Sin: The Movie

I'm not going to waste any time with this review. If you are thinking of watching this movie, don't. It might be free on multiple video streaming sites but you won't be able to replace the wasted hour of your life. You might think that I'm overreacting but I can't think of any worse way to spend your time. The movie is based on some 90's shooter that I'd never heard of. Since Sin: The Movie is based on a video game, it's not a big surprise that the plot is totally weak. It had something to do with people getting turned into zombie-mutants and ... then the protagonists had to storm the antagonist's base to save some girl. It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a Saturday morning kids' cartoon. In fact, I might recommend it for young boys if it weren't for all the graphic violence. I generally don't have a problem with violence (considering I'm a big Fist of the North Star fan) but this would have made a decent kids' show if it wasn't for all the gore. You may not be convinced that this show is TOTALLY bad. Not until I tell you how atrocious the animation is. I know Sin was made about a decade ago so they were still working out the kinks of digital animation but that doesn't change the fact that this movie looks really bad. The term "limited animation" was created for this cartoon. There are even shots that are pixelated. I summed things up best at the beginning of this review; this is just a bad cartoon, don't even waste your time on it.

Pretty good action and violence. Story is interesting and they manage to make you care about these characters, even though it's a short OVA. Premise for plot os almost typical of some cyberpunk animes, although I don't think I would consider this one. Villians are well drawn and not the generic type found in Devil May Cry or Guyver. Animation and sound are big movie type quality. Rewatchability is good too due to good action and short run time. You can find it cheap and easy on dvd.

Sin the Movie is the best worst movie you've never seen.

It adapts an unsuccessful first person shooter game called Sin that tried to compete with the original Half Life. Video game adaptations are known to be terrible and Sin is no exception. Nothing makes sense. Nothing is explained. And this is what makes Sin the Movie the best of the worst movies.

It begins with John Blade, JC and some rando going into a sewer because reasons. JC is then killed by a sewer alligator, I think. Because reasons. John Blade yells "JC" and the scene cuts to a funeral. Some old guy mumbles pretentious dialogue ... to John Blade and nobody cares what he says. JC's sister, whose name can be abbreviated to JC, requests to see John Blade, but since she is probably unimportant we can skip ahead a couple scenes.

Tim, who is a normal man and the self-insert of this movie, ends up being killed by a monster similar to the sewer alligator that killed JC. The plot thickens, but not really because it doesn't make any sense. This little girl that John Blade rescued from somewhere has some connection to a monster, I think, it's pretty unclear.

Several scenes later, some evil corporate overlord woman called Sinclair is doing evil corporate things with this evil corporate man named Vincenzo Manchini. John Blade and his crew invade the tower because they kidnapped the little girl and John Blade makes sure to bring his cancer bullets to shoot the sewer alligator monsters. John Blade kills Vincenzo Manchini and the evil corporate woman Sinclair, rescues the little girl, then they escape out of the tower on an aircraft. The end.

The movie looks terrible because the art director must have been going through an edgy phase and put in too many dark colours. Most of the movie takes place at night and the animation team didn't give a rat's ass about making anything look smooth. There's one single scene where a sewer alligator mutant soldier runs very quickly at a lot of tanks that looks hilarious and that's the only good bit. It's visually hard to follow what's going on and the subtitles don't make it any easier. The plot is impossible to understand because not even the writer knew what he was doing. It's a hackjob of an adaptation and you'd have to hunt down a copy of the game to try and understand where this fits in. The voice acting is spectacularly stupid and done by people who have gone on to be quite successful.

Nothing could be as hilariously poorly done as Sin the Movie. MD Geist comes close but that doesn't try to have a plot. Sin does. It takes itself seriously even though whoever worked on it clearly didn't care.

Should you really watch Sin the Movie?
Yes. Watch it several times. With friends. Watch it a lot.

Ah, my favourite anime to loathe.

Sin was a fun game, IMO. Even this movie might have made a playable game, if an intensely generic one. But it wasn't a game – it was a movie, and a bad one. From the very start canon is thrown right out the window, closely followed by the splattered brains of the protagonist's fan-beloved partner and friend, JC. If you think that was a spoiler, you're right – it pretty much spoils the entire movie by turning it into a body-horror splatterhouse with an unspeakably awkward sexual tension twist as JC's where-the-hell-did-she-come-from sister, also named ... JC, joins forces with the guy who killed her brother essentially to act as a living decoration. This flinchworthy cliche-hugging 'edgy' weirdness is the only memorable thing about the entire movie. If you like the game Sin, don't watch this movie. If you like movies, don't watch this movie. If you like Sin: The Movie, don't watch this movie. This is blatantly the exploitation of an almost-successful franchise by someone who saw a cool-looking character on a game box, skim-read the back, bought a license to the property, and fed it to a bunch of hacks.

Based on a video game I have never played or seen up to this day, Sin: The Movie is an action oriented anime that continues to provide the perfect reasons on why a majority of video games should never make it to film. Movies like these are almost always atrocious, and Sin isn't very far from the very definition. The only things working in favor of this nightmare are the violence and soundtrack; everything else is pretty much a hot mess with the characters, story, and plot all leading the charge.

I don't know, but there's just something about a man taking a knife straight ... through the head that is so cool to watch. Especially, when his eyeball goes crooked, and the killer continues to stab his dead body. One thing is for sure, anime newbies and gorehounds will be impressed with the graphic violence found in Sin. The animation is fairly good exploiting the murder and mayhem. There's a pretty good amount of detail when showcasing the severed spines, and heads being stepped on into oblivion crushing everything, with even the teeth breaking out of place. Unfortunately, this amount of detail is lost in other areas. People step out of pools, and they're bone dry in about half a second with no drips whatsoever. To include, the CG looks really flat, and really doesn't mesh well with the animation a majority of the time. The character designs for the monsters are alright at best but nothing mind blowing. I would go so far to say that they're on the creative level of the original Guyver or even Arc the Lad, take that any way you want.

The high tempo soundtrack is just right for this type of movie, and it works well with the pacing and action. As bad as the movie may be, it moves by pretty quick. I really didn't care for the voice acting, because everyone seemed as if they were trying too hard to fill their roles.

The problems are in the movies development from start to finish. The characters are bland stereotypes with little to no personality at all; hero cop, wise cracking cop, evil genius, etc. The story and by the numbers plot is extremely cliché and cheesy beyond belief as well; from the revealing of the "secret weapon", to the dialogue concerning revenge and world domination. It even has the spectacular explosion to cap off the ending. There was no real creativity to speak of with this movie, and the final act plays exactly like a video game, with the hero shooting his way through different levels, climbing ladders, meeting a sub boss, and battling the end boss. If John Blade happened to die at any point, and the "continue" count down showed up, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised. Also, lets not forget the cheap drama and shower scene that holds no meaning other than fan service. In addition to the done to death government conspiracies featuring cover-ups which are nothing more than desperate attempts to land some type of substance in an overall bland action flick. It feels embarrassing to sit through this.

Sin is definitely something that should be skipped, whether you're a die hard action fan or not. There is nothing remarkable about it, and if you do find yourself curious on checking it out. Then it should probably be after you seen just about everything else.

Highs: Pacing and music score, some of the violence

Lows: Walking bag of been there done that and done much better. Poor story, plot, etc.

As a fan of the original game, I was curious about Sin: The Movie. The original PC game was no masterpiece but it had fun level design, good FPS action and a kick-ass wisecracking hero in John Blade. Reading some of the reviews and ratings, I was cautious about watching this one. The series has been dead in the water since 2006 when the sequel series ‘Sin: Episodes’ was cancelled. Other than those two games (and a planned remaster), this is the only other piece of media in the series available to fans. So, I decided to check it out regardless and see what the ... hubbub (hate) was about.

This only resembles the original game in three departments: the character designs, names and the fact that Sinclair is the main villain. As a result, it’d be easy to constantly scrutinize the differences and compare it negatively with the source material. I decided to just see it as its own ‘thing’ and try to appreciate it based on its own merits. Well based on what I watched, Sin: The Movie has nothing particularly awful about it. At the same time, there’s nothing particularly good about it either. The plot, characters, animation etc. are all painfully average. ‘Forgettable’ is the word I’d use to describe it all.

Beginning with the plot, we have an evil corporation that wants to mess with human DNA and create monsters, so a badass cop with a personal vendetta has to take them down. Its been done too many times before to count, and nothing new is brought to the table. The plot at least makes sense and the character intentions are made clear to us. John Blade is your usual silent (badass) character, and sadly the other characters are stock too. Elexis Sinclaire, the main villain, is somewhat interesting at the start (mainly due to her viciousness) but quickly becomes boring. The art and animation aren’t awful, but for a 2000’s OVA they’re barely average.

The one thing I do want to praise is the soundtrack which is shockingly good. It was performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, who’ve also been on the soundtracks for series such as Cowboy Bebop and Hellsing Ultimate. That’s quite the resumé. It’s the highlight of the OVA, and often I would zone out and focus on the music instead of what was happening on the screen because it was more interesting. The soundtrack made every scene better.

Give the soundtrack a listen, but fans of the game can skip this one and Cyberpunk fans are better off watching one of the many better OVA’s available such as Cyber City Oedo 808.

I don’t usually write reviews but I think I’ve decided to start writing more, because it can help me remember how I felt about things I’ve seen in the past and perhaps offer some insight for someone interested in finding out more about the show in order to make a decision about whether or not to watch it (and since you’re reading this, I assume that someone would be you). Anyways, I usually try not to include spoilers in my reviews but what counts as a spoiler varies from person to person, and I also don’t plan out my reviews, I just make them up ... as I go. So I’ll warn you now, potential spoilers ahead:

This movie/OVA is pretty bad. The plot makes little sense because practically nothing is explained, which is kind of a given considering they essentially tried to make a full movie in 50 minutes. The animation is also bad, but again, that is somewhat expected given when this was made. I’m a huge entertainment media fan in general (live action movies and tv as well as anime) so I like watching all kinds of things and want to see as much as I can. That’s pretty much the main reason I decided to watch this. At 50 minutes long it was the perfect length for the amount of time I had and it was a complete story (lol, sort of) rather than just watching an episode or two of a longer show, which is what I was looking for. I tell you this to make a point: unless you’re in a similar position, I wouldn’t recommend watching this. If you don’t have a lot of free time or you’re not a bit of a junkie like me, then pass on this and watch something better.

I know I said this movie was bad (and it is) and I gave it a 4, which is a low score for me. I have yet to give out a 1 or 2 on MAL because those scores are reserved for things I hate, not just things I thought were bad. While the story made no sense and the animation was bad, I didn’t really mind watching this that much, partially because I knew it wasn’t very long and I knew I could tough it out for another 20 minutes in order to check off another show, and partially because I just wanted to see how it ended. I didn’t enjoy watching it really, but I didn’t hate it either. For me, it was worth watching once, to check it off my list, but I won’t ever watch it again. I understand I’m a bit weird though, so for most people I’d recommend avoiding this and choosing something else. But if you do decide to watch this, just be prepared for some bad animation, a decent amount of gore, and very little explanation.

Oh boy, this is a strange one.

SiN is a 1998 video game set in the year 2037, the police has been fazed out and private companies and muscle fulfil the role of law enforcement. You play as John R Blade, head of security company HardCorps, and the story follows you going after Elexis Sinclaire, head of SinTek, as she appears to be behind the violent mutants encountered throughout the game.

I'm not going to go into the video games any further, as the movie isn't so much a sequel to them as it is an adaptation, but its worth reading the plot summary for the games ... to understand the characters and themes in the movie better.

The movie is hardly a masterpiece. It's unnecessarily dark and gritty in contrast to the source, and it starts by immediately killing off a supporting character from the video game, which you only see through flashback sequences as it opens with Blade standing at their grave. The story, while not difficult to follow, is pretty weak. It jumps around a lot and the supporting characters are pretty forgettable, and its full of clichés too. The antagonist is once again Elexis Sinclaire, and her plan revolves around kidnapping and extracting the blood from a little girl with a rare DNA anomaly in order to make more powerful mutants. Groundbreaking stuff I know. Other characters include the afformentioned late video game character's sister, whom none of the cast have met prior, and a few other forgettable faces who were original from the movie too.

What the movie lacks in writing however, it picks up in art and setting. The action and characters (mainly Blade) are beautifully over the top, and the gore is spectacular. It also looks like a brilliantly designed dystopian future, something the preceeding games failed to achieve, and it has that classic 90's futuristic art direction to it aswell. The soundtrack is pretty decent, the opening credits theme is awesome, but it's mainly pretty generic action sci-fi music that gets the job done nicely. If the music were bad, I'd have something to say about it.

The movie is pretty enjoyable even if its not all that good, it's a movie that holds nothing back and is equal parts ridiculous and awesome. Its definitely worth a watch, which won't take you long as it doesn't even hit the 60 minute mark, credits included. If you're a fan of over the top action, great fight and gore scenes, and can live with some lackluster writing, this movie is for you. It's a great entry to an obscure franchise (which is also worth checking out if you're a fan of first person shooters) and a damn good movie spawned from a video game that just couldn't beat Half Life.