Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

ToeBeans405 Sep 30, 2022

5.5

I'm a big fan of the Layton series of games, and in my opinion Professor Layton is better experienced in video game format. This movie is fine, but I felt like it missed the mark a bit on the tone of the games, and the interactivity of the puzzles that they tried to add to the movie felt a little clunky. The bits of CG animation weren't badly done, but felt out of place. The story was just okay, a lot of the mysteries and puzzles felt a bit too simple. Antagonist and side characters also really weren't doing it for me. The music was probably my favorite part of the movie. You can watch this without knowing anything else about the Layton franchise, the story can be understood on its own, but you will be missing a bit of background on some characters. Though, I would probably only recommend this to fans of the game series who are starved for more content. To anyone else I would recommend playing any of the games instead of/before watching this, I think that's just the better way to experience Professor Layton.

JacksonSehm Dec 5, 2020

6

I discovered these games a few years back and I enjoyed the charm of a puzzle game with a decent story and the occasional cutscene. For a DS game it was ground breaking for me at least haha. I feel that I can't be too critical of this movie just on the basis that it seems I'm not the target demographic, but for what it was I couldn't complain. The progression of the movie was consistent and the mystery aspect was engaging enough, but at the same time you could watch this with your whole family and everyone would be able to keep up. The art style is unique and the characters are have a certain something about them that is distinguishable from most series, but at the same time their roles are kind of cookie cutter so it's difficult for me to give this a rating. The music was better than I was expecting, from a background perspective as well as the songs that a few characters sang in the film. I just wish the version I was watching didn't crackle as much as it did lmao

Ryukami Apr 6, 2018

7

Child's first mystery/detective story, is how one would describe this movie. The movie itself is good, but the mystery is non-existent for all the answers are obvious and Layton solves and explains/shows the answers. Somewhat heartwarming story, with predictable twists. Unique style and great animation, the small amount of CG is actually good looking. Good sound design, great music. Characters are good overall, Luke was constantly annoying, side cast was there just for the ride. A few nitpick questions: Is Professor Layton an homage/copy of Sherlock Holmes? How was the puzzle in the beginning reset? So Luke didn't change one bit in 3 years?