Final thoughts on Sword Art Online - Ordinal Scale:I’ll just jump right into this while the movie is
Final thoughts on Sword Art Online - Ordinal Scale:I’ll just jump right into this while the movie is still fresh in my mind. Much of it is negative but I had some fun with it too. Ordinal Scale’s plot is poor to say the least. The premise that an alternate reality game now exists with people in real life physically acting out videogame actions is fairly flimsy already. But then top it off with some good ol’ pseudoscience and well… it becomes surprisingly difficult to “just turn your brain off”. The movie is centered around Kirito and Asuna’s relationship and where it goes from here on out. By framing this arc through flashbacks and present-day conversations about their future, this is actually one of the more coherent narratives in the SAO franchise. Asuna in particular finally steps up to a more active role in their relationship and even if I still find him dull as ever, Kirito is forced to realize he cannot be complacent in their everyday life. As for the rest of the characters, many of them are still sidelined the same as always. Klein in particular got shafted so hard again it might as well be a running gag.The villains are barely worth mentioning. I will say as absurd as their ambitions are, they still have the most reasonable motivations for their actions out of all the villains in the series. The new idol character, Yuuno is a walking/talking plot device from start to finish. If you’re experienced with anime movies, you’ll know what I’m talking about. These are your standard inconsequential movie plot characters who will never appear again. (Hilariously enough, the film asks you to not forget the unnamed SAO players at the end.) The movie dragged much more than I expected as nearly all the scenes between battles were filled with enormous amounts of expository dialogue and plain storyboarding.Here’s where the fun part is. Ordinal Scale is undoubtedly one of the biggest visual spectacles I’ve seen in the past years. It features some of the best choreographed and flashiest animation out of the whole franchise. The production staff was just stacked with fresh talent never seen in the TV series and it’s insane to watch. At times I found myself taken in by the stunning background art. Battles being animated in 1s and 2s (i.e. a crazy high # of frames) is just rarely seen. Effects animation, background animation, blisteringly fast cuts and camerawork, there’s so much fun animation to gawk at. The final battle in particular felt like A-1 had jammed an entire season’s worth of frames into it. I really couldn’t help but ride the hype coming from it. Because let’s be honest, you don’t need emotional investment to enjoy a fireworks show and this movie has one of the biggest performances anime can offer. For my other Winter 2017 anime posts, click here. -- source link
#ordinal scale#winter 2017