Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works

[EkaCoralian]

I know there's a Fate topic around here somewhere, but I looked through 7 pages on the Series subforum and I believe its locked (as everything past that point is locked.)
So unless someone wants to go out of their way to find the old topic and merge this one into it, by all means. I just think that this movie should be acknowledged as it has reached its way in subbed form to the internet.
Anyways,

An animated film based on the storyline of the Unlimited Blade Works route from the visual novel.

Too lazy to find a longer plot synopsis. xD;

I just finished watching it a few minutes ago (as the minute I saw someone had left a review of it on MAL, I scurried on over to Google to seek out a possible fansub. Thank you, random Reviewer xD) and I've got to say that this movie had A LOT of great things about it, but, like any anime, had its flaws.

The Good:
1. The animation. DEEN certainly did not hesitate in pulling out all of the stops for the animation. While the first couple of scenes were reminiscent of the beginning of the series, it was all re-animated (good choice, DEEN. ) I kept commenting on how damn shiny the movie was. XD Character designs remained the same for the most part, with Gilgamesh being the exception. 'Kind of missed his slicked-back hair badass look. =[ If I had to point out the most stunning part of this movie, it would be the animation (sorry, plot. =c)
2. The voice-acting. Now, when I originally watched the TV series, I actually watched it dubbed in English (and enjoyed it), so at first I was hesitant to watch this movie as it was with a cast I was not used to hearing. I think I actually enjoyed some characters MORE subbed, so thats definitely saying something. xD Also, the VA for Shirou Emiya did a phenomenal job: his character screamed and yelled like crazy, and it all sounded awesome. Rin was also very good, and I gave her a huge helping of Kudos when she was flung against a wall by another person. She didn't just 'Gah!' when she got hit, and 'Gah!' when she hit the wall (like I hear in so much anime..), no she literally SCREAMED and then hit the wall painfully. I could never actually reach that vocal pitch in my voice for screaming unless I'm deathly scared or I'm in danger, so being able to scream through acting impresses me.

The Alright:
1. The plot. Archer's plot was awesome (I knew about the whole secret through a friend of mine, so I eagerly awaited to listen to and experience the whole story behind it.) That being said, Archer's plot was just PART of the plot. There were so many crazy ideals and goals from different villains, it was actually somewhat annoying to keep track of it all. When I finished the movie, I sat back in my chair and tried to remember how the friggin' fighting started. XD I mean it was also really confusing because there was a fight every 10 minutes (not that I'm complaining, but it happened so often that I lost sight of the plot. =P) So, it was a good plot for about half of the movie, but the other half just seemed all over the place to me.
2. The music. I always love to really listen to the background music in a show I watch in hopes to really taking to the soundtrack. Fate's movie soundtrack was AWESOME when it came to the fighting parts. However I wasn't really registering the music for the more emotional or calm/mellow moments. =\ If I had to actually talk about what I remembered of the OST, it would be the songs playing during the Unlimited Blade Works moments, to be honest. ^^;;

The Bad:
1. Deaths. I'm not going into this one for spoilerific reasons, but I'm just going to say that these tie into the characters hugely (pfft, obviously. xD) But I mean... more... important characters, I guess. Deaths in this were unexpected, and most I found to be entirely disappointing.
Lots of blood in this movie though. Yay gore. (Though I did chuckle at those moments a bit. Each blood spatter just looked like a combination of their guts mixed in with wine. Blood that takes the same form with every slash, apparently.)

Overall: 8/10, 1 point higher than the rating I gave the TV series. Buyable? Mm, not really (for me.) I mean I didn't totally fall in love with the TV series either, but if I were to choose between series and movie, I'd buy the movie (and not only for low-on-money reasons. xD)

Thoughts?

[Minimoto]

Well, this is quite obvious but, the VN was better than the movie. But that's the same for majority of novel to movie transfers. It was about as good as I expected. I had hoped the Shirou vs. Archer would have been a bit better but the Shirou vs. Gilgamesh was pretty bad ass. All in all a great movie and currently looking for a way to buy the DVD.

[Jasta85]

I got a hold of the visual novel a few months ago and played through the "fate" path (what the TV series was based on) and damn there was a lot of stuff in there that the series left out (understandable as with the novel you can take different paths so the series had to stick with one). Now the TV series was 24 eps long and still wasnt able to hold all the necessary material so i knew there was no way a 1 1/2 to 2 hour movie would be able to even come close to contain all the events of a second path so i held off on playing through unlimited blade works till i saw the movie, then i could enjoy the full experience of the game.

Just managed to get my hands on the movie and plan to watch it either tomorrow or the day after, it looks pretty well put together though just from skimming through a few random scenes.

I wonder if they plan to do the third and final path (can't remember its name off the top of my head) in a movie format. If i remember correctly in that one he is supposed to team up with rider, which sounds pretty bad ass.

[O-Kagachi]

I'm fapping at the animation quality. This movie is love.

I wonder if they plan to do the third and final path (can't remember its name off the top of my head) in a movie format. If i remember correctly in that one he is supposed to team up with rider, which sounds pretty bad ass.

I would love to see Heaven's Feel animated.

Spoiler :

I'm just worried about the length of it, the multitude of cooking scenes and problems with censoring (seeing how the scenario was heavily based on sex)

[O-Kagachi]

Rin did the pose in the end, like I hoped she would.

[EkaCoralian]

'Already have an AMV planned for this, actually.
It was inevitable. Those gorgeous fighting scenes are difficult to resist. =s

[Jasta85]

'Already have an AMV planned for this, actually.
It was inevitable. Those gorgeous fighting scenes are difficult to resist. =s

dito to that, just discovered an awsome new band too with some epic music, go together perfectly. Meh, was already starting on a christmas amv but that can go on hold for a bit

[Glitzer]

Excellent review EkaCoralian. The assessment is very fair, and I actually agree with most of it.

This is an incredible tribute to the series, and one can only hope for a Heavens Feel movie (and perhaps something beyond). Without a doubt do no withhold on this, shoot for 1080p with surround sound if at all possible. I absolutely adored the skirmishes, and was no less than mesmerized by the animation.

There were so many crazy ideals and goals from different villains, it was actually somewhat annoying to keep track of it all. When I finished the movie, I sat back in my chair and tried to remember how the friggin' fighting started. XD I mean it was also really confusing because there was a fight every 10 minutes (not that I'm complaining, but it happened so often that I lost sight of the plot. =P) So, it was a good plot for about half of the movie, but the other half just seemed all over the place to me.

Because of the length of the movie, its a given that rushing the plot could not be prevented. I highly recommend reading the visual novel/manga if you have not already, as the plot has plenty of time to expand into a wonderful story. The tale is one you can glean from the movie, but it's simply a different experience altogether.

The Bad:
1. Deaths. I'm not going into this one for spoilerific reasons, but I'm just going to say that these tie into the characters hugely (pfft, obviously. xD) But I mean... more... important characters, I guess. Deaths in this were unexpected, and most I found to be entirely disappointing.

About the deaths, you are completely justifiable in your complaints, but I would once again urge you to fill in the gaping holes of information with other supplements. I differ in opinion about unexpectedness casualties, however. If executed correctly, unforeseen tragedies can be just as emotionally devastating, if not worse, than anticipated ones.

Lots of blood in this movie though. Yay gore. (Though I did chuckle at those moments a bit. Each blood spatter just looked like a combination of their guts mixed in with wine. Blood that takes the same form with every slash, apparently.)

I can't really blame you for this. In my desensitized defense, anime or just shows in general that lack any kind of blood seem very disingenuous to me if they're centered around action. Blood is a necessary component to a good battle oriented show. War is bloody, and we need to see that to feel there are indeed major consequences for conflict. Not to say I can't enjoy shows without gore, but when I see clashes that amount to little more than flashy effects and braggadocio, I wont take it too seriously.

I kept commenting on how damn shiny the movie was

I wont lie, I was very much captivated by it.

She didn't just 'Gah!' when she got hit, and 'Gah!' when she hit the wall (like I hear in so much anime..), no she literally SCREAMED and then hit the wall painfully.

Indeed, even though it was entirely fictitious, I couldn't help but feel a spike of empathy for Rin there.

At any rate, appreciate the read EkaCoralian. Thanks for bringing the topic up!

(Can't wait to see the amvs you all will spawn with this movie )

[EkaCoralian]

The Bad:
1. Deaths. I'm not going into this one for spoilerific reasons, but I'm just going to say that these tie into the characters hugely (pfft, obviously. xD) But I mean... more... important characters, I guess. Deaths in this were unexpected, and most I found to be entirely disappointing.

About the deaths, you are completely justifiable in your complaints, but I would once again urge you to fill in the gaping holes of information with other supplements. I differ in opinion about unexpectedness casualties, however. If executed correctly, unforeseen tragedies can be just as emotionally devastating, if not worse, than anticipated ones.

Ok then, I probably should elaborate on my point there. ^^;; However, using the lovely device known as spoiler tags. :3

Spoiler :

I just found a lot of the deaths to be pointless. By the end of it, you could tell that the studio was just trying to kill everyone off that was unimportant to the Gilgamesh vs. Shirou battle. The first three deaths I liked, because they were indeed unexpected. Rider being torn to pieces? I was very much in shock. Ilya's heart being torn out of her chest by Gilgamesh's hand? I was TERRIFIED XD (but in a good way. xD) Archer dying? In the most sacrifically epic way: lovelovelove.
The somewhat evil man in the Church not actually being dead, and then dying? Mm... ok...
Assassin LIVING after jabbing his spear into his chest and coughing up blood, and then remaining alive for a few seconds to kill the other man? Pointless in this case, as Assassin really proved as a character who contributed to nothing but Church Man's death. Church Man only existed to give out players for the Holy Grail War anyways, so what was he going to gain in the end?
So basically everyone unimportant to Shirou by the end of it was pretty much killed off. I think the death thta most irritated me was Saber's. A swordsman/KING as awesome as her dies at the end of the expanding radiating aftermath of the Holy Grail? The AFTERMATH? She just stood there and somehow died. That had me very frustrated. D=<

So I just didn't like how they killed characters off so easily so that the War would be over and Shirou would get Rin this time.

Again, though, time constraints were apparent, so I can't blame them entirely. :I

I'm very glad you liked my review! =D I've got the RAW BD of the movie now, so I'm off to edit!~ xD

[outlawed]

[quote="EkaCoralian"]Ok then, I probably should elaborate on my point there. ^^;; However, using the lovely device known as spoiler tags. :3

Spoiler :

I just found a lot of the deaths to be pointless. By the end of it, you could tell that the studio was just trying to kill everyone off that was unimportant to the Gilgamesh vs. Shirou battle. The first three deaths I liked, because they were indeed unexpected. Rider being torn to pieces? I was very much in shock. Ilya's heart being torn out of her chest by Gilgamesh's hand? I was TERRIFIED XD (but in a good way. xD) Archer dying? In the most sacrifically epic way: lovelovelove.
The somewhat evil man in the Church not actually being dead, and then dying? Mm... ok...
Assassin LIVING after jabbing his spear into his chest and coughing up blood, and then remaining alive for a few seconds to kill the other man? Pointless in this case, as Assassin really proved as a character who contributed to nothing but Church Man's death. Church Man only existed to give out players for the Holy Grail War anyways, so what was he going to gain in the end?
So basically everyone unimportant to Shirou by the end of it was pretty much killed off. I think the death thta most irritated me was Saber's. A swordsman/KING as awesome as her dies at the end of the expanding radiating aftermath of the Holy Grail? The AFTERMATH? She just stood there and somehow died. That had me very frustrated. D=<

So I just didn't like how they killed characters off so easily so that the War would be over and Shirou would get Rin this time.

The faults you list aren't faults so much in the source material as the adaptation. The majority of why things are playing out as they do are not explained. This one was made strictly for the fans who are already well versed in the source material. I can see why they did it though. I mean this is an otaku production and is not aimed at mainstream audiences. By this point pretty much every otaku already knows Fate/Stay night. I mean it's easily one of the top 10 otaku properties in Japan in the last 15 years.

Spoiler :

">Assassin LIVING after jabbing his spear into his chest and coughing up blood"
That's actually Lancer. Assassin is the re-incarnation oo Sasaki Kojiro who Saber defeats on the temple steps at the end of the movie.

"Church Man only existed to give out players for the Holy Grail War anyways, so what was he going to gain in the end?" That actually isn't really his role in the grail war as its supervisor. As for more info on his character refer to the VN. He's one of the more twisted characters.

"Death that most irritated me was Saber's" She didn't die but rather was unsummoned as the grail war ended with the destruction of the cup.