DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC

Forget what you learned in school and what Benigni has always told you in his endless rants about "The Divine Comedy". Dante was a crusader, far from being a saint, who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem and its surroundings, and made a dubious pact with his beloved Beatrice. After completing the crusade and returning home, he longs to embrace the woman of his life but painfully discovers that Beatrice has been killed and Satan himself has come to claim her soul due to Dante's broken pact. The crusader has no choice but to redeem himself and save Beatrice, following Satan straight into Hell and venturing through the nine circles of the damned. The commercial operation of releasing animated films alongside popular video games is gaining traction, aiming to strike while the iron is hot, attract fanboys, and perhaps lure in some newcomers. This happened with "Dead Space" (watchable and smooth, but nothing more), then with "Halo Legends", and now it's the turn of "Dante's Inferno-An Animated Epic", an animated film based on the video game developed by Visceral Games. The game itself is quite successful, although its release literally split the audience and critics: some see it as a clone of the monumental "God of War", others as a fun, violent Hack'n Slash with notable technical prowess. The truth lies somewhere in between: though indebted to Kratos' video game exploits, "Dante's Inferno" is a good game that grips you from start to finish, with its evocative level design as one of its strongest points. Before discussing the film based on the game, a preamble is necessary: truly leave behind everything you know about "The Divine Comedy" and Dante Alighieri because here the story is completely altered, and the events do not follow the narrative of our Poet. There's no point in posing as literature professors or faux intellectuals: if you wanted to know more about Dante's Inferno, dust off your old books or play one of the 10,000 DVDs of Benigni reciting it for hours. That said, let's begin. The animated film is essentially the entire game condensed into about eighty minutes and carries over both its strengths and weaknesses. Among the strengths are a frantic pace, a notable dose of violence, and impressive technical quality, with excellent drawings and extremely evocative infernal settings crafted with care and attention to detail. The journey through Hell is rich in fascination and pathos, well-supported by a violent and epic soundtrack, punctuated by the screams of the damned, the clash of swords, or the brief declamations of Virgil guiding the crusader. The film is pure adrenaline-pumping action, except for some flashbacks meant to show us Dante's decidedly un-Christian exploits in the Holy Land; for almost the entire short film, we see the protagonist smashing enemies left and right, tearing apart demons, jumping up and down, massacring children in limbo, absolving a few unfortunate souls, and, last but not least, confronting his inner demons until the inevitable final boss. The main flaw, if it can be called that, lies in the protagonist's psychology: stubborn and mule-headed, he leaves words behind and obsessively repeats throughout most of the film "Where is Beatrice, what have you done to her!!!". In some cases, his stubbornness is almost endearing, but it's forgivable: after all, he's in love. Of course, the plot is bare-bones and often feels like a mere excuse to spill some blood on the screen, but despite that, the film works, entertains, and amuses, supported by dynamic direction from no fewer than six directors, noticeable in Dante's varying appearances. Sometimes with long hair, other times short, sometimes bulkier, and at other moments with a leaner, more dynamic physique. In short, with your brain switched off, you're faced with an animated film that's hasty and superficial in terms of script but undeniably well-crafted and ultimately achieves its goal without too much trouble: to properly support the game's release (though it arrives here with considerable delay) and intrigue those who haven't yet explored Visceral Games' work. If you don't mind violent and irreverent animated films, as well as horror mixed with action, try taking a trip through the nine circles of Hell with Dante and Virgil; you might even decide to rent a spot nearby.