hbogan - 2014-07-10 08:23:08

just how sturdy can the bridge be that it wont brake while  the one half is at the atmosphere and the other half is at space...

rick76 - 2013-11-01 22:47:31

"Risking everything on the smallest chance in order to make even the slightest difference and never doubting that we can achieve something. That's what it means to advance!" says Touma Kamijou as I shake my head. If this was the philosophy which lead on the filmmakers, they must abandon it fast because it obviously did not go well.

I am not going to rant about plot and characters, because those two have never been A Certain Magical Index's strong points. If you really want to know my opinion on it, you can read my review on the aforementioned show. To put it simply: it was cheesy as hell and like Swiss cheese it was full of holes.

I am going to rant about the technical aspects of this movie though. The animation wasn't bad per se but take into account that this is a movie made in 2013. Kiki's Delivery Service and Akira had a much more fluid animation and they were made two decades before this one. The animation would be superb for a 24 episode series, but not for a movie which in the end wasn't technically done that much better than A Certain Scientific Railgun S. Also, Arisa looked like a damn Vocaloid during the concert scenes. Glaring CGI galore! While on topic, the songs weren't as good as they were supposed to be. Like Touma I'm not much of a music fan so usually I don't bitch about sound, but if one of the main selling points is supposed to be music, then please make it good. It just makes no sense that everybody and their little sister is gushing about Arisa's incredible, life-changing songs when they're actually very mediocre jiggly pop crap that isn't even catchy. And the entire point of pop music is for it to be catchy!

If I have to name the good points, it must be the fast pacing. It never managed to bore me, there was always something to entertain me. The other good point was the cool action. They probably thought that you were too stupid to understand any plot so they filled it with self-references, supporting cast appearances, magic, railguns and Touma's hand's sound effect.

In the end, I enjoyed myself. At least I managed not to fall asleep.

Important: this movie will be incomprehensible if you haven't seen both Railgun and Index anime.

jlabadie - 2013-09-07 21:47:31

Meet one of the guest stars.

As always, my reviews are spoiler free.

MAL-era import review; please excuse my lack of experience.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SORT OF KIND OF NSFW MATERIAL.

Before I am burned at the stake for criticizing this movie, please hear me out. I want to say that I am a big fan of Raildex. That’s why I was excited about this movie, and that’s why I feel so let down. That perfect blend of action, comedy, and likable characters that makes Index and Railgun so popular just wasn’t present here, and even JC Staff knew that. It becomes evident quickly, which is why they have… compensated in certain ways. Anyway, let’s get down to business.

Story - 5/10

I was drawn in by the story’s premise, which was the typical Raildex fare; Touma & company encounter a mysterious girl named Arisa, whose singing captivates those around her and seems to have the ability to make miracles happen. She just wants to live a normal life, and loves singing because she has a genuine desire to please others. Of course, there is more to this girl than meets the eye, and a battle soon erupts between the various factions of Academy City to control her miraculous singing.

I keep using the word “miracle,” and the anime does as well. In fact, the entire movie is based around them, beginning with a spaceplane crash during which all 88 passengers and crew survive. This becomes known as the Miracle of 88, and the entire plot stems from it; the villains, opposing characters’ motivations, and Arisa’s past are all linked to this event.

This premise of miracles is fine. So where does it go wrong?

JC Staff wanted to please the fans, of course. They wanted to make sure everyone’s favorite character had some screen time. This leads to a disjointed mess of scenes, utterly destroying the fluidity of the plot for the convenience of uniting everyone against a common enemy (who is woefully underdeveloped, I might add). The word “convenient” is not quite adequate for the level of plot events that occurr to string the story along. The story climaxes with about 10 minutes of the movie remaining, and the viewer is suddenly blasted with plot points in a last ditch effort to try to tie things up. The ending was painfully forced.

It was not that JC Staff didn’t have time to tell their story. In fact, if they had chosen to cut out some of the needless character appearances and pure-fanservice scenes, things could have been very different. So, my score comes out to an “average” 5, with a good premise but bad execution.

Animation - 6/10

When I watch an anime movie, I generally have high expectations for the animation. After all, with only about 1.5 hours of video, they should be able to make it look better than the average series, or the series it was based on. However, that is not the case with this Index movie. It looked no better than an average episode of the newest Railgun S episodes, and includes some terrible CG scenes. Otherwise, expect the exact same level of animation quality you would get with an episode of a full Raildex series.

I mentioned how JC Staff decided to compensate for the iffy plot points earlier. They do this by putting an excessive level of fanservice in the movie. You name it: panty shots, bouncing breasts, girls falling onto Touma, lengthy bath scenes, walking in on naked girls, girls wearing skin-tight body suits, girls NOT wearing skin-tight body suits, the entire Railgun cast in tiny skirts… I could go on. And some of this comes at the expense of plot. Thanks JC Staff, for using 10 minutes of the movie showing me a bath scene rather than giving me an ending. I appreciate it.

Here, have a few examples.

Sound - 7/10

With the main guest character being a singer, it’s expected that there would be a number of new insert songs, and they are, in general, good. There is always mood-matching music, the voice actors/actresses do well, and the concert scenes are nice when you aren't looking at the terrifying CG.

Characters - 7/10

Did you like the cast of Index? How about the cast of Railgun? Well don’t worry, absolutely every single one of them is here, whether it makes sense or not. I ranted plenty about that earlier, so I won’t repeat myself.

All the recurring characters do their normal things; Touma sees a naked girl and gets bitten by Index, Kuroko molests Misaka, Misaka gets angry and independent, Accelerator is a sarcastic dick, etc. We get three main guests for this movie. I can’t go into much without revealing major spoilers, but here they are: Arisa, the heroine, has a good backstory is quite likable. She is an upcoming singer who various factions fight over for her mysterious singing power, and Touma protects her. Shutaura Sequenzia is one of the people attempting to capture her for reasons relating to the Miracle of 88. She has a good backstory, but it’s entirely spoilers. What I can say is that she likes wearing latex, except when she’s naked or in her underwear. The villain, an immortal gothic loli, could have been interesting if she was given development, but that fell by the wayside in favor of showing more characters’ skin.

Two of three main guests were quite good, but the villain left something to be desired.

Enjoyment - 4/10

I’ve touched on it all before. A good premise and guest cast can’t be seen through due to fanservice and a need to get every character on screen. Its action scenes were not up to my expectations, and I was left disappointed. It’s worth watching if you are a fan of Raildex, but don’t bother if you are expecting something revolutionary or even very good. But hey, Touma punches a girl in the face and screams "Such misfortune!", so how bad can it be?