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So I finally got to watch this movie in English Dub since I've been waiting for this version to come out instead of just watching the subs. While I'm glad that I got to watch Fairy Tail in dub again (it's been quite a while), I must say that the movie was as disappointing as the last arc of the manga, for me at least.
Here's my overall review of FTDC:
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Plot (25 points)
Total Critical Score: 34 / 100
Simplified Score: 3.4 / 10
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In-Depth Review
Plot
Honestly, I found the plot of the movie to be plain underwhelming. I didn't really see the point of the whole movie and the introduction of the Dragon Cry/Animus was rather uninteresting. For the amount of hype that it got, it just seems like a typical movie where Fairy Tail stumbles upon an ancient artifact and works their way up to the boss to prevent total destruction of the Fiore Kingdom.
I guess it showed that Natsu could defeat a dragon, but if that was the whole idea behind the movie's creation, then I don't think it was executed very well. Animus came out of nowhere and he didn't even have any special or unique capabilities... so he kinda looked like a fodder dragon to begin with since he randomly appeared and was defeated so easily afterwards.
The antagonists in this movie - Zash and the "3 Stars" - didn't strike me as worthy opponents either.
Maybe the ending with Acnologia, Zeref, Invel, and Brandish was supposed to be a suspenseful cliffhanger, but after knowing what happens in the Alvarez Arc, I honestly couldn't take them seriously.
Combat
Wasn't a fan of the combat either. Throughout the whole movie, most of the attacks were just unnamed spells and some random fighting.
This is heavily contrasted by the Fairy Tail anime where characters always used unique magical spells such as "Fire Dragon's Roar" or "Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow". I was looking forward to some new animated spells from characters like Gray, since he entered his Ice Devil Slayer Mode, but instead, he just froze things in ice and swung around an ice sword.
And Erza's Grand Chariot was a disaster. There was no indication about where Erza learned a spell like that and it just seemed like it was pulled out of nowhere for the sake of reminding viewers that she is in a relationship with Jellal.
Unfortunately, the Combat category lost a lot of points here... especially since Fairy Tail was known for its magic spells and transformations.
Characters
Again, I was extremely disappointed by the way the characters were used. Over half of them weren't utilized to their full potential in this movie. Gajeel's team, for example, barely did anything throughout the entire movie despite having so much screentime at the beginning.
Their introduction was honestly a waste of time since they only fought fodders and didn't really add any significance to the course of events.
I know the movie was supposed to highlight Natsu & Lucy, especially their relationship (which I have no problems with), but I think the distribution of screentime could have been more fair towards the rest of the cast.
While it's alright for the movie to focus on Team Natsu (like they usually do), it doesn't hurt to give other side characters some contributions to the plot.
One example is when Natsu fought Animus. Yeah, I get that Natsu can solo a dragon, fair enough. But Gajeel and Wendy are also dragon slayers and both were present in the movie.
In my opinion, it just seemed like their talent was wasted... or at the minimum, greatly overshadowed.
Animation
While the animation was probably better than the Fairy Tail 2014 anime, I still don't think it was up to par with the original Fairy Tail designs. Maybe it's just because I'm used to it, but I've always preferred the old Fairy Tail character designs, landscapes, and color.
The blood looked pretty fake too. Kinda like a red line tattoo going down the side of the characters' faces.
The color of Gray's ice was also a little bit dull, in my personal opinion. Hopefully, that is not the normal color of Gray's ice when he enters Ice Devil Slayer Mode.
And I think it's just me, but I thought there was too much gloss/shine on the characters' designs, but it's probably just my own preference.
Overall, the animation wasn't too bad, so this category scored a decent amount of points.
Voice/Sound Effects
I only watched the English Dub of this movie, so this rating will only be based off of that.
Overall though, I really liked the voice acting, as they seemed to fit better with the characters compared to the subs. They also used a lot of slang in the script, which made the scenes even funnier and added a little bit of personality to the characters.
At the end of the movie, I thought that Invel's voice actually matched perfectly with his character and Acnologia's voice was alright too. I didn't imagine Brandish's voice to sound the way it did, but I could see her voice matching her personality near the end of the Alvarez Arc.
Here's my overall review of FTDC:
Plot - Did the movie advance the general storyline or add any useful information to the series?
Combat - How was the overall quality of battles or fights between the characters in the movie?
Characters - Did the movie put all of the characters into good use and fully take advantage of their roles from the main storyline?
Animation - How would you rate the movie's graphics, character designs, and dynamic quality?
Voice/Sound Effects - Did you enjoy the voice-overs for the characters and the overall sound effects?
Combat - How was the overall quality of battles or fights between the characters in the movie?
Characters - Did the movie put all of the characters into good use and fully take advantage of their roles from the main storyline?
Animation - How would you rate the movie's graphics, character designs, and dynamic quality?
Voice/Sound Effects - Did you enjoy the voice-overs for the characters and the overall sound effects?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plot (25 points)
- Score: + 10 / 25 pts.
- Score: + 5 / 25 pts.
- Score: + 5 / 25 pts.
- Score: + 10 / 20 pts.
- Score: + 4 / 5 pts.
Total Critical Score: 34 / 100
Simplified Score: 3.4 / 10
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In-Depth Review
Plot
Honestly, I found the plot of the movie to be plain underwhelming. I didn't really see the point of the whole movie and the introduction of the Dragon Cry/Animus was rather uninteresting. For the amount of hype that it got, it just seems like a typical movie where Fairy Tail stumbles upon an ancient artifact and works their way up to the boss to prevent total destruction of the Fiore Kingdom.
I guess it showed that Natsu could defeat a dragon, but if that was the whole idea behind the movie's creation, then I don't think it was executed very well. Animus came out of nowhere and he didn't even have any special or unique capabilities... so he kinda looked like a fodder dragon to begin with since he randomly appeared and was defeated so easily afterwards.
The antagonists in this movie - Zash and the "3 Stars" - didn't strike me as worthy opponents either.
Maybe the ending with Acnologia, Zeref, Invel, and Brandish was supposed to be a suspenseful cliffhanger, but after knowing what happens in the Alvarez Arc, I honestly couldn't take them seriously.
Combat
Wasn't a fan of the combat either. Throughout the whole movie, most of the attacks were just unnamed spells and some random fighting.
This is heavily contrasted by the Fairy Tail anime where characters always used unique magical spells such as "Fire Dragon's Roar" or "Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow". I was looking forward to some new animated spells from characters like Gray, since he entered his Ice Devil Slayer Mode, but instead, he just froze things in ice and swung around an ice sword.
And Erza's Grand Chariot was a disaster. There was no indication about where Erza learned a spell like that and it just seemed like it was pulled out of nowhere for the sake of reminding viewers that she is in a relationship with Jellal.
Unfortunately, the Combat category lost a lot of points here... especially since Fairy Tail was known for its magic spells and transformations.
Characters
Again, I was extremely disappointed by the way the characters were used. Over half of them weren't utilized to their full potential in this movie. Gajeel's team, for example, barely did anything throughout the entire movie despite having so much screentime at the beginning.
Their introduction was honestly a waste of time since they only fought fodders and didn't really add any significance to the course of events.
I know the movie was supposed to highlight Natsu & Lucy, especially their relationship (which I have no problems with), but I think the distribution of screentime could have been more fair towards the rest of the cast.
While it's alright for the movie to focus on Team Natsu (like they usually do), it doesn't hurt to give other side characters some contributions to the plot.
One example is when Natsu fought Animus. Yeah, I get that Natsu can solo a dragon, fair enough. But Gajeel and Wendy are also dragon slayers and both were present in the movie.
In my opinion, it just seemed like their talent was wasted... or at the minimum, greatly overshadowed.
Animation
While the animation was probably better than the Fairy Tail 2014 anime, I still don't think it was up to par with the original Fairy Tail designs. Maybe it's just because I'm used to it, but I've always preferred the old Fairy Tail character designs, landscapes, and color.
The blood looked pretty fake too. Kinda like a red line tattoo going down the side of the characters' faces.
The color of Gray's ice was also a little bit dull, in my personal opinion. Hopefully, that is not the normal color of Gray's ice when he enters Ice Devil Slayer Mode.
And I think it's just me, but I thought there was too much gloss/shine on the characters' designs, but it's probably just my own preference.
Overall, the animation wasn't too bad, so this category scored a decent amount of points.
Voice/Sound Effects
I only watched the English Dub of this movie, so this rating will only be based off of that.
Overall though, I really liked the voice acting, as they seemed to fit better with the characters compared to the subs. They also used a lot of slang in the script, which made the scenes even funnier and added a little bit of personality to the characters.
At the end of the movie, I thought that Invel's voice actually matched perfectly with his character and Acnologia's voice was alright too. I didn't imagine Brandish's voice to sound the way it did, but I could see her voice matching her personality near the end of the Alvarez Arc.
