Review of Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly

I just saw this movie in theaters less than an hour ago. So I may come back and edited this review after I've seen a second time. (If I've seen it a second time.) I have to say, What was that? And I'm not talking about the animation or the soundtrack. The Credits Song "I Beg You" by Aimer is fantastic, I'm more knocking this for its characters. I feel they relied too heavily on "Because Fate". SPOILERS: ....................... ................... ........................... .............................. ...........................As far as I can recall Saber Alter gets a single line and a single scene. The battle between Berserker and Alter is fantastic when the camera work is kept simplistic. But they go a bit too dynamic with the shots at certain points. I'm hoping that they explain how Saber became Alter in III because I don't have access to the original visual novel.

Not to mention, this is a compressed adaptation. I understand that some things are going to be cut. But there are two things that Shinji does that made go "What does THAT do?" The first is when he breaks an earring Sakura is wearing. It's quite clearly a power limiter of some sort. I understand that exposition about the whole mechanics of it would have slowed the scene, but you couldn't have given Rin or Shinji a line naming the earring. The other is this small bottle of purple liquid. It might as well be referred to as Virtue's Last Reward's "Axelavir." Perhaps instead of that gratuitous scene between Shirou and Sakura that could have been left implied, they could have devoted a scene to giving a brief rundown as to what that bottle contains. What is its name? What are its' properties? With III not due out in theaters for another year, explaining this ahead of time would have been helpful.

I'm also convinced that the writers in here weren't on the same page. There had to be one was all about the gratuitous scenes and another who was trying to turn this film into a comedy. Now a laugh or two is fine. But it seems like the whole middle of this film became a comedy sketch. The funny moments that come from Rider acting contrary to how Saber did in the same situation work. The moment where Sakura is staring horrified at a bandaged Shirou is not supposed to be and yet it is! Narm at its finest. The camera angle seems to say "Whomp. Whomp. Shirou got himself injured and brought home two more girls in your sister and the 10 year old. Classic Shirou!"

There was also at couple of plot points shoved to a single scene. At one point, it looks Sakura is about to go Yandere or at the very least, violently protective. She, at one point, contemplates not letting Shirou leave the house. That plot point becomes dropped when Shirou not only comes from home with two more girls, but leaves the house again. The other single plot point scene comes from a Fujimura flashback where Kiritsugu leaves the house and Fujimura the same way Shirou goes out with Sakura staying home. I found that plot much more interesting.

They seem to applying equal compression to the plot instead of knowing where to streamline it. Overall, the score on this site is being slightly inflated by the fact that if you're reaching Heaven Feel's II you've gone through at least one of Zero, Deen, or UBW and Heaven's Feel I.