 |
| Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009) |
Starting off, the animation is beautiful. Not only is it entirely in the style of the anime cutscenes from the games, but the movie blends 2D animation with 3D animation almost effortlessly, to the point where when it first came up I was almost stunned with how great it looked. The character models and some environments are all 2D animated, while the 3D animation is typically reserved for the big set-pieces and landmarks, and it never feels out of place or distracting. The music is also divine, and I'm not joking when I say it's one of my favourite OSTs of all time. Granted, a large part of that is how they handle the remixes of songs from the games, which all sound amazing, but there's a big selection of original tracks specifically for this movie, and they all sound amazing, too. The movie is essentially based around an opera, so the music had better deliver on that front, and it absolutely does. I implore you to look up the soundtrack to this film on your own time, if you're not going to watch the movie yourself, that is. Each track fits the tone of the moment perfectly, and they even use the music to throw a few easter eggs to the game fans out there, and those are wonderful when they come up without being quizzically distracting for newcomers.
 |
| Maria Darling as Luke Triton and Christopher Robin Miller as Professor Layton |
The story is told in a really intelligent way, as well. Much like a typical Layton game, there's a lot of different plot threads that weave throughout, and a bunch of different mysteries to solve. What's great about the story on that front is that rather than take a story from one of the games and try to compact it into an hour and a half, they decide to tell an original story with an entirely new cast of characters. They can tell a story that will work with the medium instead of attempting to adapt a story originally designed for a game which, in my opinion, is part of the reason why so many movie adaptations of video games fail from the get go. Sometimes it's just impossible to cram a potential 30+ hours of game and story into under 2 hours, so this movie doesn't even try. Granted, the wrap-up does get a little convoluted by the end, as we get answer after answer, but it's not that hard to keep up with if you're really paying attention, and if you're not really paying attention to the resolution and explanation in a mystery movie, something's gone wrong. In any case, the story they decide to tell here is a compelling one, a story that hooks you from the beginning and doesn't let you go, and it's a story that really feels like it could have existed as one of the games, after a few tweaks, which is another reason this adaptation just works so well. The story even gives the audience a handful of puzzles for them to solve along the way, just like the games. These puzzles never take you out of the experience, they're easy enough to solve that it's not a distraction and it's a nice challenge to see if you can solve them before the professor can. Without these puzzles, this movie wouldn't have felt nearly as true to the series it came from, and I was amazed when I saw them for the first time.
 |
| Emma Tate as Emmy Altava |
I mentioned the characters earlier, and in typical Layton fashion, they're all great. Layton himself shows in this movie why he is drastically under-rated as a video game protagonist and, for lack of a better term, a 'badass'. He's just got everything: the quick thinking of Sherlock Holmes, the sense of adventure of Indiana Jones and the ingenuity of MacGyver. Combine all of that with his gentlemanly nature and it's really easy to fall in love with this guy, and this film does a great job of showing off Layton's skillset. A lot of people have mixed feelings about Luke Triton, the professor's self-proclaimed apprentice, and if you didn't like Luke in the games, you won't like him here, which just means they kept the character true to who he is. I personally like Luke; I think he's a perfect match to bounce questions off the professor, and this movie gives him by far his best moment in the series. The other characters get their moments: Emmy shows us why she's a great pick for the professor's assistant and Inspector Grosky is amazing as he's always been. It's just a shame that these two characters don't have the same voice actors from the games, which are significantly better than what we're given here, especially in Emmy's case. The upside to this, however, is that we get Luke's British voice actor, who I overwhelmingly prefer to Luke's American voice. The minor characters new to this movie don't get a lot of time to themselves, but the ones that are given a focus get just enough to let us know who they are and what their motivations are. They also all feel like they fit right in with the world of the games. These could all have been NPCs in one of the games, and for spoiler reasons, I can't go into too much depth, but just know the ones that movie wants to give more of a focus to have depth and heart, which is all one can ask for of one-off characters in an established franchise.
 |
| Emma Tate as Janice Quatlane |
Now, let me touch quickly on how the movie fares for newcomers to the Layton franchise, because it is important. I will say that this probably shouldn't be your introduction to the series, although the opening sequence does an excellent job at getting you acquainted with all you need to know for the story, including giving you a taste of what I'm calling 'Layton logic'. Because, and this is important to remember, this series does not take place in our world. This is a world where giant weaponised robots are a more common occurrence than you might think, grown men can disguise themselves as young girls without anyone noticing, and a man can run to a remote town almost as fast as someone on a moped can. Those are all examples from the games, and there's quite a bit of that in this movie too, especially concerning the resolution. That and a couple of other spoiler-related reasons probably means that this shouldn't be the first piece of Professor Layton media you expose yourselves to. That said, it isn't a bad film for newcomers and, like I said, it does a well enough job of acquainting you with the world and its rules that you should be able to enjoy it as your first Layton experience. That, and the games are incredible, so you should play them. I'll definitely get around to reviewing them at some point. In fact, I'm a little annoyed at myself that I decided to do this first, for one important reason: this movie is canon to the games. It's established in the lore that this movie actually exists in the official Layton timeline between the 4th and 5th games in the series, right in the middle of the prequel trilogy. It was made by the same team that made the games, so you know they were going to get it right.
 |
| Stuart Organ as Inspector Grosky |
So, yeah, beautiful visuals, a perfect soundtrack, great characters and a compelling story turn Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009) into a fantastically entertaining time whether you're a long time Layton fan or not. It's obviously more fulfilling to watch if you are a fan of the franchise, but it's still an excellent movie regardless. If all movie adaptations of video games were like this, I would be a very happy man. It's just a shame this is the exception to the rule. 9/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment