SunOh

I know many fans hated it, and I understand their frustration, but some people did like it... (Most fans seem to be against it, but not all of them either.) Anyway, it's probably never getting a sequel, so I prefer not to hope for one. But what matters is that I loved the movie, especially because in terms of visuals, it's the most impressive one for me. And as a fan of Sword Art Online, this was the closest I could get to a live-action.

I really liked the universe, both in its seriousness and its quirkiness—the whole concept of scenarios, rewards and powers/skill level-ups mixed with divine intervention, social commentary, cosmology (the constellations) and Korean mythology/folklore (the Dokkaebis and of course the dangerous yet lovely Bihyung), the video-game-like visuals/angles, and the characters. Especially Dokja, since he was pretty emotional and relatable to me and exactly the kind of character I like. I actually teared up at some point between all the action.

There was at least something to be said about the tragedy of bullying, his reason for hating the ending, and his bond with the others at the end as they begin to rewrite the ending. I also liked what started between Dokja and Jonghyuk when they smiled to each other at the end, especially since Jonghyuk was the apathetic guy.

Will I read the manhwa? Most likely, once it's over. And the anime as well. But I don't think I would hate this movie, though I'm curious to know what I'll think.

Also, hot take, I guess, but I saw what the characters look like in both the novel and the manhwa, and I'm not really sure what's wrong with the casting choices because they seem pretty fitting to me. And as for differences like using guns, I love snipers, so yeah. (The only other character who used guns was Jonghyuk because he could swap between weapons.) I mostly played gun characters in MMOs on top of other games and I like support types too (Sangah).

Whether it was a creative choice or something they did to make filming easier, who knows. This was planned as a 5-parts movie adaptation of a big novel, but I was suspicious as whether this was possible from the get-go. I also read that Jisoo is a bad actress, but that just seems like idol hate to me because she wasn't bad at all. In fact, the whole cast acted very well, including the kid. Jisoo's role was short since she appeared pretty late, yet that's exactly what made her impactful. Her storyline and the parallels between the characters of Dokja, Jihye and Hyeonseong were very enjoyable to me, as it created a strong theme of guilt, redemption and friendship.

And Dokja making Heewon's character more important was such a nice detail, I loved the scene where she had her "entrance on stage" with the Statue of Justice behind her. Then the teamwork in the final boss fight and the otherworldly scenery genuinely gave me goosebumps, I was never so excited watching a movie and I really wish I could have seen it at the cinema.

In the end, it was a chaotic, emotional, enjoyable experience. Even if the next part never happens, it was a memorable experience on its own. Of course, it would be more memorable if it were developped further as this movie had a lot of action and surely far weaker storytelling than the original that's considered a masterpiece, and massively disappointing as an adaptation for tons of people, but I wanted to share my opinion as I found beauty in it. I'd say it's an "embrace the magic" kind of movie.