Today’s quick review: Lady Death. Hope (Christine Auten), the daughter of Lucifer (Mike Kleinhenz), only wants to live a peaceful life with her beloved Niccolo (Chris Patton). But when her father steals Niccolo’s soul and tricks her into going to Hell, Hope swears revenge. Using the power she inherited from her father, she remakes herself as Lady Death, a powerful warrior, and leads Lucifer’s own armies in an attempt to overthrow him.
Lady Death is an animated fantasy movie based on the comic of the same name. The movie follows its heroine as she turns Lucifer’s power against him in a battle for control of Hell. Lady Death aims to be epic fantasy with a horror flavor to it. But in spite of a suitably over-the-top premise, the movie does not have much to set it apart. Flat characters, stiff animation, and a predictable story keep Lady Death from holding more than passing interest.
Narratively, Lady Death does not have much to offer. The story begins with a generic setup and never develops into anything unique. The plot is linear, with only one or two brief detours on Hope’s journey to confront Lucifer, and there are no twists to keep the audience hooked. The script does a poor job of establishing the specific rules of the universe, although the broad strokes are still enough to tell a cohesive story.
Visually, Lady Death runs into similar problems. Aside from a few racy character designs and a bit of gore, the art style is not very distinctive, with plain demon designs and a relatively safe conception of Hell. The animation suffers from an odd issue where characters tend to move at constant speeds, which causes thier movement to feel static. The action as a whole feels limited, never showing the creativity or the dynamism it needs.
For all of these faults, Lady Death still manages to be a passable watch. There is a fair amount of action, the basics of the plot are sound, and the places where the movie tries to forge its own identity are generally successful. But Lady Death doesn’t go far enough to differentiate itself, instead falling back on generic character types and story beats. The end result is a mediocre movie that even interested viewers will find easy to skip.
For an animated fantasy action movie with a similar premise and more style, try Bayonetta: Bloody Fate. For a better-developed world of horror and demons, check out Constantine or Constantine: City of Demons. For an animated fantasy action movie with a similar premise and more style, try Heavy Metal. For a live-action fantasy movie with a similar plot and shakier execution, try BloodRayne.
5.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.0 for a decent setup with mixed follow-through.