Quinn Saunders

I actually don't think this movie is worthy of only 1 star, just posting here to comment on others' negative reviews. It baffles me how many people think this movie was simply an attempt at preaching feminism. Bella's practical, logical, and empirical approach to the world around her is a staple of her character and guides her growth. There are plenty of topics covered by Bella, such as the thousands-year-old debate on whether cruelty innate to humankind of learnt, and whether people can change who they are. Feminism is just one of the many topics covered, people somehow seem to forget this...? To be fair, these themes are discussed in the middle and later half of the movie and half the people posting here walked out of the theatre, so I can see how they wouldn't be aware and end up missing the broader context. Now, the abundance of sex, particularly in the brutal manner it's portrayed, is disturbing and the directors definitely should have toned it down. I think the writers were trying to include shock value into their movie via the sex scenes, but the shock was effective maybe at most ONCE, and there were around 20 sex scenes in the movie that I can recall, so it was a definite flop in that department. If people decided to give 1 star purely based on how disturbing it was, I can see where they're coming from—but it seems that lots of people only perceive sexual abuse as half the reason why they think the movie is garbage, and poorly-portrayed feminism as the other half. I simply disagree and believe that feminism was only one facet of Bella Baxter's adventure. While I really enjoyed the rhetoric Bella used in her interactions as the movie went on, her linguistic growth definitely seems too fast to be realistic and warrants valid criticism. It didn't bother me personally, but I can see how it would bother others, and from an objective standpoint going from two-word statements to being bilingual less than an hour through the movie is simply bad character design. For anyone considering watching the movie: Bella Baxter isn't the victim of brutal rape per se, it is clear that she always consents and even enjoys the sex she engages in. It should be noted, however, that her mental state is so childish and underdeveloped that her ability to consent in the first place is definitely in a moral gray area. Most here call it pedophilia, they're probably right—but the main point is, I doubt it would elicit the same discomfort as explicit forms of abuse to the majority of viewers. There's also SOME gore (the caretaker of Bella is a surgeon) and Bella's childish behavior can occasionally be disturbing, but this activity in the movie is few and far between—definitely not something to worry about unless you have some kind of PTSD trigger to blood. But there are redeeming things about the movie, too. The humor is quirky but can be very hilarious at times. It has its own unique charm—if you can put aside the overabundance of sex and occasional gore, that is. Overall, I think this movie deserves people who may be interested to watch it at least ONCE, all the way through.

TL;DR at the end, for those of you who don't want to read a big review. There was less fighting than the last movie, so for those who crave fight scenes, you're going to be a bit disappointed it's more dialogue-heavy than the last SAO movie. It had a solid narrative, I actually liked the dialogue, it made sense and expanded on the development of how peoples' behavior and moral character evolve. The biggest and most blatant problem that I just couldn't ignore was that Asuna and Kirito are a huge duo in this movie around Floor 5 (their characters are around lvl. 17). I can't stress this enough, like, they're almost always together. Because of this, it's obvious the movie totally strays from its source material (the original SAO anime itself), as in the original source material, Kirito is a total solo player until he meets Asuna later, when Asuna becomes 2nd in command of The Knights Of The Blood Oath (They're around lvl 50-60 at this point)... and even then, their relationship is a slow, gradual-developing partnership. Asuna also acts like a completely different character. Asuna admits in the anime that until she met Kirito when Kirito was sleeping under a tree, she cried herself to sleep every day, experienced constant nightmares, and held a FIRM disdain for the game. In the movie, Kirito says multiple times that he and Asuna are "partners." It's totally ridiculous, because Kirito's hesitant to get close to Asuna even after first meeting her (they certainly weren't partners until the latter half of their relationship), and again, this is WAY LATER THAN FLOOR 5. The animation itself was good, though not as good as the last one, but that hardly matters. The characters being so different from how they should have been was a huge blow to the movie. This doesn't seem to be discussed by anyone else from what I've found from other reviews of this movie, surprisingly, so this could just be something that bothers only me, but I'm objectively right, nonetheless; I've rewatched this show like 4-5 times, so I know how the plot goes down. Overall, it had some redeeming qualities, such as the good animation, good plot, and the fight scene that it the movie DID have was pretty darn good imo... but the state of the characters practically canceled it out. I would give this around 2.5 stars, but since that's not an option, I rounded down. TLDR: Character portrayal in the movie is a disgrace to the anime, but has good plot, good dialogue, and badass boss-fight. Should be 2.5 stars, but google won't let me so I rounded down.