Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari

This movie was disappointing. While visually and artistically stunning, I found it to be extremely lacking in the story and character department. The first two thirds of the film to me were nothing more but Shaft just masturbating in front of me for an hour with their colossal budget and overly-indulgent animation. Magical girl transformation sequence that lasted too long, overly long fight sequences with the Nightmares, with the only thing they accomplished was to vomit a barrage of non-stop god-like animation, while relatively little progression in the character development and story department occurred.

I don't want to go into any spoilers, but suffice to say, ... the first hour of this just feels like a massive pandering and giant piece of fan service for fans of the original show. You get to see the fight between Hamura and Mami that we never got the chance to in the original show. Familiar characters such Kyosuke and Hitomi turn up for the sake of cramming more of the original cast into the story and reminding us why we hate them so much. The only new character that's introduced is Bebe, and besides explaining a bit of the plot to one character, she has about as much relevance to the overall story to what Nami from the Rebuild films does. Both of them are equal amounts of fan service and overall uselessness. There was relatively little of interest for me going on during this time and I found the only thing engaging me was the unbelievable production value of the show. After the first hour of the movie finished, I felt like this would've been better off as 30 minute OVA dedicated as a side story to Homura's character rather than a movie.

And then the final act happened. From here on the review will be straying into spoiler territory, so if you haven't watched the movie before doing so, I highly advise that you do before reading on. To say that Homura's 180 degree turn as a character was a massive ass pull would be an understatement. One of the film's most glaring problems is that it breaks the most cardinal rule of visual story telling mediums-show, don't tell. When it occasionally decides to visually stop jerking off in front of my face for about five minutes and remembers that it has a story and characters, the characters basically announce how they feel and describe why they're doing what they're doing. This is especially egregious during the conversation between Homura and Madoka when they're on the flower field. Homura breaks down in front of Madoka and blurts out her feelings to her as if she was reading her own character page from a wiki. This moment had little to no build up or foreshadowing to really have an effect for me emotionally, mostly because Madoka has been pretty much a non character within the story at that point, and the plot had been focusing more on Homura's confrontations with the other characters.

And it's because Madoka and Homura's relationship felt so ineffective to me was the reason why I had nothing but indifference to convey to Homura suddenly turning into magical satan because she was completely overcome with her lesbo juices when Godoka showed up. If her motivations had alway been selfish and she yearned to be with Madoka regardless of the consequences, then why didn't she just stay in the labyrinth once she found out that the Madoka with her at the time wasn't an illusion but the real deal once Kyubey told her? Her sudden plunge into the dark side felt extremely half-assed and forced, and felt like it was there to introduce a superficial shock factor that was needed to justify for what up to that point was an extremely point-less movie.

Many have said that you need to watch this film multiple times to grasp the "deep" themes and meaning of the film to truly appreciate it, but I can confidently say that you'll pretty much get the entire gist of the thing on your first viewing, since 75% of it is a superficial, two-dimensional barrage of fan service and Shaft reminding us how loaded they are, and the final 25% of it is just the writers undoing the ending of the original show so that the film can appear "edgy" and "controversial", with Biblical allusions to Madoka as God and Homura as Satan, but it's really all a pretentious disguise and mechanisation for them to dish out more sequels and milk this dead cow of a franchise even further, because no way was the ending I just watched a satisfying conclusion that ties any untied threads the movie had introduced to the universe at this point. While I do recommend watching the movie just to see how it completely falls the fuck apart towards the end, the only reason I can see myself coming back to this is for the stunning animation, and even that struggled to keep me engaged during my first viewing of the film, considering how bloated and dragged out a lot of the sequences in the beginning were.

This third and final installment in the Madoka trilogy might seems to live up to it's predecessor at first glance but in the end it is a total disappointment. This review will not be without spoilers so may whoever that read it be warned.

I'll start with the good points of this movie and will slowly bring the main problems with this movie.

Let's start off with the art. While it may not please everyone, the art has been quite faithful to the actual series. The animation is actually one of the show's strong point, some fight were actually well coordinated even though it came at the ... cost of a lot of 'quality' shots.
I am no good judge when it comes to music so instead of trying to write a bunch of technical nonsense I'll just say that like the first two movies, I enjoyed that aspect of the movie. The sound aspect is pretty faithful to the last two movies as well so if you enjoyed them, you probably will also enjoy this.

Now let's start with the actual problem of the movies: It destroyed whatever sense the first two movies made. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Homura becoming an existence that contrast Madoka's, the problem doesn't lie here. The problem is not the end goal of the movie but the path they took to reach it.
The movie start in a weird world where we can easily associate elements that were present in the two others installments. Characters that shouldn't be there are there, things that should have happened didn't happen (and vice versa)... this world is a complete mess. It doesn't make sense for a while until we learn that this world was a labyrinth, we then learn that Homura created that world. That part of the story actually made a lot of sense.
Homura, more than anyone, wished for a world where she could live happily with Madoka and, additionally, their other friends. She is the person that rewind-ed time so many time while enduring so much pain in order to save her friend. Even if she wanted to uphold Madoka's laws it would be easy to see how she could desire such a world.
By the time we learn about these fact there was already an element that didn't quite make sense: Sayaka's and Bebe's existence. Madoka's wish as a magical girl was to erase every witch before they 'hatched' be it in the past or the future or even in a complete different dimension, nothing less but nothing more. That request created a paradox that rewrote the world's rules and gave form to Madoka's wish as a system. Technically Madoka's existence became close to a 'god' but she isn't a god. She isn't supposed to be an omnipotent being that can decide to send some follower at her whim. She became a system which can only destroy witches before they hatch, a system that lost it's individuality and it's will.
It would be one thing if Sayaka and Bebe were created from Homura's labyrinth but they are following straight order from Madoka and that is outside her actual capacity, but that's the less important problem.

The main problem is Homura suddenly being able to rewrite the laws Madoka made. It can hardly be said to be anything else than an asspull.
Homura's desire to save Madoka created many different timeline in which Madoka was the center. The reason for these world to exist to begin with is Madoka and nothing else. That's why every time Homura rewind-ed the time, Madoka's latent potential as a witch grew since a witch's power is representative of it's importance in the world. Madoka being the reason of many world's existence possess a power with no precedent, at least nothing that Homura should be able to interfere with.
That's when, on the premise of love, the show destroyed whatever little sense it made.
I doubt I need to explain myself over why this doesn't make any sense. One isn't able to do whatever he wants simply because he wants to. The first two movies clearly expressed that there are thing that people are helpless against, a world where despair exist. The storyteller created a world where things are tied together and make at the very least some kind of sense. Homura couldn't suddenly defeat Walpurgisnacth because she wanted to. Once turned into a witch, there is no way to save a girl. Someone will not necessary return your kindness because you decided to be kind to him. It's not One piece where people can become stronger out of willpower alone, power and will are two completely separate entities. Yet they decided to take the route where Homura could do whatever she wanted because 'power of love'.

It's disappointing to see the story ending this way, it could have been handled much better than that. The movie in itself was enjoyable to watch but as a piece in the trilogy it is a huge disappointment.

Okay, so I have never been the biggest Madoka Magica fan but since this movie had alot of hype around it, I decided I would finally complete the Madoka Magica saga, and to my surprise, I found this conclusion to be.....pretty meh. Especially if you're not a fan of Akemi Homura, the girl this movie is most focused on.

The biggest part about this movie is how Madoka was finally "saved" from dispair and agony by Homura, but not the way Madoka wanted to be saved. Aside from the super-sized weirdness factor, the way they made the magical gang be more like the Mighty Morphin Power ... Rangers, and how everyone seemed to be so powerless against Homura (even when she hadn't become Homucifer yet) is something that really destroys the hype around this movie. I expected an Eva 2.2 type of finale, but instead I think they took some notes from Eva 3.3 and tried to make a whole new storyline out of an ending to an already average one (yes, I thought the original was average, sue me).

The music is great, the animation is brilliant from almighty Studio SHAFT, and the girls are still the same besides the "IT'S MORPHIN TIME" and "WHO'S GOT THE CAKEY" scenes, so you won't have to read a spinoff of a "Puella Magi" series to understand what is going on (unless you haven't seen the original series in which case you should very much do that).

Overall, like I expected it to, it didn't live up to my expectations. Instead of the girls fighting for what they want, they let Homura run all over them by not expecting the worst from a girl who throughout the entire movie screams about how she wants Madoka back. The most memorable scene will be about 15 minutes away from the end of the movie, but even then, it's not one that should've ended what was called the "greatest anime of 2011".

Jebus gives Puella Magi Madoka Magica 3: Rebellion: 3 bebe's out of 5.

After having to sit through not one, but TWO recap movies, I was pretty excited to watch this one as it would finally have some original content.

Well, the content is original alright. From the stunning animation to the amazing music and interesting story line, everything is there and yet... something feels off.

Although that may be because something is indeed "off" in this story (as mentioned in the premise), it may also be due to the fact that the plot itself is only introduced after 2/3 of the movie have already gone by. Furthermore, this makes the last part of the movie feel ... rushed, confusing, and overall hard to take in.

Since Shaft studio is renowned for its out-of-this-world animation and its Dali-esque sequences during the witch battles, it is no surprise that they decided to exploit this strong point by creating a world where such sequences abound.

However, by choosing to do so, this style goes from being a visual treat and an occasional oddity to watch that only lasts for a few minutes (as in the original series and recap movies), to being an all-out, in-your-face, look-at-me-I'm-beautiful type of animation that overpowers everything else.

It is perhaps for this reason that other reviewers have cleverly described this as "Shaft masturbating" in front of its audience. And really, when you're watching something just for the sake of watching it (without giving it any purpose or meaning, as is the case of a movie which has no story line for 2/3 of it), then you'll definitely be left unfulfilled and unsatisfied once it's over.

By using really bizarre and lengthy transformation sequences as well as new (unexplained) attack combinations, the studio makes it clear that they don't mean to entertain you or have you engage with the story in any way. Rather, they're just here to show off their skills and to keep brainwashing you into thinking that Madoka is the best anime of all time.

As a result of this Madoka propaganda and the necessity to throw in as many Dali-esque scenes into a single movie as possible, it's not surprising to find out that the magical girls have now become even more bland and underdeveloped as characters than before, and that any new characters are simply used as poor plot devices to introduce even more "Shaftness".

Why take the time to make up background stories for new characters when they can just look cute while running around and eating cake?

As if that wasn't enough, some of the original characters end up losing the traits that made them likeable and relate-able in the first place, hence turning your little Madoka world upside down.

Again, why let characters keep the traits that fans love and admire about them when you can just throw them all out of the window for the sake of a plot twist and shock value? Now that's some classic Puella Magi trollin' for ya.

Although all of these flaws could be forgiven for the sake of a great new story and potential for an even newer, even better one, the reality is that there is simply no story to begin with (or at least, not a developed, plausible, or logical one). As such, it is difficult to relate to or to connect with this movie in any way.

In fact, if it does leave you baffled (or at last mildly surprised), it will probably be for all the wrong reasons.

Nevertheless, it is not just the art and animation style which serve as the redeeming qualities for this mess, but also the music. It is just as beautiful as in the original series and the first two movies, hence preserving some of the Puella-Magica-ness that this movie seems to have otherwise lost. As a huge fan of ClariS and Kalafina (and obviously Yuki Kajiura), it was a delight to discover that even more of their works were featured here.

Unfortunately, however, beautiful music and beautiful art do not automatically make for a beautiful, perfect anime. Perhaps if the studio had been more interested in creating an interesting story along with interesting art instead of focusing solely on the latter and practically forgetting about the former, this movie would have been a lot better.

Overall, this third installment of the Madoka Movie Trilogy is hindered by poor execution and poor judgment from the writers and producers as well as a preference for prioritizing animation quality above everything else.

Until Shaft steps up its movie game and learns to properly combine the three main aspects of an anime (art, story, and music), I look forward to watching people realize that pretty, shiny, things with no substance are normally called "shallow" or "hollow", and not, "masterpieces".

After the amazing series that was madoka magica, someone said "hey, that's popular, it made a lot of money. Let's make a sequel!" Was this a good idea? In my opinion, no.

STORY
So the story of this movie is something that I can't fully get into without spoiling things. All you need to know is that the world of madoka magica as we know it is seemingly off. It's up to Homura Akemi (the only one who notices the changes) to figure out what's going on. The story itself, when written on paper, is not bad. My complaints about it is the speed at which it ... progresses. You don't get a feel for a plot until the 2nd act, about 40 minutes into the movie, and even then, the next important plot point is given to you about 30 minutes later. It's incredibly slow and it feels longer than 2 hours.

CHARACTERS
More or less the same from the original series (which was great). Mami has a lot more screen time, because she's not killed off within an hour, and aside from that, this movie is all about Homura and her personal journey. The strongest point of this movie is watching her develop. There's a scene about halfway through the movie where Homura meets up with Madoka again, (if you've seen the OG series you know that Homura can't normally do that) and that scene was beautiful. You really get the feeling that Madoka means a lot to her, and the dialogue really makes you feel for her.

ANIMATION
Here's where I have a lot to say. When I talk about the animation in this movie, it's more of an art style, much less animation. It's entirely a double-edged sword. You remember the labyrinth and witch encounter scenes from the series? How weird and creepy they looked? That was really cool when put into 10 minute scenes every few episode, but imagine the surreal imagery projected into a 2 hour-long movie! It looks really cool, inventive and unconventional, but I really got tired of it and worn out after about 20 Minutes of the surrealism. You see, surrealism is the opposite of coherency.

Surrealism is things that are intentionally weird, nonsensical, and they're made to make you question "what am I looking at?"

Coherency is things that make sense. You understand them, see them clearly, relate to it and aren't anything completely weird.

When making a movie, above everything else, you should make it coherent. That way your audience can relate to it and understand it upon first viewing. The more surreal you get, the less coherent you get. This movie goes full on surrealism. When you go all the way you lose precious things like entertainment, relatability, re-watch value and meaning. As the movie progresses, especially in the 3rd act, it feels nothing like madoka magica, he'll it doesn't even feel like anime. It feels like some pretentious art student's work.

OTHER THINGS
Aside from the imagery, my biggest complaint about this movie, is the fact that it didnt need to be made. The original series had an ending, and a good one at that. To continue beyond that point would be just a cash grab, or a fan fiction. Even if this movie had a satisfying conclusion, I would mock its exsistence, but the film doesn't have a satisfying conclusion. The door is wide open for more installments, that probably aren't ever going to come.
SPOILERS
Regarding the plot, one thing that pissed me off is the lack of motivation. Basically, Homura is in a coma, about to become a witch, but she hasn't woken up yet, and instead is creating a labrum that inside her mind. My question is why? Why is she becoming a witch, why hasn't she woken up? They're never answered and it really feels like it's for the convenience of the plot. Even more questions come up with the ending when she becomes a demon. We've never seen a demon before in the madoka universe, why is this the first one? Why did she become a demon? How did she become a demon? Most importantly what's going to happen next? Because the film abruptly ends right there!

CONCLUSION 5/10
I didn't hate this movie. There are plenty of good things about it. music, characters, the animation (when it's not bat shit crazy). But overall, I can't say that I enjoyed this movie. I certainly don't see myself watching it again unless if I'm getting paid. I can see the gothic/Emo person enjoying this for the surreal imagery that gets horrific at times, but I didn't.

A whole bunch of visually stunning emptiness. Rebellion's biggest issue is that it doesn't need to exist. The story in the original TV show was resolved. Here you have what is essentially one giant fanservice movie. What is shown is gorgeous but the characters are a shell of themselves and there is basically no story until the ending. There have been pages upon pages of what everything "means" but does that make what is shown here a good film? Absolutely not. What you have here is something that's fun to show as what is basically a moving painting on a video screen that people occasionally ... glance at and go, "Oh wow that looks cool." That's pretty much the extent of the "depth" this film has. Even when something visually stunning happens it is often so incoherent it take away from how good it actually does look. For two thirds of the film you will be sitting there wondering, "What am I even looking at?" The answer is nothing. If all you are looking for is all five girls on screen at once I suggest just looking at fanart. End credits song is fantastic, however. When it played a huge wave of relief washed over me and all I could think to myself was, "I'm glad it's over."

I could write a long review but I will make this brief;
I loved the series and was competlely satisfied with the show on its own, because of this I avoided Rebellion for over a year and a half despite having it on my computer.

Having watched the film, I can say this;
I am glad it was a continuation of the story.

But it is clear to me that the creators had absolutely no idea what to do aside from a couple of (admittedly) very good plot points. A large part of the film's run-time is complete filler that could be excised without affecting the core plot of ... the film. We're talking over half the scenes could be removed and nothing would be lost.


For how terribly thin the plot is; The artistry of the film is fantastic and better than ever. It is truly a feast of creativity and skilled visuals. The problem is it doesn't represent anything, while the show had massive amounts of symbolism and visual storytelling, there's a bunch of nonsensical crap being thrown at the viewer through the film's presentation and no, these are not symbolic, it's basically things that probably sounded cool in a storyboard meeting kind of way but once actually presented to the viewer, it's just trash. The scene that most standards out to me is a playful rhyme where they go around the table talking about cake while hunting an enemy.... and I'm just thinking "This is so unnecessary".

Which describes the whole film to be honest.
The ending was good and (SLIGHT SPOILER) there are two twists in this film. That is the only substance here, everything else is completely wasted.

But great artistry, good soundtrack, continued storyline (A lot of films just repeat what we've already seen so this is very appreciated) and satisfying ending.... this earns it a total score of 5 but it is very weak compared to the show.

It could have been worse, is my final thought on it.

Before that recognize the elements of the film, before that I open my eyes because my fannatism of the franchise, I say:
This sequel of Madoka Magica... IS VERY AMAZING... I wrong...

The visual are incredibles (thank you Gekidan Inu Curry), the music is most memmorable despite that many songs are remixes from the first 3 OST's, but the plot betrayls the essence and the message of the series, is awful because the film had many possibylities to explore.

The characters in the series are overshadowed for Homura, speccialy Kyoko, when this role not apports too much. This is a problem? No, the problem is the incoherent explanations ... for many events. The film is fanservice, unfortunalety... The best example? Nagisa Momoe's role.

I special criticize the first 30 minutes of the film, because doesn't apports nothing to the story.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my teenage self was wrong. Rebellion is significantly worse than the Madoka series. I couldn’t understand while viewing for the longest time why I cared so much less. The art quality is amazing, the OST is beautiful and the premise makes sense and is pretty interesting. I think it’s the art direction, dialogue/exposition/writing, sound design, pacing, and overall lack of impact. Madoka was an extremely hard hitting show where every scene mattered and every action felt. The visuals and stylistic choices greatly enhanced the story whereas in Rebellion it feels they’re trying to distract from it.

In the show, characters ... and there ideologies were defined and bounced off each other beautifully. In Rebellion, they are boiled down mostly to surface level traits and Homura’s ideology was all over the place. Rebellion is still worth watching at least once, but it’s a spectacular mess that prioritizes spectacle over storytelling. Sad to say, but Rebellion is a 6/10 from me.

(Minor spoilers to follow)

In my eyes, Madoka Magica is a story about balance. Every wish is mirrored by an equivalent curse, but all despair must similarly stand against hope. The world isn’t perfect, but it isn’t doomed either, and the only way forward is to acknowledge those ambiguities as you strive to keep that balance both within yourself and the world around you. And the show itself was similarly balanced, sliding slowly into the darkness at its core and rending apart with despair without ever losing sight of the hope that made its world and characters worth fighting for. There’s a reason that Gen Urobuchi’s ... stories remain so beloved despite the pain he puts us through; as dark as he gets, he never forgets to keep the lights on as well. And I would have been perfectly satisfied if the story had ended with the show, if the twelve TV episodes of Madoka Magica had been all the Madoka Magica we ever got. It accomplished everything I wanted it to and kept that balance wonderfully all the way. So when I went into the sequel film Rebellion, even though I was aware of the big infamous ending twist (which I won’t spoil here for your sake, so don’t worry), I genuinely wasn’t sure what to expect. And now that I’ve come out of it... I might be even less sure than before.

Yeah, my thoughts on Rebellion are kind of all over the place, and I’m still trying to piece them together even as I’m writing them up. But the one thing I am certain of is that this movie is lacking that critical component that made Madoka so special to me. In other words, it lacks balance. And with that guiding principle gone, it’s no surprise this film ended up as divisive as it did. This film is a fucking mess, sometimes in good ways, sometimes in frustrating ways, sometimes in ways that leave you unsure how to take it. I can’t say I hated it, or even disliked it; in fact, I’m pretty sure it’s overall a success. But if Madoka Magica was a perfect 2K sprint over the finish line, then Rebellion crosses the finish line stumbling over its own two feet and keeling from side to side every other second. It’s surprising and evocative and keeps you on your toes, but it also leaves you concerned and confused, caught between cheering it on and wanting someone to head over and make sure it’s doing okay. I give it credit for its audacity, if nothing else, but compared to how expertly the show proper was able to grip my head and heart, I can’t deny that I came out of Rebellion feeling kind of hollow. And that’s one emotion Urobuchi has never left me with before.

Perhaps a brief plot summary will help put my thoughts in focus. Following the TV show’s ending, Rebellion immediately lets you know something foul’s afoot by establishing a status quo that’s nothing like the one we were left with. All five girls are still alive, Homura is once again her pre-angst pigtail self, they’re all happilly fighting as magical girls, and their enemies are Nightmares instead of Witches or Wraiths. Also, Kyubey suddenly can’t talk and the witch who killed Mami is suddenly acting as her familiar. The message is clear: despite how idyllic it all looks, something is very wrong. I won’t spoil what’s really going on, but suffice to say, the plot involves Homura slowly waking up to the true nature of the mysterious situation and piecing together how we got from the end of the show to here. No points for guessing that the answers are all tragic, the vice is tightened on everyone like never before, and a huge swath of the drama revolves around Homura’s unresolved feelings about Madoka leaving her to become a god and watch over humanity. Make no mistake, this film is entirely Homura’s story, with the rest of the girls mostly static side characters who exist for her to bounce off of. More specifically, it’s the story of the choices Homura made, the choices she has yet to make, and the decision she ultimately reaches in regards to her and Madoka’s place in the universe.

It’s really fascinating what all these answers end up being, and I can’t say any of them were unjustified. Madoka has always been willing to let its characters make imperfect, even painful choices, and Rebellion lets Homura lean on that tension for all it’s worth. But that’s also all these choices did: fascinate me. Whereas in the show proper, when the characters screwed up or fell on their own swords, I was gripped from the depths of my soul. Rebellion’s problem isn’t that it’s needlessly bleak, or goes in bad directions, or fundamentally ruins any character. The problem is that it fails to justify its harsh turns with the same emotional balance as the show. It fails to capture the delicate dance of light and dark that made Madoka so powerful to me; instead, it’s a film of nothing but extremes. Extreme happiness and extreme sorrow, extreme kindness and extreme fury. Rebellion doesn’t weave these complex, human strands of feeling together in the same way the show does; it just lets them explode out and hit you without giving much thought to how they work together. And ironically enough, that just makes them have all the less impact.

The best way I can describe this is by saying that Rebellion essentially has two modes; extreme excessive fluffy Madoka fanservice or extreme gut-wrenching inescapable despair. The first third, while the “fake” world is active and stable, is essentially a chance to give the audience a taste of what a “traditional” magical version of Madoka would be like, where the characters are all living relatively normal lives and are all one big happy family (hence why Kyubey’s demoted to a monosyllabic mascot character as well). But Madoka to me just isn’t interesting as a normal magical girl show. It needs the darkness of its plot to give its characters and their struggles meaning, and without that darkness, frankly, none of the girls remain that interesting. I’m still not the biggest fan of the early episodes of the show before the darker elements start creeping in, and this movie only reinforces that sentiment. Later, as Homura figures out what’s really going on, the emotional journey she undergoes is almost infernal in its level of despair and helplessness. But it doesn’t land nearly as hard as it should without the gradual descent into the pits of darkness that the show managed so spectacularly. Then we get a massive final battle that’s yet more fanservice without a scrap of that previous pain, and when that final nasty twist comes, it hits right at the apex of the franchise’s most unapologetically sappy and sentimental stretch yet. It’s whiplash upon whiplash, either all easy answers or no answers at all, and neither of those extremes works nearly as well as both of them together. I say again, Madoka Magica just doesn’t work without balance, and by giving into excess, Rebellion proves how important that balance truly was.

It’s a good thing, then, that at least some of that excess remains entertaining in its own right. Despite my relative disinterest in a “normal” magical girl version of this show, I can’t deny it was great to see all five girls finally together in the same place and bouncing off each other. Kyoko and Sayaka especially are gangbusters together, and turning their bitter grudge into a friendly rivalry left a real damn big smile on my face. But it’s the visuals that really carry the weight here, because good fucking god, this movie is an animation feast. The show was already beautiful enough, but now that they’ve got a film budget to swing around, Shaft is able to blow the whole thing up into a kaleidoscopic supernova. The character animation is seamless, every frame is packed with a million moving pieces, the world feels more fleshed out and detailed than ever before, the imagery is so mind-bogglingly surreal you’d swear you were on acid, the action is somehow even more gobsmacking than the show, and all of it is animated with a gorgeous, almost pornographic level of polish that makes you feel like you’re swimming in an ocean of Salvadore Dali’s most vibrant daydreams and nightmares. There’s a fight between Mami and Homura near the movie’s midpoint that utilizes Homura’s time-freezing powers to stop and start absurdly massive volleys of gunshots, and the level of detail in the chaos left my jaw on the goddamn floor. That might genuinely be the best fight scene in the entire franchise; I’m still kind of reeling from it.

So on the whole, I can’t call Rebellion a failure. It’s big and messy and it goes in a million different directions, but there’s no denying it sets off some truly astounding fireworks in the process. Still, the more I think about it, the more crushed I become that it wasn’t better. To me, Madoka Magica’s final episode was the end of the story, and this big unwieldy sequel is just a intriguing “what if” to consider. Maybe the next movie in the series will finally come out at some point and bring this roller coaster to a fulfilling stop. But until then, Rebellion remains a fascinating, flawed, ambitious, and achingly unsatisfying reminder of just how important balance was to this show’s success.

Unpopular opinion time.

Rebellion is a masterpiece if you're only regarding to animation, but as a movie and continuation of the Madoka Magica series I think it drops the ball.

I feel like the series was left off absolutely perfectly up until this point. I didn't feel like the ending needed something more. This movie is something more, and I was right, I didn't need it. It's not a train-wreck that will soil how the show ends off, but it definitely feels like this movie was a bit forced, and isn't too vital to the series.

The best parts of this movie are easily the presentation. The animation ... is the best I've seen in probably anything before. The voice acting and music is good as well.

Easily the worst part of the movie is how there is nothing relatable or engaging like in the series. In the anime, I felt like everything mattered, and the characters actions did too. I really didn't adapt to the world or characters the same way I did in the series as I did Rebellion.

I dunno, this movie is a mixed bag for me. Pleasing to the eyes, not so much else.

As said by many, film gives more questuins and almost to no answers.
It is the single most confusing anime I watched yet. Watching this film after series, I almost didn't undestand anything. New confusing world, some new characters, that act like they always were here...

Keeping it short:
- Confusing story, which twisted almost everything you knew from the series
- Weak characters (Homura is the only one semi-developed, and i didn't like her at all)
- Outstanding art
- Great orchestral music
- Ending clarified things a little, then made them even weirder.

Film is pleasing to watch and its atmosphere is darkly attracting, but both characters and story weren't actually ... good

I may compare it to some twisted abstractive drawing you may see in art-museums. Attractively complicated, as some may see it, but somehow I usually see emptiness

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion


After a very comprehensible and pleasant end of the anime series, I found out that there are 3 movies about it. 2 movies are just a summary and the third movie should be the sequel.

Excited and curious I started watching the movie and my curiosity stayed until the end, even now my curiosity is still there. But it changed its form. In the sense of. "What did I just watch?" Was this just a pitiful attempt to cannibalize the franchise? Was that it? Is there more to come? No, the answer is no.

The Madoka Magica series is complete with ... this film. While the ending was individual and suited my taste, the film was something else.

The studio did an excellent job, of course, in terms of animation, art style, and my beloved visuals. Honestly, just for that, I would watch the movie again.


Given what the film was going for and the results of this would make the first season practically unnecessary.

So what is the conclusion in the film? Madoka is not the true protagonist, but only a sidekick of Homura. Homura herself doesn't know what role she plays in the series and the author probably doesn't either. But Homura is popular and I like her too, so we shouldn't care, right?
The rest of the characters in the movie were irrelevant anyway, it was all about Homura, Madoka. And besides, we had Kyuubei, who has already been a relatively bad antagonist in the anime series. And in this movie, it was practically just confirmed that this series has no antagonist. The story writing itself is the antagonist.



Conclusion


I came to see the sequel, what I saw was just fan service cannibalization of this franchise with a mediocre ending. I disappointed I definitely am, but it wasn't disastrous either. At least a lot of standards were met with a plot that was illogical but still present. The animation and music were top notch and Homura was Homura. Unfortunately, I wish I hadn't seen this FIlm and kept the ending from the anime in mind.


Enjoyment - 5

Great anime continued by a weak sequel. Dropped this off by a little past the hour mark and I'm glad I did as it only went donwhill from there. With an overly long beginning, the movie focuses its final hour in attempting to stick two different stories, creating a mess. The world-building, its characters and their relationships completely change, betraying most of what was portrayed in the anime. Plus, the ending is so unsatisfying, the fact there hasn't been a follow-up leads me to believe this is the actual ending of the whole saga, which sucks. Though the great animation and entertainment remains intact, the ... story is unncessarily complex with cheesy moments, making this an incosistent sequel to an series that wrapped up pretty well. I'm very on the fence to expect or even watch Walpurgisnacht: Rising once it's released. I'm feeling a light five on this one.