Hathaway definitely feels like a feature film. From the visual budget to the names attached. But it's limited in that capacity to be able to fully adapt the novel. I personally have only read a couple chapters; so there I cannot make any comments. Individually however, it seems to lay the base down for the following films to expand upon. Viewpoints from each side about the main faction appear and to that point, it's greatly exposited. Characterization is also developed well, with each showing who they are through what they say and their viewpoints. It's unfortunate that most of the side characters didn't have as well of a treatment as the main characters though, when their background might be important.
It balances on a tightrope of it being a drama and a thriller. Through some scenes you can understand the reality of the situation of mobile suit battles. At the same time, there are moments that glorify it through beautiful effects that look too similar to fireworks. It seems to present a good contrast of opinions related to Mafty, but at the same time fails to showcase the perspective or the humanity of some of the darker sides of the Federation to the same great lengths. Depending on how the series continues the manhunters may be set to become solidly black against the moral grey of Mafty. What I'd like at that point would some depth to it.
Visually it's even better than Narrative in terms of character scenes. Mobile suit battles and it's CG in general can negatively contrast the art that it's placed in. Comparatively to Unicorn, the CG looks amateurish.
With the music, it goes for a modern "atmospheric" vibe half of the time where you're supposed to let it immerse you into the setting without remarking on it's individual merit. In some moments I felt that it accomplished that job, however in mobile suit scenes specifically it felt far too epic and didn't fit the mood. I don't like Hiroyuki Sawano's works, so there might be some bias. But this opinion isn't carried over in some of his other works like Promare. Very good sound design however.
I enjoyed how there were characters in the movie that felt like they had personality. They didn't seem to just be puppets controlled by the narrative, although sometimes it leaned too far into precognition to the point of convenience. How they handled newtypes is way better than previous films like NT and Unicorn; It felt like a return to form in that sense. Scene progression felt moderately natural, and a character’s insight felt as if it was coming from them instead of a narration to the audience. It did dip too much into being a thriller. And, I think Hathaway's personality and ideals should be investigated further; Gigi as-well, as a character she seems too much of a Quess clone. Hopefully the director can output the next two movies with a similar level of quality.
