Ordinal Scale, a very highly anticipated movie (for me at least) that would hopefully revive a once great series to me. After the monstrosities we call GGO, Alfheim and Death Gun took all enjoyment of mine away.
Based Asuna s1 btw
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STORY: 3
I have no words for this steaming pile of horse shit that the writers decided to pass off as a plot for a movie. There is absolutely no effort, no depth in Ordinal Scale's story and it's absolutely appalling. We've all seen cookie cutter plots but in Ordinal Scale there is no effort put into even slightly making the story their own. Listening to the story trying to explain itself scientifically was also a a terrible failure. A VR headset that gains full control of your nerves and can kill you via microwaves? Ok, I can dig it. Yui is a string of code that can coexist alongside the main heroes? Yea, she's a cute child character thing, keeping it PG-13 I guess, go for it. Guy shoots gun through VR headset to kill you? Ok, wtf... and it only goes more downhill. Funny thing is, the Ordinal Scale story makes the flat earth theory seem logical (not really funny if you payed to watch) Alongside the atrocious writing are the literally tens, hundreds even thousands (not really thousands) of plot holes that destroy the story to a point where watching mars of destruction makes sense. The beginning makes no sense, the buildup makes no sense and the end makes no sense. You know what, EVERYTHING in between makes no sense and its painful to say that this is by far the worst SAO story to date.
You may thing it ends there but, sadly you're mistaken. There is no sense of where the writers wanted the story of SAO:OS to go, the sheer amount of directional blindness is overwhelming even to a kid like me who passed with 70's (mind you, high 70's) during my literature courses. These writers are getting paid to do this but i'd put more effort in for a new pair of shoes and a warm room to spend my nights. The writers can't even decide on whether the current situation in the movie is a romance scene, drama or action. I swear it's like they hoped that combining all genres of anime would make for a good movie. Writing isn't everything, but it is arguably the most important aspect of a cinematic piece if you want it to be even slightly good, sadly for SAO:OS there is a complete lack of a good story, or possibly a story at all.
(I'm so harsh, I know.)
ART: 9
What can I say? SAO has always had stunning visual effects. All the fight scenes are well choreographed and well animated. There is no lack of detail in any scene from what my memory serves from watching it an hour or 2 ago. But it's a movie, of course it's going to be stunning visually, that's the staple for anime movies nowadays. You don't get a pat on the back for doing pretty much the bare minimum SAO. I'm not a fan at all of the use of CGI in anime but it was scarce and probably is the only reason why my art rating is 9 and not 10.
SAO is very visually appealing but art is not the only reason to watch an anime, be weary. (Stay woke)
SOUND: 6
I love LiSA, her music is probably why I listen to J-Pop and pretty much J-Anything to this day. Crossing field sprung my heart into motion and changed me as a person. Although all of the music during battles and random singing sequences was good, the audio BALANCING was absolutely horrendous. One moment SAO:OS sound like a movie long attempt at a ASMR video and the next it's ear turning gut wrenching ear-rape that causes half the audience to cover their ears and their children's for their own safety. Truly a failure on the sound balancing team's fault but for that alone it can ruin a whole movie, even ruin a whole person's life if they're even remotely susceptible to hearing loss.
Like epilepsy warnings, SAO:OS needs some sort of sound warning as blood was mere moments from spurting our of my ears.
CHARACTERS: 3
Oh boy, here it is. All the characters in SAO are stale, not just OS but SAO in general. There is nothing special about these characters especially the main villain of OS. The main villain was so mind-numbingly stupid that I was forced to mentally push him aside for the whole story once you learned of his motives. Motives similar to many, MANY characters beforehand from other anime, but you can't feel any pity or remorse in this villains voice or in his actions. He is pretty much becomes a plank of dry wood that longs to be ignored. Nothing clever was given to any of the main characters or villains to make then even somewhat interesting. As much as I love Asuna because of s1 I find it impossible to like her as much because of the lack of creative thinking between the writers. Having characters stick to their old habits and ways is in no way a bad thing, but if they start of stale and end off stale-er then there calls for some changes. It's laughable to even think that some higher ups of the company looked at this and thought "Yes these boring characters seem right" and told them it was A OK to send 'em off to the theaters. Even the cast of the s1 SAO returns and their "character traits" are completely the same. That being that they have none. SAO believes that having a hobby such as raising a pet or enjoying to smith weaponry can constitute an entire characters existence. News Flash: NO THATS NOT HOW IT WORKS, fix your characters.
Kirito is emo as always and all the fangirls enjoy that for some reason but 1 reason why CHARACTERS isn't a 1 is because they were able to make 1 love scene memorable for me, at least.
ENJOYMENT: 5
This would be lower but through sheer fan service (Asuna's and Kirito's lame excuse for a romance) AND (Their signature attacks) I enjoyed the fighting, er.. I mean, movie more than a should have. When you watch SAO either turn your brain off and look at the pretty art and characters or think critically and see what SAO:OS really is, a poorly made SAO based movie.
Maybe it's because i've been let down so many times before by SAO's team, but I watched the entire movie critically thinking instead of enjoying what should've been a fuck popcorn flick with some pals.
OVERALL: 5
Art really brought this up, lol.
Overall SAO is good for the casual anime watcher and if that's who you are, there's nothing wrong with that. We all start somewhere.
Although it is hard for me to recommend to anything with beyond basic anime knowledge it was a cool experience that I probably regret somewhere in my heart.
R.I.P. my 12$
TL;DR
Poor story and characters
Unbalanced sound effects with good music
Beautiful art
Would recommend to casual anime watchers and SAO fanboys/girls
Would not recommend to anyone else
Just please don't rate it a 10 near me, I might have a fit.
and by might I mean will.
soz.
