Review of Sword Art Online

[THERE WILL BE SOME VERY MINOR SPOILERS] TL;DR? Summary in pros/cons format at the end for those who want a quick idea of the series. This is my first review. Ah, Sword Art Online... Easily the most famous anime of 2012, it manages to remain high on the popularity charts even today. I went into this anime with a pretty open mind, with my expectations kept lower than what such popularity would warrant, given how popular anime tend to be a tad overrated... but nothing could prepare me for the monstrosity that is SAO. 'Overrated' is too nice a word to describe this one. I'll go into thespecifics from here.

Story - 1/10
Yep, a 1/10. You'd be wondering how a story can be so bad that it would deserve such a score and I'd tell you this - If there was an option to give a zero, I would have gladly picked that instead.
SAO happens in a Virtual world, or specifically, in a game. Those who have followed the .Hack// series would know that this setting is fairly common, if not overused. Even then, it's still acceptable, since many surprisingly good anime have turned up in recent times, which make used of very clichéd settings. After introducing this setting, they proceed to announce that all the players of this game are trapped there... once again taking hints from .Hack//.
What follows is nothing but a mess. You have jarringly random time skips, sudden character developments that have nothing to do with their behavior so far and the worst of it all, a pathetic attempt at romance. About 90% of the story just focuses on making Kirito look cool (I have a lot more to say about this in the 'Characters' section)
On the whole, the story of SAO is boring, predictable and downright annoying at times. Convenient plot devices are the heart of this anime.

Art - 7/10
Literally the only good thing about SAO. Good backgrounds and fight scene animations, but I'd say that the character designs were somewhat lacking. There were some huge flaws though, such as Asuna's birdcage, which I'm sure I don't need to explain further.

Sound - 5/10
Nothing really stood out. I don't really watch anime for the visuals or soundtracks/music, so I don't have much to say about the two.

Character - 1/10
The absolute worst point of this anime. The greatest issue I had was with the protagonist, Kirito. Just about every single character in SAO except Kirito exists simply to make Kirito look cool. They're all used in various ways JUST to show that Kirito is better than them. EVERY female character exists to be rescued by him (and promptly fall for him/revere him) and every male character exists to lose to Kirito in some spectacular manner (and then for it to be revealed that Kirito was holding back his power, as expected). All this would have been bearable if Kirito had at least been an interesting character, but NOPE - he's blander than your average digestive biscuit and just about as emotionless as your average brick. In short, he's your average harem anime protagonist... maybe a little below average, even as harem anime leads go. For this sort of a character to get so much screen time already kills the show - and then come the other characters, basically to add insult to injury.
The female lead of SAO, Asuna, is another copy-paste character. Just your average Tsundere with absolutely nothing new to bring to the table. Thankfully, she receives very little screen time in the second half of the show (though the tentacle scene was what completely made me hate this anime)
For lack of any better characters to discuss, I'll also mention one character who only appears in the second half - Suguha. She is Kirito's sister and of course, she has a major crush on Kirito. Another contributing factor to my hatred of SAO is how they used Kirito's own sister (close enough) to make him look better. Some plot devices are better left unused.

Enjoyment - 3/10
I had to force myself to keep watching after the initial 6-7 episodes. By the last few episodes, I was only watching it to finish it off, so that I could remove it from my list.

Overall - 3.4/10 ~ 3/10
Not many anime out there that I hated as much as SAO. I guess only Guilty Crown comes anywhere close. I'd say stay the hell away from this one if you value your sanity.

TL;DR? Here's a quick summary:

Pros:
-Good art
-Lots of fast paced action sequences

Cons:
-Just about everything else sucks
-Terrible characters
-Predictable story
-Probably the worst lead character you'll see in a while