Spoiler : Spoilers. You've been warned. :
I'd heard very mixed things about this movie. Some "It's decent" and some "It's horrible". So I decided to give it a shot myself. And I ended up on the "con" side.
Now, I'll just kind of grant them the retcon the movie needs in order for its plot to function. It's a blatant rewrite of how story mechanics worked, but in the end, I can let that slide, more or less. There are much bigger issues here.
It's worth noting that the animation does look very nice, as should be expected with the increased budget (and lesser runtime) of a film production. The voice acting is also very good. However, in the end, that part isn't that important. What is important is the story, characters, and whatnot.
The first thing that annoys me about this movie is the pacing. Outside of two incidences of foreshadowing, nothing significant in this movie happens until twenty minutes in, and the plot proper doesn't begin until thirty-three minutes in. So, if one were to be ungenerous, they could argue that roughly one-third of the film is buildup and filler.
This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if those twenty to thirty-three minutes were used to advance characterization, show how the characters have grown in the last year since the conclusion of the series, or even be entertaining in some new way. But it's not. Aside from the foreshadowing, you get characters acting essentially the same way that they did in the series, the same unfunny and dumb ruka, tsundere, pervert, and fat jokes that you got in the series, and absolutely no sign of these characters growing.
The only real exception is Okabe and Kurisu's relationship. Kurisu clearly has an interest in Okabe being more honest about his feelings for her, while Okabe seems to still want to keep this a secret. I'd be willing to be generous and say that why this is was covered in the series by the end, but the movie itself makes it entirely unclear why Okabe is so gunshy about making his feelings public, making it feel, more than anything else, like he's stringing Kurisu along. There's also a minor aspect where Kurisu starts to overcome her skepticism regarding the whole "time travel" deal. But these are incredibly minor aspects of the first thirty minutes of the film.
Then the film finally starts proper. It feels like the first portion of this film could have been interesting, with Kurisu continually having creeping sensations that something is wrong, and then something confronting her with that fact and moving her to action. We could also have gotten a better perspective on what the characters were like, and how they were different, if Okabe had never been in their lives. You would expect Mayuri in particular to be a relatively different person. But because so much run time was devoted to filler, we rush through the initial revelation in a couple minutes, and get Kurisu aware of the problem almost immediately.
Not that it matters, the characters are essentially the same anyway, which seems like a shocking ignorance of the impact of the butterfly effect for a time-travel story. Not to mention that even without Okabe, everybody knows each other and are friends. It'd have been interesting to learn how that happened, but we just don't have time for that evidently.
And then even after the plot starts, it stops so that we can have a several minute exposition dump about what's happening. Which, I wouldn't mind as much, except that the first thirty minutes were spent mostly wasting time, so I want the movie to actually cut to the chase. But it doesn't. Instead we then get Okabe lecturing Kurisu on how she shouldn't change things and let things stay as they are. While I was slightly irritated by Okabe's self-righteousness, he at least made an interesting argument; that when you travel in time, you can never truly "win". You'll end up losing something even if you gain something else in the end and suffer that pain, along with the pain inflicted on you when you lose. Now if Suzuha or Kurisu had actually engaged Okabe on this point and it had actually been discussed, that could have been interesting. But it isn't. Kurisu just makes some emotional appeals and then the scene ends. It just feels like a lot of wasted potential.
And then, after a couple stops and starts, the plot REALLY starts at 69 minutes in. Now, you could argue that this constant struggle of Kurisu wanting to accept Okabe's wishes but not being able to overcome her feelings for him is interesting and intriguing, but it just doesn't function as anything resembling a skilled character study, mostly because no factors are considered beyond Kurisu's feelings for Okabe. There is no cost-benefit analysis, nothing about her character is truly analyzed, no counter-arguments made to Okabe's position. Kurisu just goes ahead and does it, thus making the last dozen minutes feel like a waste of time.
The closest we get to a rationale (and the closest we get to any sort of Butterfly Effect-type deal regarding Okabe vanishing from the timeline) is that the Future Gadget lab will shut down, because Daru simply doesn't have the motivation to keep it running. Now, you would think that if Kurisu cared enough, she would be willing to offer to pay the rent out of her own pocket (as a renowned scientist and lecturer who can afford cross-country trips, I imagine she makes a decent amount of money), but let's set that aside. Overall the only impact Okabe missing has is just this generic "glue that keeps the group together", which isn't particularly original or interesting.
And sadly when the plot finally starts, it's just a rehash of the plot of the second half of Steins;Gate crammed into a couple dozen minutes. You would think changing the protagonist would actually mix tihngs up, but it doesn't really. The only really difference isn't due to Kurisu's personality or Kurisu's beliefs per se, but in essence things OKABE told them. Okabe manages to dominate the narrative in a story revolving about him vanishing from existence. How's that for irony?
So then things finally happen and they're pretty interesting I guess, there's some good moments in there. But all the time spent having to waste getting to them essentially burnt up all my good will towards the movie and just made me wish that they had been in something better.
This movie had potential. I think the concept does work and could be interesting, but the pacing and lack of care for characterization or really, interesting things to happen just doomed this movie from the start. I'm not mad, honest. Just disappointed.
Now, I'll just kind of grant them the retcon the movie needs in order for its plot to function. It's a blatant rewrite of how story mechanics worked, but in the end, I can let that slide, more or less. There are much bigger issues here.
It's worth noting that the animation does look very nice, as should be expected with the increased budget (and lesser runtime) of a film production. The voice acting is also very good. However, in the end, that part isn't that important. What is important is the story, characters, and whatnot.
The first thing that annoys me about this movie is the pacing. Outside of two incidences of foreshadowing, nothing significant in this movie happens until twenty minutes in, and the plot proper doesn't begin until thirty-three minutes in. So, if one were to be ungenerous, they could argue that roughly one-third of the film is buildup and filler.
This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if those twenty to thirty-three minutes were used to advance characterization, show how the characters have grown in the last year since the conclusion of the series, or even be entertaining in some new way. But it's not. Aside from the foreshadowing, you get characters acting essentially the same way that they did in the series, the same unfunny and dumb ruka, tsundere, pervert, and fat jokes that you got in the series, and absolutely no sign of these characters growing.
The only real exception is Okabe and Kurisu's relationship. Kurisu clearly has an interest in Okabe being more honest about his feelings for her, while Okabe seems to still want to keep this a secret. I'd be willing to be generous and say that why this is was covered in the series by the end, but the movie itself makes it entirely unclear why Okabe is so gunshy about making his feelings public, making it feel, more than anything else, like he's stringing Kurisu along. There's also a minor aspect where Kurisu starts to overcome her skepticism regarding the whole "time travel" deal. But these are incredibly minor aspects of the first thirty minutes of the film.
Then the film finally starts proper. It feels like the first portion of this film could have been interesting, with Kurisu continually having creeping sensations that something is wrong, and then something confronting her with that fact and moving her to action. We could also have gotten a better perspective on what the characters were like, and how they were different, if Okabe had never been in their lives. You would expect Mayuri in particular to be a relatively different person. But because so much run time was devoted to filler, we rush through the initial revelation in a couple minutes, and get Kurisu aware of the problem almost immediately.
Not that it matters, the characters are essentially the same anyway, which seems like a shocking ignorance of the impact of the butterfly effect for a time-travel story. Not to mention that even without Okabe, everybody knows each other and are friends. It'd have been interesting to learn how that happened, but we just don't have time for that evidently.
And then even after the plot starts, it stops so that we can have a several minute exposition dump about what's happening. Which, I wouldn't mind as much, except that the first thirty minutes were spent mostly wasting time, so I want the movie to actually cut to the chase. But it doesn't. Instead we then get Okabe lecturing Kurisu on how she shouldn't change things and let things stay as they are. While I was slightly irritated by Okabe's self-righteousness, he at least made an interesting argument; that when you travel in time, you can never truly "win". You'll end up losing something even if you gain something else in the end and suffer that pain, along with the pain inflicted on you when you lose. Now if Suzuha or Kurisu had actually engaged Okabe on this point and it had actually been discussed, that could have been interesting. But it isn't. Kurisu just makes some emotional appeals and then the scene ends. It just feels like a lot of wasted potential.
And then, after a couple stops and starts, the plot REALLY starts at 69 minutes in. Now, you could argue that this constant struggle of Kurisu wanting to accept Okabe's wishes but not being able to overcome her feelings for him is interesting and intriguing, but it just doesn't function as anything resembling a skilled character study, mostly because no factors are considered beyond Kurisu's feelings for Okabe. There is no cost-benefit analysis, nothing about her character is truly analyzed, no counter-arguments made to Okabe's position. Kurisu just goes ahead and does it, thus making the last dozen minutes feel like a waste of time.
The closest we get to a rationale (and the closest we get to any sort of Butterfly Effect-type deal regarding Okabe vanishing from the timeline) is that the Future Gadget lab will shut down, because Daru simply doesn't have the motivation to keep it running. Now, you would think that if Kurisu cared enough, she would be willing to offer to pay the rent out of her own pocket (as a renowned scientist and lecturer who can afford cross-country trips, I imagine she makes a decent amount of money), but let's set that aside. Overall the only impact Okabe missing has is just this generic "glue that keeps the group together", which isn't particularly original or interesting.
And sadly when the plot finally starts, it's just a rehash of the plot of the second half of Steins;Gate crammed into a couple dozen minutes. You would think changing the protagonist would actually mix tihngs up, but it doesn't really. The only really difference isn't due to Kurisu's personality or Kurisu's beliefs per se, but in essence things OKABE told them. Okabe manages to dominate the narrative in a story revolving about him vanishing from existence. How's that for irony?
So then things finally happen and they're pretty interesting I guess, there's some good moments in there. But all the time spent having to waste getting to them essentially burnt up all my good will towards the movie and just made me wish that they had been in something better.
This movie had potential. I think the concept does work and could be interesting, but the pacing and lack of care for characterization or really, interesting things to happen just doomed this movie from the start. I'm not mad, honest. Just disappointed.