Review of Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
If you are a huge fan of SAO you will enjoy this movie and you will enjoy even more if you were rooting for Asuna and Kirito relationship. Story: The anime is of course about augment reality which is similar to pokemon go except a 100x better but also feel similar to the pokemon go phase making easily relatable. The anime has always been good with their concept (aside from the stupid second fairy arc) and how technology can interact with reality and how it can be beneficial and harmful. The arc play similar to the bullet phantom arc, with a bunch of accident happening whileKirito is investigating, except focusing more on Asuna and Kirito. I said I overall enjoy the phantom arc more than this movie, as it did not took full advantage of the topic at hand which could have been used to developed Kirito character. If it wasn't for the fact that there were real stakes in the movie, the plot could have easily turn out for the worst. Thankfully they were tension in this movie and you were able to relate to the character and root for Kirito even if he being op edge lord Jesus XD. A thing to note is that this feel more like a sequel to the SAO incident and again does focus on Asuna and Kirito relationship. I mean if you love their relationship, this movie will leave you happy.
Art: The animation for SAO was always great which many cannot deny, and with a movie budget it look just as great. It had lot of awesome boss fights, with the climax fight being SAO best-animated fight with lots of fan service which does not only include bouncy breast XD (although disappointed there was no ass shot of Sinon).
Sound: Well the anime decided that hey you know what is missing, IDOL and VOCALOID. While the song was great fitting the sense of an rpg game in the best way, they were not as great as the other ost for SAO, but still great overall.
Character: Asua was fantastic in this movie. Her character as progress from the Rosario Mother arc (aka my fav arc in the series), and probably had the most character development in the movie as see as to overcome an obstacle caused by the AR technology. If the movie would have focused more on her and a bit less on Kirito this movie could have been better. Is easy to cheer her on in this movie as she had her waifu mode on point while also being strong and acting like a leader.
Speaking of Kirito, he was also the focus in the movie. While her relationship with Asuna was done great, I can't help that they could have done more with his character instead of being the hero, as he was having a problem with AR vs VR, which could have gone in an interesting direction, but they solve with just some practice and go all try hard mode. Luckily the plot does make it easy to root for him, so he does not come off as OP jesus kun aside from the end, but it was badass so I don't care. I personally had more fun with him in the bullet phantom arc, I feel like he work better with him not being the focus and having to deal with something he not used to. Granted I also love him in the first arc because this was a guy that was trying to stay strong by not relying on other and had much more of a conflict. if they either had him appear a bit less and focus more on Asuna, or had him actually have him struggle more with Ar, I think he could have been better. Overall he was decent in the movie.
The side character was fantastic overall in this movie, unlike season two the minor trash waifu character (minus Sinon who is best girl) are not annoying and play their role relatively well. Klen and Aigo do get more screen time and are also fun in moderation. Also sinon is here in small doses and is great bc she is obviously best girl.
The villain. Easily the best villain in the SAO franchise for me was the Mom in Mother Rosario arc. Sure she was not a straight up villain and more of an obstacle that Asuna have to overcome, oh wait that similar to a villain except that you can understand her reasoning while also wanting Asuna to come to an understanding with her. With SAO villain in general while the concept for them are great (except for the trash villain in the fairy dance arc), in the end, they are just crazy unstable people. In here the villain are relatable and the concept of it is interesting, but they are not as cool as Death Gun or Akibayashi. Not to mention they could have been flesh out more. Can't help but feel they would have been better if this was a tv show instead of a movie, but I guess they would not have the awesome final climax fight.
Enjoyment: I saw this in a theater fill with a crowd who were having ton of fun with this movie, so yeah alot of fun. Especially the voice actor of Kirito who managed to make the crowd of people hype as hell.
Overall: You got a movie that could easily be left as the ending of the franchise (but stay at the end credit and you know that isn't it). It is what I call a movie for the fan. Yes it has some flaw, but to be fair most people know that just ask anybody who hate the franchise XD, but if you love the series this movie will be great as they do have alot of the character in the past, focus more on Asuna and Kirito relationship, how new technology can interact with the world, great action, music, animation, etc it has everything people like about the franchise.