Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale

SAO. You love it. Or you hate it. Then there's me who... "Tolerates" it to an extent. The first half of season 1 was decent enough for what it was. The second half was the worst thing since... Well, anything. Season 2 was an improvement, and finally achieved the right to be called "tolerable" or dare I say decent. Now there's a movie. How does it hold up? Does it rise above everything else the series has to offer? Well, that just depends on how you look at it. Story: 6 I won't go to deep into details, but just know that it falls somewhere between "decentlyinnovative" and "intolerably bad." It's good enough. To be fair, this film does do a good amount of things that haven't been done in the main series, but ultimately plays safe in the end. An example would be Kirito himself. He still doesn't have much that would qualify as a "personality" (keep trying though, maybe the writers will grant you that in the future) but isn't actually overpowered in this movie's central game: Ordinal Scale. In the beginning, he's on par with any generic nameless character in the background. Honestly, that aspect is entertaining. Sadly, that doesn't last. I won't spoil much, but he suddenly becomes a top player of the game sooner than he should have. It doesn't help that his "training montage" is literally a montage (which is what it shouldn't be). What should've been an arc became a few minutes of a good concept that was poorly executed (just like the series as a whole). Normally, this would fall under the 'Character' category, but it harms the plot in such a significant way that it is better said here.
Did I mention it was predictable? Well, it is.
All in all, the plot is barely passable even if the flaws are glaringly obviously even while watching the movie itself.

Art: 8
With this being a movie, the budget is quite bigger when compared to the anime series. Thankfully, it definitely shows. The environments are lively and vibrant. In addition, the battles (namely the finale) are animated beautifully. Everything is great, except...
The characters. In this movie, there are a number of times when the character's faces (notably Kirito and Asuna) look a bit off. This may be my own taste, but it bothered me. Luckily, while in battle, the faces look fine. I'm sure there's a reason behind it, but it's distracting. Oddly enough, I never found a problem like this in the main series.
All in all, I was more than satisfied with the animation.

Sound: 7
If there's one thing SAO has done consistently, it's that it has a great soundtrack. Luckily, this movie does not falter in that department. The various songs that play during the battles blend in with the scenes perfectly, despite not being standouts on their own. Unquestionably, the best song is "Catch the Moment" which plays during the credits. It's quite a shame that it isn't featured within the film itself and is saved for the credits instead. Nevertheless, the soundtrack lives up to the standards of SAO.

Character: 5
I wouldn't say that this film suffers from its characters as much as the main series does, but there are a few flaws.
On one hand, Kirito isn't a horrible protagonist this time around. While he won't be winning any awards for "best protagonist", he's a step up from anything we've seen from him before. Sadly, the writers don't use him to his full potential (as mentioned earlier).
Asuna is probably the weakest part of this film. She's essentially used as a plot device and motivation for Kirito for the mid to late parts of the film. That wouldn't have been so bad if other characters like Klein received the same attention. Then it would have felt like something was truly at stake that's not a single person.
Side note: Yui is still featured too often for my liking. This disappoints me.
In general, the characters hold the film back just like they do with the main series.

Enjoyment: 7
Though flawed in more ways than one, it was entertaining enough. I don't think it warrants a second viewing, but considering that I only watched it because I had nothing else to watch, I was satisfied with my time.

Overall: 6
Yeah, it's flawed. Yeah, it's predictable. But compared to what SAO normally shows off, there's a clear sign that effort was put into this. If you're solely a fan of SAO, then you'll like it a lot. If you're a fan of SAO and other anime, then you'll enjoy it but notice the flaws. If you never liked SAO to begin with, then this may not be for you and would ultimately be better if you ignored it completely.

6/10.

Side Note: I was going to compliment this movie for restraining itself (to an extent) when it came to fanservice... But the DVD/Blu-Ray release with an "alternate" scene did not help it.