Spiral Perspective

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It seems that there are a lot of video game companies investing in animation/film as of late. Since I work for Ubisoft, I was exposed to this quite heavily during their acquisition of Hybrid Studios and the recent release of Assassin’s Creed: Lineage. This is not a recent trend, at a glance at this list will tell you, but I can’t help feeling a little over-exposed to it at the beginning of 2010. Just looking at the next month there is an animated movie for Halo Legends, Dante’s Inferno (which I’ll talk about shortly) and a live action for Dead Rising.

Personally I think it’s a pretty exciting move for any company and gamer alike. Hell, the idea of a spin-off movie for Mass Effect makes me drool! Collaboration between game development studios and film effects studios will, in time, create more visually impressive and cinematic experiences. For now I’m going to sit back and watch.

Last night I was lucky to have an invite to the screening of the Dante’s Inferno animated movie at the Apollo cinema in Picadilly, London. It was a small screening with about 50 people in total and was hosted by the Sci-fi London Film Festival.

First a quick over-view of the story for those who are not familiar of Dante Alighieri’s poem Divine Comedy which it is loosely based on. Dante is a warrior and betrothed to the beautiful Beatrice, but must leave her to fight in the crusades. Upon his return he finds Beatrice and his entire family slain in their home. The devil appears and takes Beatrice’s soul as she made a deal with him to ensure Dante’s safe return home. Dante must then traverse the nine levels of hell, and face his sins, to save her soul.

The first thing I noticed as the film began was the quality of the sound. The music was wonderful. Although the voice acting was ropey in places, I felt the music made up for it. The animation was beautiful and the use of different animation studios to create their own vision of each level of hell was interesting. The lip syncing on the later levels left much to be desired in places, it was off putting to say the least.

The story itself was solid, but I would have loved to have known more about Dante and his wife. They seemed to be very empty characters, especially Beatrice. A little more time spent in each level would have been great as some seemed to be quickly passed by, Lust especially.

There has been a lot of talk about the visceral and violent nature of both game and the film, and as it obviously played a bit part I feel I should mention it. The violence was clearly designed to shock in places. That said, being based in Hell, what else would you expect? There were some parts I found quite interesting. I loved how the parchment cross was sewn to his chest in particular. I thought that scene was very powerful without being overly violent.

Overall I quite enjoyed it bar a few small gripes. It’s definitely worth watching but I would be hard-pressed to purchase it. Check out the trailer below and see what you think! Thank you to EA for the event and to Steve from DailyJoypad for the invite.