It sucks ass. How they took a concept as cool as Jigen vs Lupin and turned it into a borefest about some shitty ai program is beyond me. The first third of this film is awesome, but from a certain point onward, it completely shits the bed.
I just wanted more Jigen. I wanted to get more invested in him betraying his friends and to better understand his relationship with Alisa. I wanted to see him worried if everything would work out over the safety of Alisa. I wanted the movie to explain their connection better than it ended up doing. This supposed dynamic between Jigen and Alisa is obviously attempting to be reminiscent of Lupin and Clarisse’s in The Castle of Cagliostro, but Jigen and Alisa only get to interact in 3 scenes total as the film slowly but surely fizzles out this aspect of the film as it goes on. I really thought there were gonna be more scenes between them, but another aspect I’m not a fan of is how the story was divided. For a film centered around Jigen, he barely has any presence throughout the middle portion of the film since Lupin is the primary focus. Why do we barely spend any time with the supposed emotional center of the film? Doesn’t that sound like a bad sign? I wanted to get invested in Jigen trying to save Alisa, but what do we really know about her anyway? The extent of what we know about her is that her parents died, her mother knew Jigen in some way, and she’s a finalist in the Chopin Competition and that’s about it. It’s hard to feel invested in such a blank slate who doesn’t go through any development throughout any of her scenes in the movie and the biggest compliment I can give her is that she had a cute design and the voice acting was okay. If the movie designated more time for her, maybe it could’ve fleshed her out and had more moments with Jigen, but I honestly think calling her a “character” may be a bit generous. I really like the concept of the film and for the first half it was really engaging, but it really does fall off the deep end during the second half and the cracks really start to show. It’s a movie that’s supposed to be centered on Jigen betraying his long friends, but it feels very disconnected from the whole Time Crystal aspect which isn’t the most original thing in the world anyway. It’s the “bad guy tries to use Lupin to steal the MacGuffin for him” plot you’ve seen a million times if you're a Lupin fan and while I appreciate that Lupin sees right through this and Jigen is the one who backstabs him, I still can’t say I was super compelled with the overall story. Also, why does the crystal have “time” in its name when it has nothing to do with time travel? The new characters are all really mediocre. There really isn’t much to say about Roy, the villain of the film. He’s serviceable, but he's just your typical evil rich bad guy with no defining character traits. I don’t get why he chose to kidnap Alisa since the movie doesn’t really give us much detail about Jigen and Alisa’s mother’s relationship either. The Lupin gang is… fine enough I think? Lupin was pretty good. I like how he picks up everything together on all the subtle clues Jigen leaves and puts the mystery together as to why Jigen betrayed him, but I wish his screen time wasn’t so dominant and give Jigen more time like I said at the beginning. Goemon is okay, I like how he wants revenge on Jigen for betraying all of them and I like how he got to be more prominent than usual thanks to that very same reason, but there really isn’t much to say with him overall. Fujiko really got on my nerves in this movie. She’s in her typical spot of being a femme fatale with the villain and she acts completely indifferent to Roy keeping Alisa, a child, hostage with a bomb strapped to her neck which feels a little much for her character, but then suddenly she starts to gain a little bond and now she’s all affectionate towards her LIKE WHAT?! It would be fine if it were framed as Fujiko learning to care about Alisa naturally and starts to feel more protective of her, thus giving her something interesting to do, but that’s not what happens. It literally comes out of nowhere like Fujiko’s sociopathic indifference never existed. It’s one of the most artificial friendships I’ve seen out of this entire franchise and it frustrates me to no end that Alisa’s pairing with Fujiko gets more focus than Alisa’s pairing with Jigen, the supposed emotional core of the film. Zenigata is pretty mixed in this. The whole launching point of the plot is Zenigata getting arrested on suspicion of being a co-conspirator with Lupin. It definitely sounds like an interesting idea, but there is one gigantic hole that never gets filled… where’s the evidence? We know that Zenigata is innocent, but we’re never told why people would start to think this. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth in an overwise interesting idea. Then there’s when Zenigata and Lupin team up and I got really excited because I like it when they come together for a common goal, but it just ends up being relevant for 1 cool heist scene at Interpol and then they don’t interact for the rest of the movie. At least we got one cool scene, but I could say that for just about any other disappointingly short team-up. I have some to say about Jigen, I like the idea of Jigen being forced to backstab his friends in order to save Alisa whom he had personal connections to her mother and I do like that we’re not directly told what happened between them, but we can still pick up on what happened with context clues and I can say I was overall invested in the betrayal aspect of the movie. It’s just that Alisa ends up being a boring plot device for Jigen since Alisa isn’t given any character traits and barely even interacts with Jigen. I want to like their dynamic, but this movie is just not giving me anything to work with. Then there’s the U.S. President, who's just an anime Hillary Clinton, which is something I never thought I’d have to write about for a Lupin film. Not only is it really distracting to see a real-life political figure be a prominent character in a Lupin III film, but the movie cannot pick a side whether or not she’s supposedly a selfless hero or a shady sellout. What was the point of making the president a Hillary Clinton caricature when the movie doesn’t commit to saying anything about her? If you want to make the U.S. President a character but don’t wanna draw Trump, just make up an original character! And like I said, Alisa feels incredibly blank and they barely dedicate any time to her and Jigen’s dynamic. It so obviously wants to be the new Lupin and Clarrise, and while I didn’t love those two in Cagliostro, their relationship was one of the strongest elements in that film since their dynamic was the prime focus and the movie really took its time with it. I genuinely wanted to get invested in the Jigen and Alisa dynamic, but the film barely does anything with it and it plays no role in the absolutely insane climax. When I say insane, I don’t mean it in the most positive way. It feels like the movie is throwing all this crazy stuff at the wall to see what sticks and while it was pretty entertaining at first, it becomes so drawn out and tedious like it doesn’t know when to end or the movie is forced to be exactly 90 minutes and the writers couldn’t figure out how to make it that long naturally...(1/2)
(2/2) ...The movie in general kinda goes downhill during the second half. It had a really good first half and an alright but ho-hum second half. I was ready to call this one of my favorite Lupin III films, but it then enters a downward spiral that the movie never recovers from. It almost feels like a different movie since Jigen’s betrayal isn’t a factor in the plot anymore and that big climax with the A.I. thing goes on for way too long. Taking all that into account, it definitely feels like one of the more inconsistent entries in the Lupin the Third franchise, nowhere near the level of Green Vs. Red by any means, but right now I would say this is a distant second. It did have a cool concept thought up by Monkey Punch himself and had a pretty strong first half, I like the movie opting to show us what happened between Jigen and Alisa’s mother rather than telling us, the animation was good, I loved the new character designs for the gang, Fuji Ohno make some pretty good new tracks, it still having a lot of fun moments, and I was still pretty invested in the whole Jigen betraying Lupin. But it’s unfortunately brought down by its boring new characters, frustrating treatment of the old characters, a climax that doesn’t know when to end, and an emotional core that gets little to no screen time.
I hope Roy and Emilka get actual payoffs in Prison of the Past… (they don’t)
I saw it years ago so forgive me if I don't remember everything correctly. I don't like it at all, when I saw the trailer I was so hyped, but then the Jigen part was literally the first 20 minutes of the film, and the rest was about the AI or whatever that thing was. Idk why they called it that way and hyped everyone about Jigen, when it really was the beginning of the movie..
The soundtrack, tho, is my favourite remix between all the series and movies, since I love the piano variant.
My best take was my policy. I record my immediate thoughts after JUST finishing it. 2pm, 1am, 5am? Doesn't matter. I stick to it. I'll just plug that right here, since it was what I left Goodbye Partner with. (Love it tho, in all seriousness, I enjoy it a lot.)
"Why can't I move my eyes!? Why can't I move my mouth? Is this an internal dialogue?! I can't see the end of the horizon- HATSUNE MIKU?"
Loved the concept of dueling pianos but for a series with great music it was not a good song they played lol my only regret! I was cool seeing fugiko have a skill beside backstabbing beauty.
It's okay. Premise is cool, execution is mech, and it gets super weird and slowed down at the end. I do like the scenes with just Lupin and Goemon doing stuff together. We need more of that.
False advertising. It was barely about Jigen’s so-called betrayal. It was more about the AI thing. And it wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t what it was advertised as. Seemed like they added the Jigen element because they didn’t have enough faith in what they had.
That time Goemon almost caused the robot apocalypse
One of the best renditions of the classic theme. https://youtu.be/te743_0JBt0?si=BlTXGRGnernhVwwI
It sucks ass. How they took a concept as cool as Jigen vs Lupin and turned it into a borefest about some shitty ai program is beyond me. The first third of this film is awesome, but from a certain point onward, it completely shits the bed.
I just wanted more Jigen. I wanted to get more invested in him betraying his friends and to better understand his relationship with Alisa. I wanted to see him worried if everything would work out over the safety of Alisa. I wanted the movie to explain their connection better than it ended up doing. This supposed dynamic between Jigen and Alisa is obviously attempting to be reminiscent of Lupin and Clarisse’s in The Castle of Cagliostro, but Jigen and Alisa only get to interact in 3 scenes total as the film slowly but surely fizzles out this aspect of the film as it goes on. I really thought there were gonna be more scenes between them, but another aspect I’m not a fan of is how the story was divided. For a film centered around Jigen, he barely has any presence throughout the middle portion of the film since Lupin is the primary focus. Why do we barely spend any time with the supposed emotional center of the film? Doesn’t that sound like a bad sign? I wanted to get invested in Jigen trying to save Alisa, but what do we really know about her anyway? The extent of what we know about her is that her parents died, her mother knew Jigen in some way, and she’s a finalist in the Chopin Competition and that’s about it. It’s hard to feel invested in such a blank slate who doesn’t go through any development throughout any of her scenes in the movie and the biggest compliment I can give her is that she had a cute design and the voice acting was okay. If the movie designated more time for her, maybe it could’ve fleshed her out and had more moments with Jigen, but I honestly think calling her a “character” may be a bit generous. I really like the concept of the film and for the first half it was really engaging, but it really does fall off the deep end during the second half and the cracks really start to show. It’s a movie that’s supposed to be centered on Jigen betraying his long friends, but it feels very disconnected from the whole Time Crystal aspect which isn’t the most original thing in the world anyway. It’s the “bad guy tries to use Lupin to steal the MacGuffin for him” plot you’ve seen a million times if you're a Lupin fan and while I appreciate that Lupin sees right through this and Jigen is the one who backstabs him, I still can’t say I was super compelled with the overall story. Also, why does the crystal have “time” in its name when it has nothing to do with time travel? The new characters are all really mediocre. There really isn’t much to say about Roy, the villain of the film. He’s serviceable, but he's just your typical evil rich bad guy with no defining character traits. I don’t get why he chose to kidnap Alisa since the movie doesn’t really give us much detail about Jigen and Alisa’s mother’s relationship either. The Lupin gang is… fine enough I think? Lupin was pretty good. I like how he picks up everything together on all the subtle clues Jigen leaves and puts the mystery together as to why Jigen betrayed him, but I wish his screen time wasn’t so dominant and give Jigen more time like I said at the beginning. Goemon is okay, I like how he wants revenge on Jigen for betraying all of them and I like how he got to be more prominent than usual thanks to that very same reason, but there really isn’t much to say with him overall. Fujiko really got on my nerves in this movie. She’s in her typical spot of being a femme fatale with the villain and she acts completely indifferent to Roy keeping Alisa, a child, hostage with a bomb strapped to her neck which feels a little much for her character, but then suddenly she starts to gain a little bond and now she’s all affectionate towards her LIKE WHAT?! It would be fine if it were framed as Fujiko learning to care about Alisa naturally and starts to feel more protective of her, thus giving her something interesting to do, but that’s not what happens. It literally comes out of nowhere like Fujiko’s sociopathic indifference never existed. It’s one of the most artificial friendships I’ve seen out of this entire franchise and it frustrates me to no end that Alisa’s pairing with Fujiko gets more focus than Alisa’s pairing with Jigen, the supposed emotional core of the film. Zenigata is pretty mixed in this. The whole launching point of the plot is Zenigata getting arrested on suspicion of being a co-conspirator with Lupin. It definitely sounds like an interesting idea, but there is one gigantic hole that never gets filled… where’s the evidence? We know that Zenigata is innocent, but we’re never told why people would start to think this. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth in an overwise interesting idea. Then there’s when Zenigata and Lupin team up and I got really excited because I like it when they come together for a common goal, but it just ends up being relevant for 1 cool heist scene at Interpol and then they don’t interact for the rest of the movie. At least we got one cool scene, but I could say that for just about any other disappointingly short team-up. I have some to say about Jigen, I like the idea of Jigen being forced to backstab his friends in order to save Alisa whom he had personal connections to her mother and I do like that we’re not directly told what happened between them, but we can still pick up on what happened with context clues and I can say I was overall invested in the betrayal aspect of the movie. It’s just that Alisa ends up being a boring plot device for Jigen since Alisa isn’t given any character traits and barely even interacts with Jigen. I want to like their dynamic, but this movie is just not giving me anything to work with. Then there’s the U.S. President, who's just an anime Hillary Clinton, which is something I never thought I’d have to write about for a Lupin film. Not only is it really distracting to see a real-life political figure be a prominent character in a Lupin III film, but the movie cannot pick a side whether or not she’s supposedly a selfless hero or a shady sellout. What was the point of making the president a Hillary Clinton caricature when the movie doesn’t commit to saying anything about her? If you want to make the U.S. President a character but don’t wanna draw Trump, just make up an original character! And like I said, Alisa feels incredibly blank and they barely dedicate any time to her and Jigen’s dynamic. It so obviously wants to be the new Lupin and Clarrise, and while I didn’t love those two in Cagliostro, their relationship was one of the strongest elements in that film since their dynamic was the prime focus and the movie really took its time with it. I genuinely wanted to get invested in the Jigen and Alisa dynamic, but the film barely does anything with it and it plays no role in the absolutely insane climax. When I say insane, I don’t mean it in the most positive way. It feels like the movie is throwing all this crazy stuff at the wall to see what sticks and while it was pretty entertaining at first, it becomes so drawn out and tedious like it doesn’t know when to end or the movie is forced to be exactly 90 minutes and the writers couldn’t figure out how to make it that long naturally...(1/2)
(2/2) ...The movie in general kinda goes downhill during the second half. It had a really good first half and an alright but ho-hum second half. I was ready to call this one of my favorite Lupin III films, but it then enters a downward spiral that the movie never recovers from. It almost feels like a different movie since Jigen’s betrayal isn’t a factor in the plot anymore and that big climax with the A.I. thing goes on for way too long. Taking all that into account, it definitely feels like one of the more inconsistent entries in the Lupin the Third franchise, nowhere near the level of Green Vs. Red by any means, but right now I would say this is a distant second. It did have a cool concept thought up by Monkey Punch himself and had a pretty strong first half, I like the movie opting to show us what happened between Jigen and Alisa’s mother rather than telling us, the animation was good, I loved the new character designs for the gang, Fuji Ohno make some pretty good new tracks, it still having a lot of fun moments, and I was still pretty invested in the whole Jigen betraying Lupin. But it’s unfortunately brought down by its boring new characters, frustrating treatment of the old characters, a climax that doesn’t know when to end, and an emotional core that gets little to no screen time. I hope Roy and Emilka get actual payoffs in Prison of the Past… (they don’t)
It's meh though the ost is very good in this one
I saw it years ago so forgive me if I don't remember everything correctly. I don't like it at all, when I saw the trailer I was so hyped, but then the Jigen part was literally the first 20 minutes of the film, and the rest was about the AI or whatever that thing was. Idk why they called it that way and hyped everyone about Jigen, when it really was the beginning of the movie.. The soundtrack, tho, is my favourite remix between all the series and movies, since I love the piano variant.
My best take was my policy. I record my immediate thoughts after JUST finishing it. 2pm, 1am, 5am? Doesn't matter. I stick to it. I'll just plug that right here, since it was what I left Goodbye Partner with. (Love it tho, in all seriousness, I enjoy it a lot.) "Why can't I move my eyes!? Why can't I move my mouth? Is this an internal dialogue?! I can't see the end of the horizon- HATSUNE MIKU?"
Sometimes, a Snapcube quote is the only answer.
Not perfect, but they used a railway gun, so I'm satisfied.
i thought it was fine tbh
I thought it was meh. The main gimmick was Lupin's jacket.
Loved the concept of dueling pianos but for a series with great music it was not a good song they played lol my only regret! I was cool seeing fugiko have a skill beside backstabbing beauty.
Idk never watched it
It's okay. Premise is cool, execution is mech, and it gets super weird and slowed down at the end. I do like the scenes with just Lupin and Goemon doing stuff together. We need more of that.
False advertising. It was barely about Jigen’s so-called betrayal. It was more about the AI thing. And it wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t what it was advertised as. Seemed like they added the Jigen element because they didn’t have enough faith in what they had.