Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
After watching the movie I'm going to try and give an unbiased review as much as possible. Story: 7/10 The story is average. The story builds itself based on you guessed it Sword Art Online. It tries to bring back characters to what they were before, two in particular badasses known throughout the SAO World Kirito "The Black Swordsman" and Asuna "The Flash" while your antagonists are plotting something that is the equivalent of "Selling your soul to the devil", I'll leave it at that. The story is initially wrapped around Asuna and it turns again into the "Damsel in Distress" where Kirito has to save Asuna.For the in depth story it's somewhat predictable but not too noticeable.
Art: 9/10
Aniplex is known for their great animation but I was hoping we would get more out of the movie instead of it looking almost like what you would watch from the TV Anime because Anime Movies are allotted a lot more money on animation. Speaking of money I was also disappointed from it seems like they tried to budget some of their animation for the fights. Slow scenes were very stagnant but that is up to the director's discretion however I wished there were more cuts in the slow scenes to help with character development. Regardless for what Aniplex can do with animation I wouldn't say pushes the limits but is definitely the standard of Anime for Television.
Sound: 9/10
Music was great, it reuses some of the old music like "Swordland" to give some nostalgia for the viewer. I partially wish they used more darker music to give the darker tone in some scenes to give a darker build up. Outside of that given the director choices for where the music should be placed it was still very good to listen to. Remember, if it's a good movie everything is intentional.
Character: 7/10
Sword Art Online is notorious for having forgettable characters, mainly focusing on the protags and leaving the support characters in the smoke. However I do like what they did with Yuuna to show who she is. Outside of that it's just like the many other SAO arcs (Outside of Mother's Rosario), forgotten characters that come back out of nowhere to help.
Enjoyment: 9/10
Watching it in a theater with an engaged crowd helps bring out the movie, without an engaging audience it's hard to watch the movie and be more entertained. This movie helps with the enjoyment and definitely needs a good engaging crowd to be more immersed into what is SAO: Ordinal Scale.
Overall: 8.5/10
Tomohiko Itō is the Michael Bay of anime, for SAO: Ordinal Scale it gives him the opportunity to what he does best, fights that are somewhat immersive, explosions, and a lot of explosions. However it doesn't give me the edge of your seat Suspense of Disbelief I have seen in the past (And it wasn't from the SAO series). Ordinal Scale is definitely one of those movies that is good to watch but it's not something I would go pay for another ticket again to watch. (I'm looking at you YOUR NAME)
If you wanna find a series that gives you that thrill I would recommend to go watch ERASED (IMO one of the best shows that Tomohiko Ito has produced).
If you intend to watch the movie in the future (Because it was a one night sit in) be sure to watch the after credits as you get a very much needed surprise.