Truth is, this is the most exciting thing to happen to the franchise in ages.

Japanese devs don't know what cool is. I'd be happy if they could make their characters tolerable.

Ninja Theory, the company that will produce DmC, is based in Cambridge, England.

Apparently they had a more moderate design that was closer to the original and Capcom forced them to change it. 

"[Initially], we said, 'Go explore the space,' and [Ninja Theory] came back with a very incremental look from what Dante had usually been," says Capcom USA lead producer Alex Jones. "And we went, 'No guys, go back to first principles and really do something,' and then they went about 25-percent more down the field. And we're like, 'No, seriously! Do something that you think would make us angry with you,' and that's when we started making progress."

So it is kinda Capcoms fault, I don't think the design is bad though, I actually enjoy it much more than the older one. I think people in this thread are also taking the design out of context, the guy was chained down in a prison, probably being starved and beaten, I don't know how else he could possibly look.