Bayonetta: Bloody Fate Movie Review

By: Justin Hopkins

**SPOILER WARNING**

So about a month or so ago, finally got to sit back and check out the Bayonetta Game, I know my ability to keep up with the times should be admired, and after a grueling game, hack ‘n slash not really my style, but I absolutely loved it. Was a great game, that was way over the top with an excellent heroine in Bayonetta. While, I am not mentally ready to play the sequel. Found the perfect substitute in the form of the animated Movie Bayonetta: Bloody Fate and wasted no time picking it up. Now that I have finally had a chance to sit back and watch it. Let’s break it down and discuss shall we.

Synopsis

Movie kicks off with a narrator telling the story of the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages. Witches served the demons and Sages the angels. They respected each other and the balance till a rule was broken. A Lumen and Umbra had a baby. The mother was imprisoned and father thrown out. While the forbidden child was raised by the Umbra and entrusted with the left eye. That if it was ever combined with the Lumen right eye, it would awaken the god Jubileus who will usher in a new world. Something the Lumen want and the Umbra fight against. Which would spark a war that would result the both sides taking each other out, but the forbidden child was sealed away in a deep slumber, but 500 years later she has awoken and we jump to Luca arriving at a church. A journalist investigating mass suicide. Hiding when a Nun enters the room. Saying a prayer and the Church Organ starts and angels attack. The Nun turning out to be Bayonetta. Round one of the fighting ends with her jumping through the window and landing on Luca’s car and a bigger Angel arrives. Which she makes short work of by summoning Gomorrah, a creature of her own. Meeting Rodin, who was playing the Organ who leaves, and she goes and confronts Luca, or Cheshire as she calls him. Who is not her biggest fan. Believing she killed his Dad. Seeing a flashback of her rise from the water and his Dad being torn apart in front of him when he was a kid. When the cops arrive she leaves, and makes her way to Rodin’s bar, The Gates of Hell. Where we see the news covering the religious group, Ragna coming together to celebrate the coming of Jubileus and they say the suicides are tied in with this. Enzo informs her that their leader is supposedly a modern day Sage, and it triggers a small flashback. We see Balder talking to Jeanne. Telling her Bayonetta would come and it is her destiny. While Luca ties Bayonetta to the Ragna and to Balder and Bayonetta gets into a fight with Jeanne when she attacks the train she is on. Resulting in a wonderful fight that results with Bayonetta breaking her guns and Jeanne leaving. Balder drops a little girl off and tells her to wait for Mommy. After Bayonetta drops off the broken guns with Rodin. and she hits the road. Balder teleports her to the same location and the little girl starts calling her Mommy and the angels attack ad Bayonetta has to go on the offensive quickly to keep them away from her. We find out she is Cereza, but Bayonetta claims that she is not her Mother, but takes her along. Luca manages to track their hotel room and attempts to bug it but is caught and falls out of a window when he is too distracted by Bayonetta’s lack of clothes. She tries to talk to him, but he is still angry with her. She makes an off handed joke about him babysitting the kid, but when he wakes up on a bench the next day to a crying Cereza, finds out she wasn’t joking and she is off to confront Balder and this is where I will leave it for now.

Review

They were really faithful to the game and I appreciated that so much. The story was pretty much the same from the game, with a couple shifts here and there to make the story move a bit smoother. From the look and designs of the angels and their weapons to. They gave a good reason for Bayonetta to be using different weapons and made Jeanne look stronger by the fact she broke her guns. The music was excellent and will be stuck in my head for another month. using a lot of the lines from the game including the one of her replacing her arm with a chainsaw. The people behind the scenes wanted to bring the game to life and they did a great job at that.

I really loved the art style they used throughout. The fight scenes we saw were all fun and over the top the way a Bayonetta movie should be. From the fights with Jeanne and Bayonetta and all of the fight scenes where she ran through the angels. Going heavy on the blood. Queen Sheeda and Gomorrah looked fantastic.

The voice actors all knocked it out of the park. Hellen Taylor knocked it out of the park as Bayonetta. Bayonetta being a over the top complex character who walks a fine line, of being this top tier fighter, who is sarcastic and witty sexy and able to go head on with anyone and walk away victorious while at the same time, searching for answers and going through an emotional climax and Hellen Taylor does a great job bringing that out. Yuri Lowenthal did a great job bringing out the emotional pain Luca is going through on his search to find justice for his Father. Dave Fennoy, Grey DeLisle and John Kassir did good jobs and Joy Jillian did well as Cereza.

On a mixed note, kind of expected more fights to be involved. A few different types of angels could have been brought in to mix it up a bit. They kind of gloss over her boss fight at the airport and while you do see her finish him off. Would have been nice to see more of the fighting. I am not going to complain about it because the fight scenes we did get were good and I am going to give them a bit of leeway. Might not have had the budget to make something like that so instead put it toward her magic and the angels and monsters.

And they got that leeway because I did really enjoy the film. Bayonetta is a fantastic character and has a wonderful universe around her and I am kind of surprised that they only made one movie with her, because I would be all up for another, even some 8 years on. I would gladly suggest it to people of the game our anime, or someone who wants to watch something a little different. Final Grade – B

As always, I hope you enjoyed and….

Thank You For Reading!

Advertisement