Apr 22, 2019
This movie was a big disappointment as it was nothing more than mere fan service. It can't persuade that it was ever more than just a cheap attempt at a quick cash grab.
There was no real story to tell, so instead they went with easy fan service. It's as if they googled some fan stuff and threw what they found in a cauldron and let it boil until stuck together a little bit. This movie is nothing more than shipping, shipping, shipping and the most hilarious "no, but also yes" stance on a popular theory.
- Without going into spoiler territory first a history lesson to
...
explain the context. The original anime had an old (though debunked) theory about the ending. The show staff always denied that theory, official statements contradicted it, in 2009 they made a completely new epilogue to hammer on the fact that the theory was wrong. In some statements they even explicitly denied core points of the theory. (for more information visit the Code Geass Community Information database, this can easily be found by googling "Evaluating Code Theory, main body + index", this information database also includes the new epilogue from 2009 which was mentioned above)
Fast forward to the present and this movie, the hilarious thing is that, while this movie does indeed fully contradict that theory (Lelouch even explicitly denies the theory when Suzaku first meets him again!), it then simply goes on and "borrows" some of the theory's points and applies it to an entirely new lore concept which was made specifically for this movie.
So basically, they're saying "your theory is wrong, but we're going to steal parts of it anyway and use it ourselves for something else".
Facepalms ensued.
- The so-called "story" of the movie deals with barely fleshed out antagonists who are the leaders of a previously non-existent country. A country which allegedly defeated one of the biggest super powers in their world, and yet were never mentioned before, or never sought to be allied with when the war for the entire planet raged on during the original anime.
The goals and motivations of the antagonists was nothing more than the same
recycled goals and motivations of the antagonists of the original series, just in a different jacket and with different words.
To make things worse, some of the drastic actions taken by the antagonists (kidnapping Nunnally, starting the entire conflict) was based on mere conjecture and baseless assumptions by said antagonists. Hilariously, these assumptions were wrong (Nunnally has no code) and thus even if Lelouch hadn't defeated them, they still would have failed in their plan. C.C., however, does have a code, so it would make much more sense that they'd go after her and capture her like Clovis once did, but then of course she couldn't have resurrected Lelouch and thus the movie wouldn't have its chicken with the golden eggs, so that common sense decision was out of the window.
The large cast of well developed characters which Code Geass could proudly present in the original anime has been reduced to meaningless cameos. they appear, say a few lines, do a minor thing and then have no more impact on the story anymore. This adds to the feeling of the movie being ordinary fan service rather than having substance.
- Story aside, and fair is fair, the art of this movie was great. It stayed true to the feel of the original while still being an improvement. The character designs are still very much CLAMP, so your mileage may vary.
The music was also well chosen to suit the scenes, though didn't have the emotional weight some of the original music had, like Madder Sky.
All in all, your enjoyment of this movie will depend HEAVILY on what you want from the movie. If you want a good story, an ORIGINAL story, good character development, and no ridiculous "the fan theory is completely wrong, but we're going to use it for ourselves anyway", then you'll not find much joy in this movie.
If you're just looking for some fan pandering and cute shipping moments, you'll appreciate the movie a lot more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
