Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
SPOILERS I'd like to point out that some movies are so inherently flawed that the only way we can enjoy them is because we love the characters and are already familiar with them. Star Trek gets away with this probably more criminally than any other franchise. SAO benefits from the same thing in the case of Ordinal Scale, which is why I scored them a five. We already love them, on with the movie. I have never seen such a disaster of writing in any anime film, and there have been some doozies over the years. The entire crux of the plot centersaround an device that allows for augmented gaming in reality as opposed to deep diving into a vr game. Loads of gamers show up in outdoor places to participate in battles. Its a shame they didn't show a passer by have a look at a bunch of people running around super intense and playing like they have invisible weapons. Think Rod and Todd getting imaginary Christmas. Even more stupid is that show builds towards a pop-concert thrown for the survivors of SAO by a singer program who's Dad wants to flood the show with monsters, scare everyone crazy, and then nuke their brains to steal their memories.
NOBODY THINKS TO TAKE OFF THEIR HEADSET!!! It was at that point I had lost all faith in the rest of the film and checked to see how much was left and wether it was worth finishing.
To its credit, Ordinal Scale has the distinction of being one of the few movies I've seen that so thrououghly if not redeem itself with an incredible ending (which is supposed to be the best part) then at least leaves us with some goosebumps and the feels. The final boss battle is a visual masterpiece, with all the usual awesome music, Asuna coming to the rescue, and the Gun Gale characters all coming to help was a truly nice touch.
Like I said to open this little tirade, because the characters are loved before the film begin the writers have a lot of license to get away with so much terrible writing, which is a shame. While entirely different series with entirely different tones, with tighter writing this could have easily slotted into the SAO canon/pantheon as the Cowboy Bebop Movie (a flawless anime film, stand alone and as part of canon) slotted into it's canon.