High school student Hitomi Kanzaki, depressed and despondent, wishes to disappear from her world. Her wishes are heard in the alternate world of Gaea where a battle for absolute control is raging! Magically, Hitomi is suddenly transported to this other world and is bestowed with the power to decide its ultimate fate! A grim retelling of the television series "The Vision of Escaflowne". I first watched the series "The Vision of Escaflowne" and was impressed with the deep storyline and characters. Now understandably, it is difficult to take a 26 episode series and convert it into a 2 hour movie.<br/><br/>The movie's storyline does not make much sense. Like the series, it is about a girl named Hitomi, who hates her life and wants to escape from everything. Her wish comes true and she is magically to the world of Gaea.<br/><br/>In the series, an empire called Zaibach was trying to harness the power of Atlantis so everyone's dreams can come true. In the movie, Zaibach is replaced with the Black Dragon clan, and the Black Dragon Clan is trying to destroy the world so everyone's sorrow can be lifted. The Emperor of Zaibach, Dornkirk is absent from the movie, replacing him with Folken who was also in the series. Folken, my favorite character from the series, is turned from a man who believes he is doing the right thing but isn't, into a stereotypical villain who simply wants to destroy the world.<br/><br/>Out of nowhere towards the beginning of third act of the movie, suddenly the dragon armor (Guymelefs in the series) Escaflowne has the power to destroy the world. Whether or not it destroys the world, rests in the wish of Hitomi, who is believed to be the legendary Wing Goddess.<br/><br/>Everything is solved so quickly by the end. The end fight scene is unexciting and by that time, I just didn't care about the rest of the movie.<br/><br/>Its hard to say whats exactly wrong with the movie. I guess its a combination of a weak story, weak characters, poor voice-overs, and bad pacing. The animation is cool in some of the fight scenes. Note I said "some" of the fight scenes.<br/><br/>Watch the series, though it has its problems, its far better than this so called "re-telling." This movie was overly romantic and dramatic. The drawing of the women was completely inappropriate and the story lacked so much. The review I read in the local rag made it sound like I shouldn't see it, but I guess I just wasn't listening to what was good advice. This was not worth the time and money spent on it. Becomes blandly idealistic.
Jarkeeli replied
370 weeks ago