I must confess I was not really familiar with Lupin III before I watched this. I had this vague notion that he was a goofy burglar but that's it.
The film starts strong enough. There is an early escape scene on a highway that is very entertaining. The animation is good and expressive. But as the movie progressed, I realized how much of it was modeled after Indiana Jones. Some of the main characters are archeologists looking for a powerful ancient artifact and, of course, there is a nazi plot to get to it first and restore the Third Reich. That's a problem because comparing Lupin to Indiana doesn't do the former any favor. Neither of them have entirely believable stories of course, but at least there is some plot building in Indiana Jones that doesn't constantly give the impression that the writers came up with all their ideas as they wrote the script, seemingly out of thin air and with little link to what was already committed to paper.
It probably didn't help that I watched the movie dubbed in French, as the voice actors for that version did a poor job, putting more distance between me as a viewer and the characters than the shoddy plot already did.
Overall, there's just enough in Lupin III that I wasn't completely bored, but aside from the above mentioned escape, no scene left a lasting impression.
The film starts strong enough. There is an early escape scene on a highway that is very entertaining. The animation is good and expressive. But as the movie progressed, I realized how much of it was modeled after Indiana Jones. Some of the main characters are archeologists looking for a powerful ancient artifact and, of course, there is a nazi plot to get to it first and restore the Third Reich. That's a problem because comparing Lupin to Indiana doesn't do the former any favor. Neither of them have entirely believable stories of course, but at least there is some plot building in Indiana Jones that doesn't constantly give the impression that the writers came up with all their ideas as they wrote the script, seemingly out of thin air and with little link to what was already committed to paper.
It probably didn't help that I watched the movie dubbed in French, as the voice actors for that version did a poor job, putting more distance between me as a viewer and the characters than the shoddy plot already did.
Overall, there's just enough in Lupin III that I wasn't completely bored, but aside from the above mentioned escape, no scene left a lasting impression.