As someone who hadn't read the light novels of the original series, but had read the Progressive light novels, I was ecstatic to hear about the anime adaptation for Progressive. And after finally watching it...
I emerged from the cinema with an amalgamation of mixed emotions.
Let's begin with the positives: the art, battle choreography and sound. Undoubtedly stellar, and are what I can praise wholeheartedly with zero reservations. From Ordinal Scale to Alicization, the movie brought over what it had improved from there and refined it further to deliver a myriad of action-packed skirmishes accompanied with smooth, impactful SFX of weapons clinking as they collide with one another, flashy skill effects and more. One minor gripe though: Swordland is an amazing OST, and I do like how different renditions of it are played during the most intense moments of any particular season. But it does get old eventually, and it feels rehashed and overused by this point. This also extends to most of the OSTs that were used in the movie, where most of them feel reused and recycled.
The movie's overarching plot generally syncs with the light novel it's adapting its material from, but understandably cuts out a sizeable amount of interaction between certain characters due to the restraint of time. In addition, keep in mind that this movie is narrated from the perspective of Asuna, not Kirito, thus there will certainly be variances in their experiences. The introduction of the anime-original character, Mito, does add a certain depth to Asuna's side of the story, but unfortunately falls short in its execution of storytelling, especially during the second half of the movie. For the sake of being spoiler-free, I will not elaborate further, but I wish more time had been spent on Mito for stronger characterization later in the movie, since a conscious decision had been made to include an anime-original character to the movie in the first place. It was difficult to develop any sort of attachment for her when there was already so much content being cut from the light novel to fit the plot of the novel in under 100 minutes. In my opinion, this was where the movie fell short--its storytelling and characterization, particularly after a certain point of the movie.
This movie isn't without its glaring flaws, but I still had a relatively enjoyable experience overall. If you've never consumed any SAO material before, I guarantee you'll be satisfied with what there is to be offered. For readers of the Progressive light novels, however, I suggest entering the cinema with no expectations whatsoever, and appreciate the movie for what it is. It might not be a word-to-frame retelling of the book, but it was an entertaining time nevertheless.
