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You may have seen me sobbing in a corner over this movie earlier, but considering I was sobbing in a corner it was not my most eloquent post. Basically, Lex skyped me earlier in the week to say "So I just watched a thing. It made no sense. It was definitely a thing that happened and you must see it." And today, while we actually in the same city for once, I did!
Firstly: this movie is gorgeous. The Madoka Magica series is always beautiful in animated form and it does really cool things with the way its art style changes and the choreography (they do SUCH COOL THINGS with the fight scenes and Homura's powers) and the sheer artistic trippiness of what it's doing. (I'm sure there's actually a word in art criticism for "So I made a thing and it looks trippy!" but all I'm getting is Dali-esque and the movie never quite reaches that level.) Side note: this is why manga adaptations of the series have NEVER worked for me. If you wanted to adapt this properly, you'd need to do a whole mixed-media project just to get the same feel (Lex has proposed a pop-up book and I would read the fuck out of that). ... Plus the manga always felt like it was playing it straight where the anime was trying to subvert. ANYWAY.
The first twenty minutes of this movie make fuck-all sense, as it brings in Nightmares as the monster of the week and trapping things and feeding them cake as the method of dealing with them. It is REALLY TRIPPY. It has the exact look and feel of a dream, where everything seems to make perfect sense but at the same time you know they really don't. A+ on getting the effect you were going for creators! And then it pulls back a little, and explains the plot, and I'm there going "Oh hey, the gang's all here! Everything is happy! Everyone is having fun! WHY IS THAT FUCKING WITCH MONSTER THAT ATE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS LIVING IN HER FUCKING HOUSE?!"
Everything is weird. All of the rules of magical girls are off. Singing about food stops your best friend becoming a monster. What is this, I don't even.
But it draws back a little further and turns into a mystery story, which is also really cool. Everyone has pitch perfect moments - Mami admitting to trying to be strong and brave for the others, even when she's scared! Kyoko and Sayaka being themselves and having feelings for each other that I can't even handle! Homura and Madoka having conversations that are emotionally devastating when you have more context than one of the characters involved - and oh god, it is so weird to see a magical girl version of Madoka who doesn't have all of the character development she goes through in the series. It's so weird, and it makes everything about the ending worse ( Cut for spoilers for the tv series. )
And all through this, I'm going "Oh, I don't know what Lex was talking about, this makes perfect sense and I understand everything that is happening!" Because when the reveal of what is happening and who is behind it happens, it makes perfect sense and is really in character for everyone involved - especially Homura, who put herself through hell more times than could be counted to save Madoka, and even more especially Kyubey because fucking Kyubey and while I saw nothing about any of the plot coming, as soon as it was explained I had to admit that I could see it happening. Everything was making sense! The ending was going to make me cry because so bittersweet and yet best ending for Homura and Madoka!
AND THEN IT TURNED OUT THAT THE MOVIE WENT ON FOR ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES. ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES THAT RUINED EVERYTHING FOREVER. It's like the creators Evangelioned me, in that they went "Look, we had a point about Homura's character and none of you seem to have picked up on it, so quite frankly we are going to beat you in the face with this point to a) make sure that your ship in this universe is semi-canonical but also extremely unhealthy, and b) demonstrate that there is no compromise between the wishes of Homura and Madoka." It's - I don't even know but I have never desperately wanted fix-it fic for a show as much as I do RIGHT NOW, and I don't know anyone in the fandom to give me what I need.
In conclusion: it is a decent film, but the last twenty minutes put the fear of god Kyubey, and that should tell you literally everything you need to know about that.
... In retrospect, so much of the cool art I've reblogged for this show is fanart for the movie and I feel like I pre-emptively betrayed myself.
Firstly: this movie is gorgeous. The Madoka Magica series is always beautiful in animated form and it does really cool things with the way its art style changes and the choreography (they do SUCH COOL THINGS with the fight scenes and Homura's powers) and the sheer artistic trippiness of what it's doing. (I'm sure there's actually a word in art criticism for "So I made a thing and it looks trippy!" but all I'm getting is Dali-esque and the movie never quite reaches that level.) Side note: this is why manga adaptations of the series have NEVER worked for me. If you wanted to adapt this properly, you'd need to do a whole mixed-media project just to get the same feel (Lex has proposed a pop-up book and I would read the fuck out of that). ... Plus the manga always felt like it was playing it straight where the anime was trying to subvert. ANYWAY.
The first twenty minutes of this movie make fuck-all sense, as it brings in Nightmares as the monster of the week and trapping things and feeding them cake as the method of dealing with them. It is REALLY TRIPPY. It has the exact look and feel of a dream, where everything seems to make perfect sense but at the same time you know they really don't. A+ on getting the effect you were going for creators! And then it pulls back a little, and explains the plot, and I'm there going "Oh hey, the gang's all here! Everything is happy! Everyone is having fun! WHY IS THAT FUCKING WITCH MONSTER THAT ATE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS LIVING IN HER FUCKING HOUSE?!"
Everything is weird. All of the rules of magical girls are off. Singing about food stops your best friend becoming a monster. What is this, I don't even.
But it draws back a little further and turns into a mystery story, which is also really cool. Everyone has pitch perfect moments - Mami admitting to trying to be strong and brave for the others, even when she's scared! Kyoko and Sayaka being themselves and having feelings for each other that I can't even handle! Homura and Madoka having conversations that are emotionally devastating when you have more context than one of the characters involved - and oh god, it is so weird to see a magical girl version of Madoka who doesn't have all of the character development she goes through in the series. It's so weird, and it makes everything about the ending worse ( Cut for spoilers for the tv series. )
And all through this, I'm going "Oh, I don't know what Lex was talking about, this makes perfect sense and I understand everything that is happening!" Because when the reveal of what is happening and who is behind it happens, it makes perfect sense and is really in character for everyone involved - especially Homura, who put herself through hell more times than could be counted to save Madoka, and even more especially Kyubey because fucking Kyubey and while I saw nothing about any of the plot coming, as soon as it was explained I had to admit that I could see it happening. Everything was making sense! The ending was going to make me cry because so bittersweet and yet best ending for Homura and Madoka!
AND THEN IT TURNED OUT THAT THE MOVIE WENT ON FOR ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES. ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES THAT RUINED EVERYTHING FOREVER. It's like the creators Evangelioned me, in that they went "Look, we had a point about Homura's character and none of you seem to have picked up on it, so quite frankly we are going to beat you in the face with this point to a) make sure that your ship in this universe is semi-canonical but also extremely unhealthy, and b) demonstrate that there is no compromise between the wishes of Homura and Madoka." It's - I don't even know but I have never desperately wanted fix-it fic for a show as much as I do RIGHT NOW, and I don't know anyone in the fandom to give me what I need.
In conclusion: it is a decent film, but the last twenty minutes put the fear of god Kyubey, and that should tell you literally everything you need to know about that.
... In retrospect, so much of the cool art I've reblogged for this show is fanart for the movie and I feel like I pre-emptively betrayed myself.
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