Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Freedom

If you watched Seed and Destiny and really liked it, this one is for you. Seed is not a great story about war, but it is a great story about the best pilot of all time, with an embarrassing love and the coolest design ever for a main gundam (Freedom, Strike Freedom and now Mighty Strike Freedom)

Is the villains' master plan the same as the one they used in the series? Yes, but at the end of the series, Durandal put this doubt in Kira's mind, and this question is still a real question... humanity always turns to war for some reason. Showing this haunting ... Kira, who never liked conflict, is very valid, and here we also see the mental consequence of placing the protagonist as the Hero who carries the team

In Seed we have Kira saving the archangel, the federation and Zaft with the first launch of Freedom. In Destiny we have Strike Freedom destroying Zaft's forces in minutes before kicking Shinn and Rey's asses in the first launch of Strike Freedom. all this with Takanori's ost.

In this one we have the first time we see Rising Strike with Freedom OP in the background, and Mighty Strike for the first time on the battlefield, doing what Kira does best, with an old TM Revolution song. If you liked the first two and didn't like the ones in the movies, you're just crazy.

If you were expecting a good story about war in a new movie, go watch Hathways Flash. If you wanted a good movie about Seed in its essence, a story about Love, watch this one and enjoy

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.

Characters:
Some characters develop backwards, turning into people who have not gained the emotional stability they had (gained) in destiny. Most new characters are introduced to the bare minimum. Most of them with no depth.

Story:
Recycled plot elements from destiny. Can't beat the "good guys"? Just give the bad guys better technology, and vice versa. If you are under the constraint of a single movie, don't cram in content which is normally intended for a whole arc.

Music:
Almost none of the soundtracks stuck out, unlike in the prequels. Feels like music was an afterthought, not enhancing the story at all. Also...a certain performance ... was missing.

Art/Animation:
SFX are good. Character design is alright, less of the "same face" phenomenon. I'm not against fanservice, however, there are some characters and moments for which it is just inappropriate. Background/scenery is beautiful.

I was so hyped when I saw that my most favorite anime got a sequel. This is such a disappointment if it was not meant as a parody. View the end of destiny as the end of the story and you are good.