Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
Story: I had to give the story a 1 for a few reasons. Without getting into spoilers, essentially the premise of the entire conflict is completely unrealistic (I mean unrealistic beyond a reasonable suspension of disbelief), the facts are contradictory, and the motive of the villain actually falls apart with just a tertiary examination of both the feasibility of his plan and its execution. It doesn't take much to realize that the movie's story is flimsy and self-destructive, and the only way to get any enjoyment out of it is to completely ignore it and settle for more a more visceral experience. Then again, plot andstory were never exactly one of SAO's strong points.
Additionally, the movie forgets so frequently that this all takes place in AR, not VR. In AR, people actually get hurt from falling 30 feet or more. In AR, swords don't actually crash against each other, and people don't get thrown back. In AR, if you physically assault someone, you still get arrested. None of these factors are ever addressed in the movie.
Art:
The animation in this movie was actually really good, and it made for some very exciting battles/action scenes. The storyboarding was a little shoddy in some instances, making it difficult to follow placement and such, but it didn't bother me much while watching it. Additionally, the way they handled the transfer into Ordinal Scale and the overlay of the AR world over the real world was fantastically implemented.
Sound:
As always, Yuki Kajiura kills it. Her music is phenomenal by any measure, and simply sitting back and listening to the music playing during the fight scenes was one of the most enjoyable parts of this movie. The only reason this got a 9 and not a 10 was because the sound effects, like the clashing of swords against each other, was deafening, like explosions going off every few seconds. You get numb to it eventually, but it's distracting enough for the first fight to bring the score down some.
Character:
Ordinal Scale fails to correct almost all of the issues with character development that existed in SAO. Asuna is only made to be interesting/cool because she needs to crash and burn so Kirito can save her or pick her back up again. Klein, although he has a bit more screen time, still serves as "Male #2." All of the girls -- Asada, Keiko, Rika, etc. -- only exist to support Kirito or, less frequently, his relationship with Asuna (except of course when they're clearly fawning over him, or in Asada's case clearly flirting with him, which should be no surprise to anyone who watched the anime). The only thing they improved on was by making Kirito actually suck at the beginning, but this was quickly ruined by turning him godlike in a ridiculously short amount of time. And please don't say it's because of those helpful videos he watched, because not once did he use Kendo. The character dialogue also improved a little, but it was still really flat and contrived.
Enjoyment:
Once I learned to get past the most glaring problems with the movie, I was able to enjoy it somewhat. The operative word there being somewhat. The music and the visuals were enough to distract me, on occasion, from the terrible plot, story, and horrible character interaction and development.
Overall:
This movie gets a 5/10. If you're looking for a good movie, don't watch it. Seriously, you'll be much better off just not having watched it. If you're looking for something to heavily critique for some intellectual gratification, then this is perfect for you. If you're looking to just shut your mind off and watch the pretty colors and hear the lovely sounds, then there are many valid candidates for your desired experience, and this is certainly one of them.