The techno fantasy potential is completely tapped and suits the darker theme, it's an absolutely beautiful improvement from the series that deserved a 16:9 movie. The title should be reinterpreted as: The Vision of Escaflowne: Alternate Fate (Valiant Wing Goddess). It is not a reboot, a retelling or a rewriting of the previous story. Many alternate fates are possible due to how the storyline was designed from the start, it's nice to had seen this one without the PG cushion the Escaflowne series was bound to. The movie would make little sense to anyone uninvested in the series since a great deal of background on these charactersis sourced from the viewer's prior knowledge of the series, this grants it a pass to be an abridged story, as it no longer needs to tell the whole story. So much of the true message of Escaflowne was lost, this movie puts it all back.

PS. Watch the Funimation version for a good time.

"In the darkness; the dragon wakes, till the heart numbs cold, the dragon roars, with you by my side; the dragon sleeps, when the dragon gains wings, our hopes will leap into the sky."