On my first viewing of this movie I was ecstatic to go in and see where they could possibly pick up and continue the amazing 12 episode masterpiece of a series but I was just as confused as I think anyone would be going in and kept rapidly checking for answers. It was around the 20 minute mark where I began to worry about how this movie was going to manage its runtime and explain everything. Thankfully they not only managed it well but I think this movie legitimately uses its runtime perfectly. No scenes are too short or too dragged out, we're given a perfect amount of world building, mystery, action, and character introspection.
The beginning half of this movie is a masterpiece in itself for how it plays on the initial viewer's thoughts and emotions. Once again going into this film was extremely confusing at first given the context of where the story left off previously and the writers were fully aware of this and utilized it so well to play with the viewer's expectations whilst also giving many hints along the way. Up until about 45 minutes in, the viewer is unsure if this movie is actually a continuation or not and neither possibility is ever totally confirmed until Homura finally drops her hair down on the bridge and her theme starts playing in the background, then the film lets you know with most certainty that this is in fact a continuation. Even after multiple rewatches this reveal hits so hard every time, in fact for me personally it only got better and better every time.
Even after that huge reveal we are hit with another mystery to follow for the rest of the middle act of the movie. Following the rest of the movie we get so many amazing character moments and interactions between the girls that just make their already amazing characters even better. Homura in particular was elevated to a god-tier status of a character in my books and is so brilliantly done in this movie. I already had this thought when watching the tv show but this movie definitely proved to me that Homura is sort of the real main character of this series or is at the VERY least the one that drives the majority of the plot. This may change when Walpurgisnacht Rising releases but for now it's very true.
All of that said and I haven't even gotten to the animation, cinematography, or music. While the tv series could be critiqued for its outdated visuals at times (which were majorly fixed in the other two movie adaptations) Rebellion absolutely perfected the visual style of Madoka Magica and there isn't a single bad shot in this film. The screenplay, symbolism, motifs, and just the shots themselves are all off the charts and make me confident in calling this film a masterpiece. To top it all off the music is top notch as per usual with this series and many of the tracks on this ost are in my opinion perfect for this film and elevate every single scene. I already loved the original ost of this series but man there is a good 20 tracks on this movie's ost alone that I think are fucking amazing for many different reasons.
I'll be honest, after watching the tv show I actually did expect this movie to be a 10/10 given how wonderfully written and executed it was I had little worries for this film. What I didn't expect was for this to immediately land in my top 3 films of all time and at the time of me writing this, it may be my all time favorite.
I've gushed for far too long but I love Madoka Magica and I love this movie, I absolutely cannot wait for Walpurgisnacht Rising and I can't imagine having to have waited for it for over a decade. Even if it doesn't surpass Rebellion (which I believe it very much could) this series will forever remain as one of the greatest I ever came across.
