Kitamura, the guy who did "Versus" and "Aragami" tires his skill at some material that has been around for a while. To be precise for almost a 100 years (counting in the original Arsene Lupin).Let me pick up one thing that was mentioned before, the lighting. In general it was okay for me, but that's a matter of personal taste, I guess.I haven't had a chance to review the mangas and the anime(s), so I am a bit biased. The entire story is somewhat confusing. Thieves stealing from thieves, okay, I can live with that. But the entire sister/brother thing between 'Michael' and 'Fujiko' is a bit too much. Same goes for the strangely misplaced loyalty to his (Michael's) father as well as the weird thirst for revenge stemming from it. Also, the entire "auction" scene makes no sense at all. What kind of auction is this supposed to be? And so forth. The entire story suffers from potholes, inconsistencies and sudden turns that border on the absurd; Parmuk was the bad guy all along? Shocking development! *gasp* The last part, when they break into the "Ark" is way over the top. Which does not help the move, since it's just for show. In terms of story it's somewhat useless. I thought he was a thief, not Rambo incarnate? And you'd need a 170 mil. computer to write a virus that is being carelessly!!! plugged in via USB? Come on, guys.Apart from that the acting is decent, the characters try to make sense in the confines of the plot but sometimes fall a bit short. Action scenes and stunts are en par with other action/adventure movies. If you just watch it for fun and seek light entertainment, it's okay. I kinda hope this stays a one-off for Kitamura and he will turn to pure action again. As a matter of fact, I've got "No one lives" lined up. Let's hope it's a better treat.

I would say this is a great movie but let me point out why I gave this a 7 out of 10. Lighting. I know this is movie about thieves so it is expected that some parts will have to be shoot under the pretense of night time. However, their lighting is so bad that I would just imagine in my head what is happening and not look at the screen. Good part of the review. Lupin III is no Rurouni Kenshin. A lot of people expects the fights to be flashy. However flashy fights is not something that Lupin does. If you grew up watching this show you would know that his fighting style is not some complicated sword style but a comical one. This is something the movie truly captured.

Three words: Very poor lighting. They can use some flashlight for better illumination. Its one thing to shoot scenes at night, but its also another thing when the viewer can no longer make of who's fighting who. Plus shaky cam too. So one can just imagine how hard it was while watching.If the story won't hold your attention, the amount of pretty faces and bodies will. Like seriously, they capitalized so much on Fujiko Mine(Meisa Kuroki) and Miss V (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam). They were very blazing hot all through out! For the ladies, there's Michael (Jerry Yan) and Lupin (Shun Oguri).If there's one thing I can commend this movie for, it has to be the participation of actors from different countries. We see actors here from Japan, Thailand, USA, and Taiwan. And their English were okay! Maybe not as smooth, but there were subtitles to help anyway.The story, like the source material, managed to be funny. Lupin III, for those who haven't seen the series, is our very elusive thief who could literally hide at the moon just to evade arrest.There is this one scene which somehow put me into questioning. There's this scene where Lupin, as cunning as he is, employed some trick for the bad guys. He made use of this recorded tape/flashdrive and it was his animated look shown on the screen. They altered Lupin's face to match Shun Oguri's! Were they authorized to alter Lupin's animated face just to match to the actor who played him in live-action? I mean, they're basically altering a face already known for what, 30 years, just to accommodate a live-action adaptation? Which brings me, Shun Oguri doesn't really have this Lupin aura. Lupin was oval-faced, Shun Oguri is square-faced. There were these scenes where Shun Oguri makes the trademark smirk of Lupin. I'm a very forgiving watcher so I'll just go with that.Tadanobu Asano was fabulous as Inspector Zenigata! And there's also the special participation of Goemon Ishikawa----> I didn't expect this.Okay I'll sum this up. All in all, the movie is okay. There was a little drama, the action scenes were par, and the special effects were passable.

I really enjoyed watching this movie, I found it very entertaining and exciting and I even noticed the mix of the Asian cultures and the usage of different languages. It shows on all the action and fight scenes, there are also a lot of cameo clips from the original anime which is very good. The reason why I really enjoyed watching this movie because it made me feel like Im watching a cartoon with live actors playing the roles. I just have a slight concern with the use of language on some scenes, i noticed some parts where the inspector was talking in Japanese with the HK police, that part is a bit inconsistent for me, but the delivery of the actors were really good. Lupin the 3rd has a great costume designer, since everything is very accurate with the anime, but even so, it was converted into what you can actually wear in real life. I found Jigen's costume particularly nice, because of his bad-ass approach and how he carries himself. Its textbook perfection.