**SPOILERS (FOR BOTH THE MOVIE AND THE VISUAL NOVEL)**
This is a honest review by someone who's read the visual novel, so I won't pretend that I have an unbiased view of this film. However, I still believe this movie has some genuine issues. In a sentence, this movie is essentially an adaptation for those who have read the visual novel. It's definitely an enjoyable film...just there are a lot of unanswered things and the characters do not have the weight they should. Of course, you can't expect a film to adapt a visual novel down to the last detail. But the Unlimited Blade Works anime succeeded where this movie fails. And that is simply because this movie is rushed.
The sound and the visuals need no review, anyone who knows ufotable should expect 10/10 in both categories. And I'll give the credit that they did a much better job portraying the action scenes than the visual novel could ever hope to accomplish.
My main problems lie with the story and the characters. The Heaven's Feel trilogy itself tried to adapt the longest route in the visual novel in the shortest time frame of just three movies. And this movie tried to adapt the most lore and plot points in the whole visual novel in one movie. I would even go so far to say that almost half the plot points in the Heaven's feel route in the visual novel have been crammed in here. Avenger's backstory, the corruption of the Grail, the true functioning of the Third Magic, all of this are glossed over in one sentence. The Second Magic is completely omitted, which really brought down the significance of the Jeweled Sword of Zeldretch. They didn't explain how much effort and preparation was actually needed for Shirou to project such a weapon. The biggest problem though is the ending. Unless you've read the visual novel, there is no way you'll understand what happens with Shirou's soul except some vague guesses. The fact that it was an incomplete Third Magic, Illya's connection to it, how it affects Shirou's new body, all omitted.
The characters bore the worst of it though. The only characters who were done justice were Rin and Kotomine. Illya's significance in the last scene is really underplayed. The previous movies skipped some of her dialogue with Shirou, which gives the audience less of an attachment to her. It's not even properly explained what she's trying to do, which really lowers the significance of her actions. If I'd gone into this movie blind, my thoughts would be "She destroyed the grail and somehow saved Shirou in the process but sacrificed herself." The weight of her choice is really gone.
Shirou himself was really really underplayed. They never revealed how Shirou's brain was literally getting destroyed by swords the more projection he used, how he could slowly feel his mind losing itself and losing more and more of his memories. The fact that Archer's mindset was taking over Shirou through the arm, how the current Shirou is incompatible with Archer's Reality Marble, the tragic sacrifice Shirou was making just by trying to save Sakura, all these things were just barely there instead of fleshed out like they should have been.
Sakura had the worst characterization. Dark Sakura is a very interesting character. The visual novel made it clear that the mental and physical pain she was going through was unbearable, and the act of taking in the souls of so many heroic spirits was causing her mind to break. However, in this movie, she was just your standard obsessive yandere girl, just with magic powers and who would occasionally clutch her stomach in pain. I'm a huge Sakura fan myself. She's my favorite heroine in the fate series. Yet in this movie, even I found her whiny and annoying half of the times. The fight between her and Rin was grossly underplayed because we knew that Rin as a mage is stronger, when in the visual novel it was stated that Sakura has innate talent at the same level of Rin, and would've been a mage prodigy had she been a Tohsaka.
The movie was enjoyable, I'll give it that. But if anyone's reading this, I would strongly recommend, hell almost beg, them to read the visual novel. Like I said at the start, this movie is essentially an adaptation for the visual novel readers, because otherwise there are too many things left unanswered or half done. Any question you could possibly have about the plot or characters of this movie or series, the visual novel will answer those and much more.
