You gotta love scientists. In their quest to find a cure for something they can over-charge us for, they unleash demonic spirits that’ve been living under ice for millions of years in the vacation destination Antarctic. These spirits invade your body and turn you into a comic book version of something bent on ill-intent, which is the case of high school BFFs Akira and Ryo, now an evil “angel” and a good “devil.”
Akira didn’t change all the way – his human side keeps him from wrecking people/stuff. But that doesn’t stop Ryo – who now calls himself Satan (uh, you might wanna check the intellectual rights on that, buddy) – from smacking Akira in the flesh areas.
Now that humans are onto the demons (pfffttt, finally), a nationwide witch hunt ensues, and demons (or anyone thought to be one) are systematically murdered into pieces by angry and frightened mobs. What this does is wipe out everybody and everything, leaving Akira to hold his girlfriend’s freshly decapitated head in his arms and pout. (Sheesh – get over her, dude.)
The demons, though, are fairly inventive, what with various horns and sharp things poking out of their faces. One supermodel angel girl grows wings out of her head and flies around. I wish I could grow wings out of my head and hang out with her on top of some building that you could only get to by flying.
The special effects are over-the-top comic book-y (mostly anime), and the spraying guts ’n gore about where they needed to be. But devils versus angels should’ve been way more, I don’t know, epic. After the action dies (sorry) down, we’re left with 10 uninterrupted minutes of Akira/Devilman staring at the ground, floating in puddles of sorrow. Yeah, Devilman (2004) floats in something, but I don’t think it’s grief.
FYI: This movie was based on the 1972 Nagai anime comic by the same name, whatever that is.
Drinkin' & Drive-in 