I have watched the original anime not to long ago, thus it helps comparing both...
They both start the story by introducing guts during a castle siege where he takes on the resident "monster".
The animation during this part was brilliant giving a lot of realism to the siege and the battles being fought, this remains thorough the movie, characters animation also look fantastic and fluid.....
The art, is the main issue with this faithful remake, Griffith only lacks sparkles in his air to complete the picture, characters despite being well animated, look somewhat plain and when animated in 3d might look awkward, there is a frontal full nude scene of Casca, this i remember from the series, i believe Casca's skin had a darker tone and was much more detailed and appealing as a women, in the movie i fell some detail was lost and even some charm...
Besides the small issue with characters, background art looks stunning...
Someone said on a review, music is inferior to the original, what i feel is that music sounds appropriate but somewhat too grandiose...
I think the last thing to talk about is the entire new cast, an experienced viewer should have no trouble identifying the entire cast, they are all veteran's of modern anime, but they wont cut for the job and lack the "strenght" the old cast added to characters like Guts or Casca, i believe Casca is the one who lost the most with all the changes, even Aki Toyosaki is now voicing Charlot, who would have thought, although she is maturing nicely (Aki's), im not sure she is suited for a damsel in distress, i think i hear her screaming for the first time and it's not my mind playin tricks...
Anyway, ANN says this covers from mid vol 4 to vol 6 or about 2 volumes, story had to be somewhat rushed and overall from a technical standpoint it is a good works that shines sometimes but it is lackluster at the same time...
It might work better for first time viewers, it works for me although not entirely and die hard fans, haters gonna hate and thats how it is...
Next movie should cover the remaining of the tv anime and perhaps cover some new ground, while the last movie is hopped to be entirely new story...
