Before the actual review, I would like to emphasise a few of my concerns & "wishes" before I entered the cinema:
1. Make Kirito likeable-As an SAO fan(sorta), the one thing that tainted a bad image in my head for SAO besides the COUGH Fairy Dance arc COUGH...was Kirito; he lacked any REAL character development. To me, he was just 'there' to say for the plot to advance.
2. If Yui pulls a hax, do it 'right'-A random thought circulating in my mind as I saw Yui in one of the trailers,"oh boy prepare for Yui-ex machina". Being another thing I DISLIKE(not hate) about SAO, I was hoping at least it wasn't as jarring that affect the entire movie.
3. Be entertaining and 'GOOD'- This is not really a personal problem but more an optional one. One of the reasons I loved SAO how gawd damn entertaining it was MOST of the time(Fairy Dance arc I'm looking at you again). What I wanted A1 Pictures to do is to have a have line of merging entertainment and quality for Ordinal Scale.
So, what's my verdict? Well overall, surprisely...it was pretty good! But how may ask? Let me breakdown my opinion;
Story: The movie has very certain theme that I so happy that they address, for the longest time I thought Reki Kawahara would never address. Thankfully they did and it was handled pretty well in terms of SAO standards. Plotholes in the movies personally were minimal and you have to be an extremely nitpicky person to find them out and it really depends on your perception. Since this place between s2 and the next arc, it fits rather nicely and takes it back to its 'roots' to one thing that many thought SAO lacked later on, Tension. Thou not as SAO terrifying(for awhile until the BIGGER reveal popped up), it feels refreshing to see it back better than ever. The "deus-ex-machina" of the movie wasn't as bad I thought it was so that's a plus LOL.
Characters: Oh boy this movie pretty well on this department(a relieve for me honestly). I hear back months ago that an SAO movie is going to handle Kirito's and Asuna's relationship my inner critic mindset was fan-gasming to the core, "ACTUAL CHARACTER FOR KIRITO!? F**K YES! Plz be gud thou." Miraculously, thank the lord it was well done, for once in SAO history, I did feel emotions for Kirito at times I so glad this happened. For Asuna's case, her amazing character development from the Mother's Rosario is carried on strongly here and it's great when Kirito's and Asuna's relationship 'intertwine' to say. You can actually tell they humanly love each other no matter what they go through. Hell, even the left-out characters got their spotlights and I was smiling throughout those moments; maybe not for one character but hey THEY AIN'T LEFT IN THE TRASH AT LEAST. The new characters; how about them? Well for the most part, their pretty good in terms SAO. The character "Eiji" especially. At first, judging by his coincidental name I thought he was going an evil Kirito with the Edge meter cranked to the max but that was the case initially, my outlook of him did changed of him. He is one of the better SAO Villains and he isn't the real villain of the movie. The real villain unfortunately I am unable to give thoughts as it is rather spoiler heavy. As for another character, Yuna, she is too spoiler heavy not but not as much. She is like if Hatsune Miku and Yui had a child. The best part about her is spoiler heavy thou sorry.
Animation and sound: What can you say? It's A1 Pictures and it's SAO. Many people who hate the series do at least mentions the stellar animation it has and the movie is no different. Character modelings are on point, scenery is beyond gorgeous and extremely fluid animation and effects. Inconsistency in this category can be noticeable but it's nitpicky and rare. Voice acting is well done as well for both returning and new characters.
Verdict: All and all, in my opinion, 8.5/10. It safe to say that Reki Kawahara and A1 Pictures knew what they were doing. It wasn't a cash-grab movie, it was surprisingly well put movie with great character developments, moments; sure that could some weird things here that for me(which I explain in my spoiler review if you want me to) but ya, it's good(to me).
BTW IT IS MY OPINION PEOPLE SO YA.
