Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Freedom

Best of the SEED series by far.

This movie made me really like the SEED franchise.
The first SEED was too similar to the original Gundam for my taste. SEED Destiny felt like an improvement, until it turned the protagonist into the villain. SEED Freedom does not have any of these problems.

Story:
The story is simple but it does its job. Kira and Lacus are the heroes in the end, but they are neither annoying nor preachy. They managed to introduce powerful, worthy villains in a natural way.

Characters:
This is where SEED Freedom shines. I felt that Kira was not relatable and Lacus was preachy in ... the previous SEED entries. However, here, they are humanized and Kira is shown to have actual flaws. Also, Shin and Luna-Maria are given many moments to shine as well as Athrun.

Action:
Despite the action being CGI, I felt it was really good. It was definitely more natural and fluid than THE ORIGIN. Also, it has some fan favorite mobile suits return and have their time in the spotlight that they always deserved.

Conclusion:
IF you don’t like SEED, watch this movie. It is far better than the other two entries in this series. It will change your mind about SEED. If you like SEED, also watch this movie. It’s amazing and is now one of my top 5 Gundam works along with the original, zeta, IBO and Hathaway. I really have no complaints. Long live SEED.

Overall I found the movie to be a lot of highs and lows, peaks and valleys. Little moments here and there I absolutely loved, found funny, cool, or appropriate following from Seed/Destiny, and other things were even dumber than the Seed-Hater-Memes make Seed out to be.

The art design wasn't as bad as the previews made it out to be, though many times characters were indeed much too bobble-headed. I also felt something was missing in the the CG fighting - it was too smooth and lacked the "oomph" & "impact" that the original shows (and even Hathaway's Flash) managed to instill in the clashes and ... hits.

Aside from a couple of the new songs and the teases of original classic tracks which were most appreciated, I found the movie score to be very underbaked. Long periods without an emotional note or flourish, seeming different tracks stiched together scene by scene - it was giving me some audio whiplash. Compared to Seed/Destiny, where perhaps the strongest element was the music, it was a poor showing.

The subtitles I felt were not amazing in their quality. Clunky translation and delivery. I was also sad to see we went back to the "Dullindal" spelling for the former ZAFT chairman. Took me back to 2005 on that one.

There were loads of story points that I took issue with, especially since Fukuda said it was so important to keep the consistency of character from the end of Destiny, I was hoping for better from our two lead characters, Kira and Lacus.

Kira especially (and I focus on him in this review because it really is his movie) I felt was very out of character and unbelievable following from where we last saw him in Destiny. He has a emotional crisis to work through in this movie and the way he tries to deal with it was so reminiscent of SEED-era Kira when he was at his lowest/inexperienced, I was shocked and disappointed. By the end of Seed and all over Seed Destiny, Kira had developed a much greater emotional intelligence and awareness and would not have acted as he did in this movie. There was a chance to explore a much more nuanced character and romantic relationship here but unfortunately the film took an obvious and tired retread of been there done that (with this very same character). This regression of character for no reason was puzzling and reaks of plot convenience.

Lacus has some very puzzling retcons seemingly made to her, however her character feels more as if she hasn't changed or evolved since we saw her in Destiny, whereas Kira felt like he actually regressed.

The antagonists are supremely underdeveloped and underexplained, unless I missed a lot somehow in the breakneck pace of some sections of the movie. The special gimmicks and origins of the antagonistic group which are *critical* for the plot... Not explained as far as I remember. I can only make assumptions which isn't great for a movie that had near 2 decades to figure itself out.

I was reminded several times during the movie of the Code Geass Resurrection movie; only I feel that movie did all the things you could hope for - and did them well - while here there are so many narrative compromises following from Seed Destiny. It feels like the script could have done with another going over.

There is a lot of fan-service, particularly as you get into the 3rd act. When it isn't stepping on the character development/narrative, it's highly effective; Shin, Luna, Capt. Ramius, Mu, Athrun, and Cagalli all get great moments you'll love if you've ever enjoyed the Gundam Seed setting.

I do hope for more Cosmic Era animation entries, just with some more narrative care given to character consistency and development. For Seed Freedom, my earnest hope is that they can improve and massage certain aspects of Seed Freedom for the home release like they did with Seed-Destiny OG > Seed Destiny HD. Somehow they made me love Seed Destiny more than Seed when I did a rewatch, so I think there could be hope for Seed Freedom.

This is not a well-crafted movie to begin with they choose to have as its theme "love" but not a mature idea of love the well-meaning type but often mistaken idea of "love" with corny ideology backing this all up. there's lots of teen angst that goes off the scales and there are lots of twists and turn-heels which makes this movie not that bad but themes that were better explored in the last two season are left as just background noise for romance, I guess there's no more to explore in this setting and "gundam universe" for us the viewers.

So not really recommended.
ENJOYMENT ... SECTION: 5/10
Art 1/1 (looks okay)
Sound 1/2 (good songs but the dialogues are usually meh)
Story 1/3 (great concepts as background decoration)
Characters 2/4 (they are ok but nothing much)

FINAL VERDICT: 5/10