Story: 6
The story for this film is as cookie cutter as it gets for a shounen anime, especially a MHA film. There's a villain who, surprise, wants to rule the world and use powers to make his own kind power-based fantasy realm that doesn't work if you think about it for more than a second or two. He, of course, has to be tied into the League but that isn't really used much in the film, much like the last MHA film. As seen in the trailers, the film revolves around two kids on an out-of-the-way island and how 1-A defends them and the island from harm. Basic superhero story stuff. The story, however, begins to falter as it goes further and further forward with the villains seeming much more overpowered than needs to be with no real way to beat them except the classic trope of "Try to do what you're already doing but better!" After the necessary team up fight the two main heroes of this film, Izuku and Katsuki, do what they have to do and save the day. Some might consider that a bit spoiler-y but y'know, this is a superhero film. Where the story loses a lot of points for me is how the dynamic duo take down the main villain. I won't say what happened or how it happened as it was truly unexpected but holy **** was it absolute rubbish. At what was supposed to be this film's ultimate climax and explosion of emotion and "We got this" I.... burst out laughing at how unbelievable it truly was. That's all I'll say regarding it as I can't explain much without completely ruining it.
Art: 7
The art and subsequent animation that generally falls under this category was rather lackluster in regards to an anime film where animation tends to be a bit better and the drawings have a little more time put into them. As you would do, I spent a lot of the time comparing this to the last films art and animation (which I've viewed multiple times and even once before seeing this film in the theatre) and I was really let down by how just truly "eh" the film looked. The big fights and quirks looked more or less like they do in the actual anime which I felt kind of let down by. Overall though, this film still managed to achieve the MHA aesthetic and feel so that's why the art gets the highest score of this review for me.
Sound: 5
WARNING: Being in the US, the theatre was playing the film in dub so that's what I'm reviewing
The sound in this film was probably the biggest let down out of the whole film. Starting with what I found to be the worst part, the voices. I watch most anime subbed with dubs here and there and have actually watched most of MHA in both dub and sub as I usually really enjoy both voices for most characters. This film broke me. The dub was bad. Like really bad. Like I was wishing for them to switch to Japanese most of the time bad. The characters sounded washed out, reverberated like they were in a metal box, and overall some of the worst voice acting for this show and most anime I've ever heard. The line delivery was weak and the lines themselves felt like they may not have been translated as well as some other things. Conversations were awkward and people didn't always feel like they were actually talking to the people in the scene with them. After the voices comes the SFX in general. Again, the SFX just didn't hit me like most do in an anime. The explosions felt far away, the ambiance sounds (such as the ocean or the general summer sounds) sounded really poorly balanced and like they had been done by a "made for home release film" company. The SFX just weren't there for me. Now for the main part of sound that I never knew I'd miss as much as I did until it wasn't there: The music. The music in this film just isn't present in the way MHA usually uses music. Hype moments are punctuated with dull tracks, slower moments have light music at best and the climax of the film has some of the most awkward and weird feeling music I've ever felt and listened to. Due to the nature of the climax, I understood what they were going for but it just didn't land for me and I felt really disappointed by it as a whole. Overall regarding sound, the voices were lackluster, the SFX were very average at best, and the music just didn't play for me in the way I wanted an action film's music to hit
Character: 5
This film quite possibly contains some of the lamest and unoriginal characters that have ever existed in the MHA universe. MHA usually has a plethora a fun and unique characters with weird powers that they use in a way that you fall in love with, regardless of the side they're on. Heroes:Rising does not really have that. As you discover in the early parts of the film, the villain is literally just an "All-for-One" clone, but a different person. He steals quirks and uses them to try and accomplish his weird goal of remaking Earth in his image. He's literally evil because he is evil. He is, naturally as aforementioned, accompanied by 3 "henchmen" that each have their own powers that make them equally as lame. One is just an infinitely scaling, all powerful animal dude that I was bored with every moment he was on screen. Another is literally just the Inhumans' character Medusa and the final one is a dude that controls bandages. They were so painful to watch and really unbelievable when together. The chemistry didn't exist and I often found myself wondering exactly why they all were even working together anyways. Aside from the villains there are the people of the island and the two Deus E....I mean kids from the poster. The people are typical MHA people who all have quirks or are more or less normal and they were fine as background characters. The two children, however, were certainly characters alright. A young boy, Katsuma, and his sister, Mahoro, are like a tiny Deku (except Katsuma has a power) and Kota respectively. One wants to become a hero but doubts himself and his power and his sister hates heroes and think they are a bad thing...until she is miraculously saved by one and instantly loves them. They, as primary characters that were deemed so important they were protected beyond everything, are drab and feel like they've been copy-pasted into the situation so our heroes can save the day. I did not like the added characters of this film. After these added characters, I feel I'm obliged to talk about the two selling points of the film, Izuku and Katsuki. This film was supposed to be them learning to fight and work together better so they could become a true duo for the future. They had those moments. The moments where you saw them as two friends fighting and combo-ing together to try and take down a villain and show how they were incredibly similar individuals in their convictions and overall goals. Like a lot of the film, these moments were sadly punctuated with a lot of fluff and action that just didn't seem like them as characters, even after they had grown. The climax was the highlight of this for me in where a sacrifice has to be made and it truly doesn't feel like either of them earned it or truly understand what it would mean if it actually happened the way they thought it was going to. I hated it. It felt forced and rushed and like the two characters didn't actually know what they were doing, even when the film was trying to sell you on the idea they had started to work in a sense of tandem and as a true duo, not two people fighting against the same guy at the same time. The rest of our class of 1-A had some nice moments as individual characters with many of them being forced to overcome personal obstacles or fight through limitations and...go Plus Ultra, but ultimately the rest of the cast fell very flat.
Enjoyment and Overall: 6
Despite my many gripes with the film, I found myself enjoying certain aspects of the film and there were some cool action sequences. Sadly, these moments could not totally eclipse and overcome the glaring flaws of this film that caused me to laugh at the emotional climax and spend more time analysing and finding issues than enjoying what the film was trying so hard to be, a fun and fast paced superhero action film.
