As a long time fan of the franchise, I can say with certainty that the movie is good. Not spectacular, but good. By far, this movie has some of the smoothest and most beautifully executed animation of the entire franchise. Those who know this series know that the animation isn't always up to snuff, but this movie clearly got a much bigger budget and it was well served to seeing some very beautiful if even a little over-saturated animation. It's also wonderful that all the original voice actors of the characters represented in the movie made their return. It's a particularly wonderful thing of note considering that many of those voice actors are either retired or have switched focus to other areas and are no longer regularly voice acting on a consistent basis. I also like that 4Kmedia did not edit the movie to the point of being unrecognizable like they did with the original series. It was a very well executed English translation from the original Japanese property. However, if I have any point to criticize, it's that the story was a bit of a jumbled mess. It often felt like it was just jumping around from one thing to another without proper transition. It's likely due to the limited run time of the movie itself, but it often felt as if you looked away for only a few seconds or stepped out of the room for a few minutes that you missed major plot points and would easily get lost. I stayed in place for the length of the movie without leaving the room once, and I still felt like I missed something. That is a big issue for me. If I had been a casual viewer and not a fan of the franchise, I would have been so completely lost. That said, I still felt lost at times, and that's most definitely an issue of pacing. Whatever the case, it's a very good movie that any fan of the franchise will enjoy and those looking to get into the franchise should hold off on watching until they get to know more about the franchise itself. Above all, the ending was very satisfying. The action was lacking and rushed, but it reached an ending worthy of the era of the franchise.
