Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
***THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW*** YOU REALLY SHOULD GO SEE ALL SAO TV SERIES STUFF BEFORE SEEING THIS FILM Let me preface this review by giving you my thoughts on SAO as a series; I liked the first season regardless of its faults but everything afterwards is hot garbage. I didn't like anything about the succeeding seasons even though I enjoyed those arcs in the light novel. Now, how was this film? Story: 5.5/10 A really surprising element of the film for me was how they implemented the deterrent element that made the film have tension. It got stupid in the final 30 minutes but the emotionalissues that got tagged onto the film in the first hour and a half was actually well executed. However...with typical SAO fashion things just seem to happen out of nowhere without any real explanation. Add to this the sort of rushed and hand-fisted ending and you get a film that started out interesting but sizzles out towards the end.
Animation/Art: 10/10
No way to baby this; the film looked fucking spectacular. If you look at the staff list for this anime you will see why the film looks simply orgasmic. I'm not talking about just the actiony stuff, I'm saying the entire film, each scene is just so beautiful and well done. Both the cityscape of (I think) Tokyo and the AR superimposed game world is just so detailed. The animation is super fluid and looked very realistic. The characters seemed to have a real sense of weight (which can be an issue for other animation projects). The character models are of course super handsome and beautiful (and for the most part stay on-model).
Sound: 8/10
A pretty good element to the film was how well everything sounded. The 'clangs' and 'swooshes' you would hear during combat scenes seemed really on par and the surround-sound design worked well for spatial moments. The voice actors (who appear in-person before the film starts to “greet” the audience on-screen) were 100% on-point with their performances. The only thing I feel that was off was strangely the music. It sounded epic when it needed to but I felt that there was no...no connecting of the music? It felt like a bunch of individual tracks instead of a connected score that you would hope to have in a film. There really didn't seem to be a simple theme present in each song (which is what makes film scores like Star Wars so memorable and great). There are some idol type songs in the movie which I don't really care for but that is not why I found the music so...average.
Characters: 4.8/10
If you liked how the cast of SAO interacted from season 2 onward then you will like how they act in this film. The sort of weird pseudo harem Kirito had going on in the tv series is still kind of weird in the film. The girls still show affection towards Kirito and Asuna still just sits there with a blank expression on her face (not sure if she is oblivious to the situation or is just playing dumb). The romantic element between Kirito and Asuna though actually came off pretty realistic in the film. The flashbacks in the film that show scenes from the first season are still super cringy to watch but the romantic elements that occur in the actual film are quite nice. The main “bad guy” though I did not buy one bit. He's overpowering for the bulk of the film but then for some reason becomes really powerless? I don't know I didn't buy him at all as a “bad guy”.
Overall: 7.1/10
After leaving the cheer-filled theater (sold out and full of fans of the series) I could not help but notice the sly gleam that was covering my face. I enjoyed the film even though it felt like the second season and onwards nonsense. The fighting scenes are beautiful, the talking scenes are beautiful, the cast are beautiful, and a lot of the film is super enjoyable. If you are ok with the asspulls that SAO is known to do then you will for sure enjoy this film. Go see it in a theater if you can.
Enjoyment: 7.5/10
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Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer