Forum - View topicREVIEW: Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Yeah, they are called "elitists"....or rather, a better name: "SNOBS"...and they're the bane of every anime-lover's existence. 
My Anime List is full of these jerks....but the funny thing is, the movie already has a rating of 8.42 so they can go suck on that. 
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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[quote="Chiibi"]
Yeah, I hate those sorts of viewers too. I personally thought "Aincrad" was flawed but ultimately okay, while "Fairy Dance" was all sorts of NO. Despite my personal feelings, I don't think the first season was as bad or as good as some of the more ardent anime fans say. Same with Kirito, oddly enough, since my real problem is that he's too bland compared to other characters. (My personal beef is with the cracked foundation the story is built on and the erratic pacing.) |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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My only other experience with video game RPG-style anime before SAO was .hack//sign.
After molasses-type pacing, SAO's speedy pacing was really welcome for me. ..........but I still think they should have animated the whole first volume of Progressive for the Aincrad arc. It has more interesting stories, more interesting characters (like not just harem members) and Kirito and Asuna spend way more time together than they do in the original version. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Saw the movie today and it was pretty entertaining. I think I'm more confident in liking the series after seeing movie and the reviews on this site (including the podcast). I think the hatedom got to me a little in between the last season and the movie and after seeing my rating for both seasons, I worried that I was overrating it and whether I still liked it. But even with its flaws, the movie was entertaining, and I won't feel guilty for liking something that is entertaining, and so I won't worry about liking SAO anymore.
Well considering that Progressive started after the anime had already ended, that wasn't possible. And I think the current MAL rating (8.47 as of posting) tells you that while the site might have loud snobby a-holes (you can find those types anywhere), much of the community is not so. I don't really trend in the sites forums so perhaps they are prevalent there, but in my experience the ratings are usually fairly reasonable and far from the snobbiest I've seen. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18227 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Enh, I don't get hung up on the vocally negative opinions anymore. I know the series is flawed, and I can certainly understand why some would get hung up enough on the flaws to regard it negatively overall. (After all, there are a few titles out there which are generally well-regarded but about which I can't help but get hung up on the negatives - like Wolf's Rain and Revolutionary Girl Utena, for instance.) The only thing I get annoyed about is when people refuse to acknowledge what the franchise is doing right.
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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I came away with a much less positive impression of the movie. It looked and sounded fantastic, and the development of Kirito and Asuna's relationship throughout the movie was reasonably organic, far better than in any other installment of the anime so far. The other emotional content was mostly unconvincing, but it did its part in telling the story, predictable as a lot of it was.
The first main issue for me was of pacing: the first eighty-odd minutes being unnecessarily slow. I can honestly say it's the first movie I've seen in a cinema where I checked the time partway through watching. The overall concept of the movie's narrative was fair enough, if far from original, but it was let down by leaden pacing, largely uninteresting characterisation, clichéd villains (a definite step-up from the TV's truly awful ones, but largely uninteresting) and a excessive focus on parts of the story or backstory that got no follow-up later or were resolved with no sense of importance or consequence. Like how Klein spoiler[was hospitalised and then didn't turn up again in the story for half an hour, by which point no level of intrigue or importance was attributed to anything that happened to him]. Or how Kirito (with the assistance of Yui and the cyber ghost) goes to significant efforts to uncover the central mystery, finds out almost nothing, and then the movie just explains its characters' key motivations and backstory in a way that has no effect on Kirito personally and made the whole journey feel pointless. The spoiler[restoration of Kirito to video game Jesus] was a painful experience to watch, and the entire last quarter was truly groan-inducing. The defeat of the seemingly overwhelmingly powerful foe (which was very cool) owed itself spoiler[not to any appreciable exercise of gaming strategy, but just getting enough reinforcements to run all over it]. It looked cool, but it was definitely anti-climactic. My cinema had laughter and groaning at several points throughout the final fight and I saw several facepalms in its aftermath with spoiler[Kirito wiping out multiple floor bosses with a single swing of his new sword]. It made sense in the context of their ordinal system, but it was still cringey to see. I'd rate the film poorly overall, maybe a grade below average. |
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KENZICHI
 Posts: 1111 |
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I agree with you on the pacing and how generic the story is. It's definitely not movie of the year. It was definitely more eye pleasing to me more than anything else. Also I agree with the final battle. Was WAY too fast after spoiler[ everyone showed up] I lost track of what was going on. And then spoiler[ god!Kirito.] I was just like "yup of course". |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I enjoyed the movie. But the ONE thing that bugs me "in retrospect" (ie. did not bother me while watching) is: So Ordinal Scale introduces the AR gear, which seems pretty obviously intended to be a pre-cursor to the Neuro Linker in Accel World. So anyway, they introduce this new tech that allows you to basically have a fully functional computer snapped onto your head. You get visual, audio and even tactile feedback as are (theoretically) connected to their functional equivalent to the internet all the time.
So... with ALL that in mind, why are Kirito and co still using phones? I've been recently looking into wireless headphones for totally unrelated reasons and during the movie was amused watching Kirito field calls on his headphones, but WHY the heck do people still use those to talk and text when you have AR gear? 
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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That doesn't make sense because the entirety of episode 02 of the Aincrad arc was a Progressive chapter. o_O Practically word for word. I'm pretty sure the novels were out in Japan before the anime was adapted.
Kirito wasn't able to go "God mode" just because he's Kirito in this case. It's only what that sword was able to do. So literally anyone who defeated Eiji would have received the No.1 rank and gotten the sword of ultimate destruction. He is the main character though and Eiji attacked his best friends AND waifu; did you expect someone ELSE to take this role? I swear, SAO is the ONLY show where I see people complain about the main protagonist defeating the main antagonist.
Let me explain you how stories work: The main protagonist defeats the main antagonist. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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As far as I can tell, the anime was first. There was some overlap with the anime run, but only with the Fairy Dance arc. Obviously the book was written for some time before publishing (and the anime too), and I don't know if Kawahara had much of any involvement in writing the anime, so maybe it is due to involvement of the same writer. It is also possible the adaptation runs the opposite direction, that is the episode in question wasn't an adaptation of the Progressive chapter, but rather the chapter was an adaptation of the episode. Now I haven't read Progressive so I don't know exactly how it relates with the anime and the original light novels (outside of what I read in this article) so that is just speculation on my part.
Edit: after rereading the relevant portion on the last linked article, I'm certain that Progressive was after the anime and my both of my speculations could be correct, though the article doesn't specify which story Kawahara did for the anime The relevant portion:
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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I have a friend who didn't care for the show but liked the movie. Honestly the only negative reactions I've heard this movie get are from the REALLY stubborn parts of the hatedom that aren't even worth reasoning with. You know, those guys who make 2 hour Youtube videos where they go really in depth talking about non issues, repeating the same generic stuff everyone else is saying and brushing off everything it does right with a simple 'Well I didn't like that part'.
I mean personally I think you could make a pretty interesting video by acknowledging the flaws but also discussing the worldbuilding, the underlying themes and how the movie tackles topical issues. But where's the fun in that?? Let's make a 10 part series talking about how Kirito is dumb and overpowered and stuff. No one's ever done THAT before. As for what I thought about it, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It doesn't surprise me that the movie has been so positively recieved. It's a crowd pleaser in the sense that it packs everything that people like about Sword Art Online and ramps it up to 11. It covers some very topical issues in a surprisngly non corny way (Which is no small task), the action scenes put even the show's best to shame, the clanging of swords and Kajiura's soundtrack sound amazing blasting through the cinema speakers, there's a ton of emotional drama (Which is thankfully focused almost entirely on characters much more interesting than Kirito) and the stakes are higher than they have been since the first SAO arc. Also that climax... wow. The action scenes in SAO tend to be really good and all but I've never felt such a sense of satisfaction at the end of one. Also, without going into detail, I think a lot of people are really going to appreciate the fanservice spoiler[(As in it the throwbacks to other arcs not Leafa's boobs)]. I was dangerously close to tearing up in front of my friend when spoiler[Yuuki appeared]. There were problems of course. While I'm thankful boring ole' Kirito wasn't too involved in the emotional side of things, I felt like the part where he rises up the ranks should have been a bit longer. Not that I'd want to see boring training montages, I just felt it was a bit awkward. Also while I think the methodical pace is a praise worthy element, the movie did drag a bit at times. But all things considered, those were very minor issues. I'd probably give it a B+ as well. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Actually, Kirito isn't able to go "god mode" until spoiler[he surpasses Yuna]. Because Eiji is actually ranked #2. The "super sword" was kinda dumb though, especially since Kirito's best ability was "dual wield" and he doesn't (can't?) do that with the ultimate weapon. But no matter what people may think of Kirito being "OP" I think it was great that the final boss required a "party raid". It may have been shameless fanservice, but it was still good that it at least needed a bunch of people, even if that was just an excuse to throw a bunch of characters in. The bigger disappointment to me is actually spoiler[Klein was REALLY smart in that he threw away his AR gear when he went to attack Eiji], and its just disappointing that they didn't let that play out as it should have simply because "plot". |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18227 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I liked that the character in question did that, too (but then spoiler[Klein didn't survive as a front-line guild leader in SAO without being quickly adaptable)]) and didn't have a problem with it because spoiler[the movie strongly implied that a lot of Eiji's advantage is that he was more athletic and fit than most in the real world.] |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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I disagree that Kirito wasn't a part of the emotional drama.....because I found the scene where spoiler[he read Asuna's little diary about how important he is to her and their promise to see the shooting stars and he throws himself at her and they embrace on the bed]
to be really moving. I just wish my audience had been a little more quiet during that part. Like, yes, so what spoiler[his face is in her chest; can you not see that neither one of them cares about that at this point!?] It's supposed to be a mature moment between two consenting people in love. They just kept laughing though. Childish.
@zrnzle500: Ah. That clears things up a bit. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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True, but the character spoiler[is so often comic relief that it was unexpected.]
Actually, I didn't see it that way (but again, I may be reading more due to being an avid reader of Accel World). spoiler[Kirito is able to beat Eiji, even though we get many indications that "physically" he's not up to snuff. Comparatively, Klein seems in better shape since he's been putting more effort into Ordinal Scale. Instead, we see Kirito beat Eiji once he removes Eiji's "advantage" (which is some booster thing on his neck). We VERY briefly see things from Eiji's perspective while fighting Klein, and he seems to see "prediction lines" for Klein's actions] All that makes sense for several reasons: spoiler[#1. "Ordinal Scale" doesn't have a lot of predictive data for Kirito, since he hasn't been playing it (thus, he's able to get to Eiji and take the thing), and #2. One of the major "antagonists" in Accel World turns out (in the LNs) to have a similar tool, plus #3. I just don't see Eiji beating so many people but then losing to Kirito simply because "he's in better physical shape", he definitely shouldn't outclass Klein to the degree that he did.] |
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