felix-bergman

I'm not gonna make any comments to how well this adapted the source material, because there hardly is any and other people have already done that at length. I have read the appendix where this story is written a couple of times, but have no greater knowledge of it and didn't remember it too well, so I went in half-blind to this movie. I was unsure about the visual style before going in, and I'm still not sold on it though I in general like the anime style. Just not sure it suited this movie the best. I did however have some trouble with the characters movements feeling off and them feeling detached from the backgrounds, so much so that I became motion sick looking at the screen several times, though I did eventually adapt (or the ending was not as bad as the beginning).

The story was not bad, but it felt padded with unnecessary side tracks and call backs to the Trilogy that felt out of place and didn't really lead anywhere, as if the producers were placing bets on how many references they could squish into 2 hrs. The movie is 2h 14 min with the credits but it could easily have been 1h 30 min and would probably have been better for it. The language at times also felt off, at least as a work in the Lord of the Rings universe, and some references also felt like they were not only forced in, but also used wrong.

But worst of all nothing in this movie was in any way engaging or memorable. Half way through I was starting to struggle remembering how the movie began, I couldn't remember half the characters names or how the conflict had driven them to the point they were at.