I had NO problems getting into this movie - it's everything that the start of the main series should have been.
[Note: coming from the point of view of watching it in order of release, I'll be making some references to the first season of the main series, so there might be spoilers ahead]
While movies that re-tell parts of series usually condenses the story and ups the tempo to make it more suitable for the format, "Overture to a New War" does exactly the opposite - it expands upon the beginning of the series and takes its sweet time in building up to the Battle of Astate which the series dived straight into. And what a difference this build up makes - by introducing the characters more gradually and spending time fleshing them out, the show becomes far more engrossing, and gives viewers a reason to care about the characters who were given what felt like random cameos in the series. In essence, it's a different approach to the story telling. The main series started off much more plot driven, and felt hurried and unseemly in its haste to introduce the 9872 characters in its cast and get the plot going - much of the first season felt like one massive set up for later events. In contrast, "Overture to a New War" is more character driven, and is far better for it.
The first part of the movie, concerning the build up to the Battle of Astate, is new material, and it's particularly good. In fact, it's actually better than the second half that concerns the battle itself. Though the second half is also much improved as a remake, it's dragged down by mostly the same things that dragged down the Battle of Astate in the main series - some parts of the battle are just to stupid to be believable, especially with some of the inexplicable school boy errors that the commanders on the alliance side makes. Though most of these stupid points still exist in "Overture to a New War", it at least spent some time showing the thought processes behind the strategies, even though the idea of spreading your fleets so wide that they can't even support each other (the empire's fleet even managed to find time to take a long nap in between engaging two alliance fleets) still seems to me like an extraordinarily stupid mistake to make for military high commanders.
Another benefit of this build up is that the tragedies during the battle are now meaningful. In particular, there is one specific death scene that is given a much greater weight thanks to the build up. Of course, it also helps that they sensibly changed the manner of his death - in the series, he got impaled by a massive lump of rock-like thing, which looked so ridiculous it reduced the death scene to a joke.
I'd like to talk a bit about the characters now, as this is arguably the biggest improvement that "Overture to a New War" brings to the table. The series took a long time to bring to life the cardboard characters it started with - and in fact many of the characters never make this transition - but in "Overture to a New War", they feel alive to begin with. In addition to simply polishing existing dialogues and characterisation, they also added minute details here and there which made the character feel much more real. One example of this is the scene where Yang clenches his fists and crushes a paper cup as he worries about his comrade - a simple gesture that sets him far apart from the overly desensitised Yang shown in the first OVA "My Conquest is the Sea of Stars". Another example - and this is probably my favourite scenes this movie - is when Reinhard does a handstand in his sisters lawn. This simple action spoke volumes of his change of mood when visiting his sister. Also, for the first time, it occurred to me how young he was - a youth of about 18 or 19, it's the only time I've seen this normally cold and impassive character display the silly, playful tendencies of his age. This creates one hell of a contrast to the person he becomes later on, a contrast that's not so obvious in the series. Watching a rare moment where Reinhard and Siegfried lets themselves go, I couldn't help but feel that the two of them could have achieved anything together - the chemistry there was just so strong. These examples just goes to show that a few extra, subtle touches can make a world of difference.
The villains too, have benefited from the improved characterisation. In the main series, most of them are obvious jackasses, often acting like kids throwing tantrums. In this movie, their behaviours are given more restraint, and because of this they come across more convincingly as schemers rather than clowns.
"Overture to a New War" has also improved vastly in the sound department. The deployment of classical music comes across as much more thoughtful compared to the haphazard, lazy approach taken in the first OVA and earlier part of the main series. If I have one complaint to make - and it's a minor one - it would be the use of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" for a death scene. It's a ridiculously popular, sentimental piece, and using it there comes off as a little too unimaginative and- dare I say, cliched? "Overture to a New War" shows a maturity in its execution not just through its use of sound, but also through its use of LACK of sound. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is the bitterweet one at Lap's celebratory drinks after his successful proposal to Jessica. In this scene, they muted the dialogue, and the narration is gently guided by the imagery and the background music. This left much to the imagination, and it achieves its purpose probably better than any dialogue could have.
If "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" had been directed in a similar fashion to "Overture to a New War", I probably would have embraced it with open arms from the start. By paying attention to HOW it tells the story instead of just the story itself, by fleshing out the character instead of just introducing them, "Overture to a New War" succeeds where the main series falls flat for long periods. It's engaging, subtle, and possesses an effortless grace that the show had always yearned for. It's just BETTER.
