Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion I - Initiation

I have nothing against a well made movie alternative; for instance, I found the japanese live-action versions of Death Note very good. Unforutnately, this is just not quite able to adapt the show into good movies on their own. If they are just meant to serve as recap movies before watching the forth one (taking place after the show ending) they might be 'okay'. On the other hand, watching six hours to prepare for a sub two hour movie seems rather wasteful...

The problem is that the movies can't replace the main series, and so are really only worth watching if you are already familar with the source material, but at that point, why even watch them at all? These movies (aside from the fourth) have no notable changes that would affect going into the fourth movie, so you are perfectly fine going into that one while skipping these.

Some episodes in the main show were just filler (like hunting for a cat), but apparently there was still more than ~6 hours worth of content because the movies are very rushed if this is going to be the only format you get this story from. The pacing for the first half in movie 1 and 2 are quite good, and follow similar pacing as the show. That means, however, that after about 3-4 episodes have been adapted into the first half of those movies, the remaining hour has to adapt another 10-12 episodes. The results are very rushed and the weight that is needed to make all of the events feel important is missing. One of my favorite scene in the original series (the coronation) fall completely flat due to the lack of setup. The rushed feeling is exasperated by the fact that many important story beats happen during mecha fighting scenes (in both movie and show), and when you only have 1/3 of the allottet time, that means that nearly every scene revolves around some big action scene, without any of the inbetween politics/planning that is needed to be more varied, to give more weight to the battles themselves, and also so that the dramatic curve doesn't always have a single state.