A lot of great talents joined this prodution, the soundtrack made by Hiroyuki Sawano is another master piece, as the background art made by Bihou's studio and the animation made by WIT studio.
The animation is very fluid, the pakour scenes are great, although sometimes the 3D objects on the background contrast too much with the 2D characters, which feels "un-natural" sometimes. Despise that ,it's a production where they really put a lot of effort and money, just it's really a pity they forgot to hire a good writer. Gen Urobuchi (the writer) did a good job on Puella Magi Madoka and Fate, but other scripts written by him really lacks quality (Goodzilla: Planet of the Monsters / City on the Edge of Battle / The Planet Eater were really awful movies) . It's sad to see a lot of money spent on great artists and they forget about the main role: the writer, the one who will write the story! There are so many good japanese writers, why chose the guy who didn't make a single good piece of work for the past 5 years? Why chose the guy who made that boring godzilla movies? (I still can't believe they made all the 2 sequels of that crap, lately studios really like to throw a lot of money on bad stories)
About the story (warning, spoilers ahead), is the standard type: 1.an anomaly happens (the world gets filled with bubbles with gravity getting crazy in some places, with Tokyo being the main city to suffer from this anomaly) 2. You have a non-sense opening animation as if it was a weekly TV show (why so many anime movies places an opening animation like if you were about to see a weekly TV show inside a movie that starts slow as this one?? It kind breaks the whole atmosphere from the introduction, and on this movie, the first scenes are slow peace, preparing the viewer for something deep and emotional that is about to begin) 3. Main character is saved by mysterious girl 4.main character falls in love with mysterious girl but she needs to go away to stop the anomaly 4.main character tries to save and bring back mysterious girl, but it all leads to an end questioning the existence of the universe itself (??? I wonder why so many Japanese movies tries to lead their stories into this non-sense philosophical questioning, which always leaves a dry taste on the mouth of who is watching the story).
In general, the movie lacks of good dialogues and chemistry between the characters. You see a lot of cool pakour scenes, but most of characters don't have good screen time or are just wasted in situations where it's difficult to make a bond with any of them and feel any joy or sadness from characters during the movie. When the mc meets the girl, she doesn't speak any words, but after a few days she is already speaking, and even with she talking, you don't see any good dialogue between her and the mc. The movie itself already spoils that is going to be a sad ending, but the lack of chemistry between the mc and the girl didn't lead to a single tear in the end.
Going about details, I couldn't see any reason for the pakour in the movie, as the movie explained that only Tokyo got collapsed with the bubbles, around it people where living their lives normal, and anyone could enter or leave the bubble that was surrounding Tokyo, so it wasn't a madmax post-apocalyptic world where people would have to compete in mortal games for food under their own savage lawns. On the mysterious girl, for some reasons that aren't explained, the girl starts to lose her body parts when she touches the mc, but this doesn't happen when she touches other people (why just him?). And It's so cold the relationship with her and other people around that there is a part of the movie where she loses her arm and no one asks about it!! (she lost her arm and the mc doesn't give a thing(!!) and he also goes confess his love to her, ignoring her condition, as well other characters when they see her). The scientist woman who took care of her at first time, don't even ask about part of her hand being infested with some bubbles, the scientist only gives her a glove (they really don't make good scientists as old days, no one questions anything, just an useless character as most of characters on this movie). The mystery of the bubbles also ends without any explanation, you only see a shadow of what would be the mysterious girl's sister, but no explanation of why they came to earth, where they came from, why the mysterious girl have to go back (she only receives a vision that really felt like the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings, as the shadow of her sister lol) and why they messed the whole planet with bubbles(JJ Ambrams feelings here: "mystery box" that starts with a lot of questions and it all ends in an immensity of nothing, just pure wasted time). And I also want to point to the irony of the mc going to rescue the girl, by "rescuing" her it ends that he is the one who finishes killing her as she starts to melt down into bubbles because he touched her, and seems he didn't notice it even after she dies.(to see how much brainless the main character was, as for the other characters as well)
Overall, 10 for the animation art and music, 5 for the story, direction and world building.
