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Unlimited Blade Works (movie).


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Kirkdawg
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Joined: 07 May 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Unlimited Blade Works
After a long wait, I was finally able to see the UBW movie.

I'm a big fan of the V/N-I think it's one of the most interesting pieces of fiction I've read. The not so well written spoiler[eroge] scenes may turn off some of you, but I'd encourage you to skip those parts and read it. If you haven't read the V/N before watching this movie, I'm not sure if you'll get much enjoyment out of it.

From my viewing experience, the production assumed A LOT of the viewer's knowledge of the franchise and skips around the plot quite a bit. It makes perfect sense to me as I have seen it, but for someone who is completely new to F/S N-you will probably get lost; but maybe that's ok! There's plenty of flashy fighting scenes to keep you entertained and I must say-the production cost shows in this movie. The visuals of this film is eye candy for sure; that's one thing I think all viewers can walk away agreeing upon this film.

The original source of this film's plot is absolutely massive and I was extremely curious if they'd manage to condense it in 100 minutes in a decent manner. UBW the movie is not even the 'brief' version of the V/N. I'd say it's at warp speed, and yet it manages to hold together by some miracle. That's probably because I just filled in the blanks myself though, so a true assessment may be to ask someone who's never read it.

I strongly recommend if you have an interest in viewing this film, you read the UBW arc of the V/N. I suspect to do otherwise will leave a distasteful viewing experience in your mouth otherwise. Unless all you're looking for is flashy fight scenes peppered with key plot points from the story.


Last edited by Kirkdawg on Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BMJ



Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Posts: 28
PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:02 pm Reply with quote
Without knowledge of the games or the previous series, this movie will make no sense at all. What could they really do though? It's virtually impossible to condense a VN into an anime series without leaving bits out, let alone a single movie.

Having only watched the anime, I found the movie to be fairly entertaining. The animation was top notch, especially the fight scenes. Even skipping over as much plot as they did, however, it still felt rushed. Like they had a checklist of plot points to get through, and given their time frame each point got about 8 seconds of screen time.

Even given that flaw, the visuals alone almost made up for it. If you're a fan of the series it's definitely worth a watch. Just don't bring a newbie along with you.
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Hentai_JP



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 605
Location: Toronto, ON
PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:07 pm Reply with quote
*moved this from what are you watching thread, intended to post it there*

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works.

I haven't been this disappointed in a very, very long time. This movie does everything wrong. It rushes through important plot points so fast the whole story is barely comprehensible, which in turn denies any shock or thrill the visual novel has. It's like director just said "forget all talking parts (except preaching Tosaka's and Archer's scenes, which actually feel way too long and unnecessary given the speed of the rest of it) and just skip to the action scenes as fast as possible." The lines that actually were left are the "trademark" lines of most characters, like Assassin being noble, only when those are the ONLY lines characters ever say they literally turn into one-line character archetypes, and seem dumb. Oh and did I mention how long Shiro's reflections on the past are? He's done so much of that in first series I am surprised they repeat it here... while cutting out more important, even crucial stuff.

This needed more time, a lot more because as it is it doesn't work as stand alone movie... it doesn't even work as supplement to the VN because it insults the original with it's "trivialize the story" approach. They didn't take their time. Look at the Haruhi movie - it's two hours and forty three minutes including credits. It's almost as long as second Harry Potter movie. With that much time I am certain they did not leave out any parts from light novel (the ratings support that claim). In UBW on the other hand it's so bad the movie is almost definitely incomprehensible for those unfamiliar with light novel (I've played through it). Hell, the not-even-half-an-hour Clannad OAV adaptations retell hours of story better than this sorry piece of shame... The latter third of the movie actually slows down a bit, only because it burned through 80% of the plot by that time, so it's hardly a plus.

Here are the biggest examples of "WRONG!!!" (real spoilers for uninitiated). spoiler[Ilya's dying Berserker scene missing, hell, she spends more on-screen time dead than alive. During Tousaka's battle with Caster her martial arts trick wasn't build up to nor even explained and seems to be non-existent in the movie(that's a major twist in VN). There is one improvement though... kinda. When Caster stabs Saber with Rule Breaker the scene in anime is kinda awkward, but it was insanely ridiculous and frustrating in VN - Shiro insisted to being taken hostage himself and that lead to Saber being stabbed... in short - dumb. ] Ugh... every scene that is amazing in the far from perfect VN was devastated in the movie.

*sign*

My day is ruined... my weekly forecast now predicts cloudy, cold days for the rest of it... I, I still can't believe this just happened.
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crunchycat
I do Marketing for Anime Companies


Joined: 05 Aug 2010
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:25 pm Reply with quote
even with some mistakes in the movie, i've been waiting for this since its announcement.

I am finally happy to say I will be watching the movie as soon as possible
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:10 pm Reply with quote
Wow, Hentai_JP, all my expansive eagerness to see this movie has just shrivelled away. UBL, like the rest of Fate, has a lot of stuff to be said and thought. And they're shucking nearly all of it? Bleh. How disappointing.
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Kirkdawg
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Joined: 07 May 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:21 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, this movie was purely for fans. If I was an anime fan that's never heard of F/SN and watched this movie, I'd call it garbage, laugh about it and move on without a second thought. The magic in the V/N is nowhere to be found in this movie; really, they should've used the TV series medium if they wanted to have a chance of transferring that magic over. 26 episodes probably, more if available.
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Skylark



Joined: 15 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:45 am Reply with quote
I agree, this is like the VN accompanying handbook kind of thing. It fleshes all the fighting out in superb fashion but jesus try looking at it from the perspective of someone who has never heard of the franchise before... I mean, there are no logical plot links between scenes because all the meaty dialogue and relationship building stuff has basically been canned.

That said, having played through UBW a number of times, this was pure liquid happiness for me. Really though I would have preferred UBW (by far the more complex and interesting imo plot) to receive a series and the Fate route to get the movie. In any case, two thumbs up for budget, but two thumbs down for cohesiveness. I mean it like directly cuts from Saber getting summoned to her in a raincoat while Shirou talks (a lot more briefly) to the fake priest. And the few seconds near the beginning that were allotted to spoiler[Lancer pretty much killing Shirou and Tousaka using her gem to regenerate him] literally made me laugh.

It's getting boring to read it by now but I have to reiterate, if you haven't read the VN don't even touch this; it won't make any sense and will play out like shakespear dictated by a dyslexic plumber. But if you haven't read the VN you probably should because it's one of the best and most accessible with an english patch out there.

@Tuor_of_Gondalin - don't judge them too harshly, they had to squeeze what would take a fast reader 7-8 good hours to digest into a movie length. The task was pretty much insurmountable and if they hadn't done a fan-pandering piece like this it probably wouldn't exist at all, it just couldn't possibly work any other way.
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Eivion



Joined: 26 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:05 am Reply with quote
Watched the tv series, never read the VN. I thought the movie was ok for the spoiler[Archer vs. Shirou] story and the action which was well animated.
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2036



Joined: 26 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:14 am Reply with quote
I watched the movie yesterday and I found it to be fantastic.

The major, and only real problem with it is it's creation is definitely banking on the fact that you have previous knowledge of the series or V/N. The movie was really like a giant highlight reel or recap episode, which would make it annoying to anyone who has never seen it before.

However the animation, action, music and everything else was so amazing, and as someone who has seen the show and and all that it was just a giant movie that made me cream myself in awesome.
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Zork



Joined: 08 Jul 2005
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:27 am Reply with quote
Does this movie have the same arrogant, self righteous Shirou that the TV series had? I stopped watching the Fate/Stay Night TV series about midway through because I just couldn't stand Shirou.

Shirou: "No Saber, don't fight! Even though you're an Epic Hero, former king of a nation and skilled fighter and I have only crappy magic and no fighting skills whatsoever, I'll fight instead of you."

Of course, Shirou kept getting a royal butt kicking every time.
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Mister V



Joined: 15 Apr 2009
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:59 am Reply with quote
^He's an idiot, and you can't correct that (actually Heaven's Feel sort of does... in a way?). But he's better here, actually much more so than in the VN (because they skipped all the explanations, and it makes no sense for him to have suddenly gained ten levels of Badass).

I think I posted it in the WAYWatching thread before, but I agree - the movie isn't an adaptation of the VN, it's a supplement. Cool fight scenes and all, not much more, the budget must've been blown on them, anyway.
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Ggultra2764
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 5:35 am Reply with quote
The only positive I can give to this movie are the visuals being a major improvement over the TV series considering you actually get more fluid movement to see onscreen for action scenes thanks to the movie budget. Beyond that, two hours just isn't enough to cram an entire arc from the game into a movie, especially considering that the other major element to the arc (spoiler[Shiro and Rin's romantic developments]) is just about nonexistent in the movie. The movie was only made to pander to those who have played the UBW arc from the Fate game or know enough about the franchise.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:13 pm Reply with quote
Skylark wrote:
@Tuor_of_Gondalin - don't judge them too harshly, they had to squeeze what would take a fast reader 7-8 good hours to digest into a movie length. The task was pretty much insurmountable and if they hadn't done a fan-pandering piece like this it probably wouldn't exist at all, it just couldn't possibly work any other way.


Hrm. Well, maybe. But, honestly, I'm the sort of guy who views things this way: if you can't do it right, then don't do it at all. I'd rather see nothing than a half-assed attempt. Of course, other people aren't necessarily like that, otherwise no one would make a movie like this.

I suppose I'll see what others say about it, but right now most of my desire to see UBW is gone. And yeah, I did play the V/N (and got all the Tiger paws, heh).


Last edited by Tuor_of_Gondolin on Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kirkdawg
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Zork wrote:
Does this movie have the same arrogant, self righteous Shirou that the TV series had? I stopped watching the Fate/Stay Night TV series about midway through because I just couldn't stand Shirou.

Shirou: "No Saber, don't fight! Even though you're an Epic Hero, former king of a nation and skilled fighter and I have only crappy magic and no fighting skills whatsoever, I'll fight instead of you."

Of course, Shirou kept getting a royal butt kicking every time.

You know, the reason he does this is because spoiler[the ideals he borrowed from his Father applies to heroic spirits. He perceives Saber to be an absurdly strong HUMAN girl from another time period. There's a conflict in his mind over this perception; that she's just a heroic spirit and not human at all. However, when he looks at her and interacts with her; there's little question at all why he perceives her as a human girl. He holds others lives more dearly than his own, and that is why he behaves in this manner. It's part of what makes Shirou-Shirou.]

Just thought I'd share that bit of knowledge from the V/N.
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Zork



Joined: 08 Jul 2005
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:28 pm Reply with quote
Kirkdawg wrote:
Zork wrote:
Does this movie have the same arrogant, self righteous Shirou that the TV series had? I stopped watching the Fate/Stay Night TV series about midway through because I just couldn't stand Shirou.

Shirou: "No Saber, don't fight! Even though you're an Epic Hero, former king of a nation and skilled fighter and I have only crappy magic and no fighting skills whatsoever, I'll fight instead of you."

Of course, Shirou kept getting a royal butt kicking every time.

You know, the reason he does this is because spoiler[the ideals he borrowed from his Father applies to heroic spirits. He perceives Saber to be an absurdly strong HUMAN girl from another time period. There's a conflict in his mind over this perception; that she's just a heroic spirit and not human at all. However, when he looks at her and interacts with her; there's little question at all why he perceives her as a human girl. He holds others lives more dearly than his own, and that is why he behaves in this manner. It's part of what makes Shirou-Shirou.]

Just thought I'd share that bit of knowledge from the V/N.


I guess V/N means Visual Novel? Anyway, I understand Shirou's philosophies, but it doesn't make him any less irritating. He thinks he is doing a noble deed by thinking of others more than himself, but he doesn't realize how his actions are adversely affecting those around him.

In any case, I guess I'll give UBW a try.
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