Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Hm... this one's going to be a bit of a challenge.

WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!

Shirou Emiya lost his parents in a fire when he was young and was later adopted by a sorcerer by the name of Kiritsugu Emiya. Although he was full of admiration for his adopted father and yearns to become an ally of justice, Shirou has limited powers and was unable to become a strong sorcerer like his father. That is until one fateful day, he was drawn into the Holy Grail War and had to summon a female "Servant" known as Saber in order to protect himself. It turns out that the Holy Grail War involves a series of battles among powerful sorcerers to fight for the possession of a relic that will grant one's wishes, the Holy Grail. There are altogether seven "Masters" who can summon their respective "Servants" from different classes known as Saber, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Lancer, Caster and Assassin. These "Servants" have to hide their names in order not to reveal their weaknesses to the enemies. The story revolves around Shirou and his entanglement in the Holy Grail War.

Unlimited blade works is essentially an alternate timeline to the Fate/Stay Night anime series from a while back. While I liked the original series, I didn't like the ending. I thought it was some old bullshita shame that Saber ended up dying in some war somewhere in the past. Those gripes are for another rant, though.

Well there's a familiar face.

Let me get this out of the way immediately. This movie is retardedly well animated. I mean seriously. This movie is damn sexy. They must have had a monster budget for this and they sure as hell put it to good use. The lines are sharp, the movement is ungodly smooth, and the fight scenes... oh, the gorgeous, mouth watering fight scenes. I would be hard pressed to come up with an analogy that would over state just how freaking beautiful the art is in this movie. The only way it could possibly be any prettier is if Shakira showed up and started pole dancing in high definition. Don't get your hopes up. That doesn't happen.

Poetry in motion.

The story was... well, it was Fate/Stay Night. If you seen the original anime, you know what to expect, because it feels pretty much the same. The main issue I saw, however, was that the movie retold the story of the anime, with a different ending. Though I really do wish they had kept the Rin-Saber pseudo-yurifan service scene, it worked out admirably. It seemed to me, though, that the writers worked under the assumption that you had already seen the anime, and as a result, they skipped a LOT of plot. The beginning scene jumps from Shirou being stabbed and revived, directly to Saber's summoning, then to the first time Shirou goes to the shrine, then into the arc involving the barrier at school. This movie wastes no time tearing through plot points with little exposition in between. It worked out for me cause I could fill in the blanks from memory, but anyone who isn't familiar with the source material will probably feel about lost as an Amish man on the internet.

VERDICT: Why the hell not?

I enjoyed it. A lot. I recommend it for anyone who has seen and enjoyed the anime series. Even if you haven't seen it, the animation quality alone is worth a watch.