicles are kinda distracting me a bit.
9 minutes later
So this entire opera theater is just part of a giant cruise ship? That...is actually really fucking cool. And it kinda makes sense, because earlier, when a good portion of the audience was trying to escape, they all fell through a trap door. I'm guessing they all just fell below decks, now that I'm seeing this ship for the first time. If that is the case, then at least it answers that question.
5 minutes later
Wait, so they're actually introducing the puzzles like they did in the games? You know, like 001, as in the very first puzzle in the game? That's actually really cool! OK granted, it's kinda stupid, but you know what? I'm willing to roll with it, because it's a nice attention to detail.
15 minutes later
You know, guys, I was just thinking about something. So earlier, we saw the cruise ship explode. Looked really awesome. But I have to wonder...what happened to the people that fell through the trap doors? Because if they were still on the ship when it exploded, then...holy shit, this movie is fucking dark! I mean, granted, I haven't played a whole of the Professor Layton games, but I do remember them being mostly light-hearted in terms of tone. I'm kinda hoping this movie will come up with some explanation as to what happened to those people. But if they're dead, then this movie has some massive balls, dude.
1 minute later
Well, this movie just made me eat my own words. They actually DID explain what happened to the missing people at the theater. Apparently, they were all escorted into a submarine from the theater last night before it exploded. I wasn't expecting them to answer my question so soon, but hey, at least the movie was kind enough to answer my own question.
9 minutes later
Guys, I'd like to say right now that the music in this movie is fucking great. I am loving every piece of music that has played so far in this movie. And it's actually making the movie much more enjoyable. At least, to me, it is.
20 minutes later
Sorry, guys, if I'm not saying much right now, but I'm really getting sucked into this story. It really is that engaging. I'm actually kinda loving it.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva". Let's shut that off...OK. Wow, um...you know, I went into this thing with low expectations, being that I'm not the biggest fan of the Professor Layton series. But after watching this, I actually am kind of a fan now. I really wasn't expecting that from this movie, but it accomplished that in spades!
While I'm on this subject, I'm gonna start with something that might seem unprecedented, but I have to make this known here. I am not someone who is asking for loyalty from the source material. Because, to me, it's not really an important factor. I only care if the movie is entertaining or not. An example of that would be the "Street Fighter" movie from 1994. That thing was barely loyal to the games, but the movie was so fun on a cheesy level that it becomes incredibly lovable. Another example, and this is more of a TV show than a movie, is the 4Kids version of One Piece. That thing cut a LOT of corners just so that it can air on a children's programming block. However, I still ended up kinda liking it, because it can be fun to watch IF you go into it with the right mindset. So, loyalty to the source material is almost a non-factor for me. But for a lot of people, it's almost the exact opposite. And to a certain extent, they will throw a massive bitch-fit if you get even the slightest details off. The best example of that would be the live-action Sonic movies. A lot of people like to say "Oh look, they changed Sonic's character design! That means that they actually listen to the fans and care about what they had to say!" Yeah...because Sonic fans threw a massive bitch-fit about it. Then again, they've complained about his character design for MANY years now, but that's beside the point. And, ironically enough, even after they changed Sonic's design, he STILL looked awful in CG. So, I don't know what the hell they were complaining about in the first place. It was just a less shitty-looking CG Sonic in a shitty-looking movie. Well, two shitty-looking movies, to be exact, but I'm getting off topic. My point being that this is the reason why I don't care if a movie is loyal to the source material or not. But when it comes to this movie, this thing was loyal right from the start of it, because it felt like an actual video game movie. I'm gonna talk more about that a little later on, but it knew from the start that you were gonna be watching a video game movie. Because at the start of this, it kinda touted itself on selling, I think, over 7 million copies, and now it had it's own movie. Which might've been a cheap plug, but hey, it got it's message across. In fact, even though I still got this entire marathon to go through, I'm gonna go on record by saying that this is the BEST video game movie I have seen in the last 27 years. I don't want to hear about "Detective Pikachu". I don't want to hear about the two shitty-looking live-action Sonic movies, or even that third one that Paramount and SEGA are trying to shit out to make a quick buck. This movie towers above every single last one of them. Not since the 1995 "Mortal Kombat" movie had I seen a video game movie stay true to it's roots. I wasn't even asking for this movie to stay loyal, but this thing did just that, and holy shit, did it ever make for an awesome movie.
But since I'm getting ahead myself already, let me try to get into the writing first. Now earlier, I was questioning on how they were going to incorporate the puzzle element into this movie. Because if you've never played any of the Professor Layton games, they are basically centered around puzzles, and you have to solve puzzles in order to advance the story. And this movie actually does this, too. The best example of this is when our characters are all trapped on this cruise ship when attending an opera theater. Our villain traps them there so that they can play his game. And the last one that is successful will receive the gift of eternal life, which kicks off our main plot. Now, the way this movie works in the puzzles actually replicates on how the puzzles work in the games. Because when our villain introduces the first puzzle, he actually calls it 'puzzle 001'. Which, for those of you who have played the Professor Layton games, actually marks it as the very first puzzle in the game. That is such an attention to detail that I don't think almost any video game movie would even go out of their way to do. But this movie actually does that, because the people who worked on this movie know their shit. Then again, Level-5 also had a hand in this movie, because they're the developers behind the Professor Layton games. So, it would make sense that we get to see this level of detail implemented into this movie. Our characters are all incredibly likable, and a lot of them are fleshed out. This movie even goes out of their way to name all of their characters and establish their personalities. Guys, I've seen a lot of movies that would attempt one or the other, and it would fail miserably because they don't try to make you care about their characters. Or in the case of "Death Trance", which was a movie that I covered a while back, they didn't even try to do either of those things, and it made that film almost worthless to watch. This movie could've taken the cheap way out, but it didn't. They actually took the time to establish who our characters are and their personalities. And when I say characters, I'm even going to mention our minor characters that are still part of the game. For example, one of these characters mentions that she recognizes one of them as Annie Dretche, who is a mystery writer. To which Annie recognizes her name as Mrs. Raidley, who is a part of some gossip magazine. She even recognizes who the other people that are on the boat with them. One of them is named Bargland, who is the president of some corporation. I forgot the name of what corporation, though. One of them was a former football player named Don Paolo. And a little later on, we get established to a character named Marco Brock, who is a historian on when he first discovers the Ambrosia. Guys, it's not often that I get to see movies that establishes minor characters like this, but this movie does just. This movie is brimming with personality and soul. And that's not something I see a lot of movies do anymore. This movie actually cares about it's characters. Mind you, not all of them are gonna be memorable, but at least they all get some kind of personality. Which, again, is something that I don't see a lot of movies try for anymore. But this movie does just that, and it makes the movie that much better.
So, our writing here is really strong. What about the acting? Well, I have to go off by the English dub, because that was the only version that was available to me through YouTube. And, for the most part, the acting is really solid. In fact, I believe they even got the same actors from the video games to reprise their roles for this movie. And when I say that, I am referring to the actors voicing Professor Layton, Luke, and Emmy. They all reprise their roles here for this movie, and they do a really good job at it. The only actress who I had an issue with, at first, was the little girl. I don't know who voiced her, but she sounded rather bad. And when she was asked to sing, it actually got a little bit worse. But strangely enough, I was actually able to tolerate it later on. Because she actually did, somewhat, improve. It wasn't great, but at least she was trying. As for the rest of the cast, they all turn in really good showings. However, and this might just be a fault of the version that I watched on YouTube, I noticed that some of the actors lines don't necessarily mesh well with the mouth movements. Because when an actor has to briefly pause, the characters are still moving their mouths, and it is kinda noticeable. I would say it's almost on par with noticeable syncing issues involving English dubs such as the Sonic OVA or the original Berserk anime. Now again, this might just be an issue with the version of it I watched on YouTube. I'm not sure if it was an issue on DVD or Blu-ray, but I will find out when I eventually get a physical copy of this thing. But anyway, the English dub here is really solid.
Animation in this movie looks absolutely amazing. Every character looks like they came from the games. But then again, I happen to remember that, in the very few Professor Layton games that I played, there were certain cutscenes that had this same animation style. So basically, it was kinda like taking those cutscenes and turning it into a full-length feature film. And it looks beautiful. Every character has a unique look to them. So you're not going to find characters that look similar to each other. Every character looks different, and the art style compliments the character designs perfectly. So, the 2D animation is amazing in this movie. But I have to comment on the CG. Now, I will say this: The CG, for a lot of things here, looks really good. The cruise ship looked great, the inside of a clock tower that we had seen in the beginning of the movie looked really good, and even one bit of it towards the climax of the film looked really good. But then, there's the CG cars...oh boy. I have noticed a pattern with certain movies, mainly DC's direct-to-video animated films, that try to implement CG cars into their animated films. And almost ALL of them looks absolutely horrible. In the case of this movie, the cars in this thing look like they were rendered out of a cutscene from a SEGA Saturn game. And that is NOT a compliment. In fact, if you ever get the chance to watch this movie, I want you to compare every scene involving a CG car with a hand drawn character. When you put them together, it looks absolutely horrendous! To a point where I don't know why they couldn't just draw the fucking cars. Even if the car was not moving, it would still look better than the awful CG rendered for these cars. Now, believe it or not, there is one positive to these CG cars. You only see them for, about, the first 10 minutes of the movie. After that, the CG cars are never seen again. And that made me all the more happy. Because if I had to continue seeing more CG cars, it probably would've brought a great movie like this down a bit.
Sound-mix is really good. Again, minus the noticeable syncing issues involving the mouth movements of some characters. But again, that just might be an issue with this version of it on YouTube. The music, however, is great. This is the kind of music that you would hear from the Professor Layton games, and all of it is great. In fact, I will say that Professor Layton's theme song is great. My favorite rendition of it is from the crossover game with Ace Attorney. And this is very similar to it. In fact, this movie has a wide variety of music. Whether it's from the violin, the piano, or orchestral, all of it has a different feel to it. And that's a huge positive in my book.
So, with all that being said, can I recommend "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva"? Oh, hell yes, guys. This movie is absolutely amazing. And again, this is coming from someone who was not that big on the Professor Layton series to begin with. But this thing made me a fan of it, and that is a huge accomplishment. In fact, I want to see MORE Professor Layton movies. Because if they're able to turn in awesome films like this, then I would be sold on watching more of these films. Because it would be a real shame if this was the only Professor Layton movie that they ever make. But still, if you're interested in checking out this movie, it is on YouTube. At least, by the time that I've uploaded this review. And if you liked it enough, go buy a copy of it somewhere, because it is just that great. I loved this thing. I'm almost tempted on buying a physical copy of this movie online. As long as it's for a decent price, of course. But yeah, this movie was great, and I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come for this marathon. Though, having just said that, I'm thinking about one of the movies I have to cover for this month, and...I'm probably gonna regret saying that. But for now, I'm just gonna go and see if this movie is running for a decent price online somewhere. And if it is, I'm gonna instantly buy it. It is just that great.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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