Every parent at some point in their life will be forced to watch a directtodvd movie of their darling childs favorite franchise and dont laugh at their suffering chances are you will know this fate as well. You know the ones Im talking about. Lets say for this instance: Bionicle: Web of Shadows. The flick gives little if any reason for someone unfamiliar with the franchise to pay exact attention or hold on a monologue here a slight explanation of this character there. The parent finds ways to get through this. Some shots are cool. Some fight scenes are pretty great. Even so this is how these experiences usually end the parent saying: Well that was okay. Time to change the channel to what I want now. Why do I mention this? Because Kingsglaive is that movie. No matter how much it disguises itself in a gorgeous enchanting but hollow veil. This is most evident in how the film itself looks. Kingsglaive to this day is the most technically beautiful entry into the medium would you expect any less from Square Enix pumping twenty million dollars into this? Its simply unfair to compare it to practically anything else in its category. . . but if you analyze it just a tad more youll realize that despite how magnificent the film looks it doesnt know how to engage you in that world consistently. Kingsglaive borrows the aesthetic of Final Fantasy 7 which 7 itself borrowed from Blade Runner. Grim and somehow alive feelingcities toned with a gentle nocturne palette characters bathed in shades of onyx with this to only be contrasted by the films antagonist faction of Niflheim. What I believe makes Kingsglaive a joy to look at is how Nozue Takeshi well known for his work on Advent Children creates a pleasing and thematically potent collocation of vibrant colors contrasting and shining through the almost predestined lens ordering for everything to be black. Pardon any confusion but what Im saying is: Kingsglaive is beautiful because its colors exist in contradiction but also harmony which is even more fitting considering the themes of well not this film but the game which this is meant to be a prequel to and fails miserably at. Youve more than likely read the synopsis so I will gall with details as briefly as possibly frankly this isnt as exactly enthralling or complex as Macbeth so dont worry about using all your brain trying to crack into this thing. Two kingdoms Lucius and Niflheim have been at war with each other for godknows how long Nifleheim uses clankers one Clone Wars fan will get that reference and monsters while Lucius employs the titular Kingsglaive who are basically battlemagebadasses. The majestically both designed and acted Ardyn Izunia proposes a peace treaty when your typical menagerie of political chess ensues as both sides rush to get tactical advantage over the lands before this treaty can be officially signed. Sounds cool? You have the right idea but try more: satisfactory. While this idea is awesome on paper and does shine through in some breathtaking action scenes it makes me wish that unlikely as this would be we could get a full halfbudget series that would slow the pacing of movie down a tad maybe a thirteen episode series if Square would have been so kind allowing this would have given the audience a chance to get attached to the characters that guess what? I still cant remember after watching this movie five times now. Dont blame me or yourself after you get done watching it theyre paper thin at best its as if the writers put more effort into the etymology of their names than developing any traits for us to actually REMEMBER THEIR NAMES Uh I guess our main protagonist is cocky hotheaded and arrogant and his throughline of learning to be humble is fulfilled by the end of the film by atoning with some sense of martyrdom? The plot is a bloatedcorpse but ironically not hard to follow at all from our viewpoints its only difficult to understand because our characters are basically the only look into this in theory engaging world yet our tourbus driver is a bore. Soundtrack? What soundtrack? Not a single song is stuck in my head which is frankly disrespectful to the amazing Yoko Shimomura who composed Final Fantasy: XVs soundtrack. Did Square really not want to bring her along for the ride or at least borrow a few of the masterfully composed tracks from the game maybe compose some quick threetofive little notes? Anything would be better than the typical cacophonous Hollywoodstir that this film claims to be an OST it will only sound pleasing when characters are in motion and engaging an enemy nothing you can listen to on your own in the slightest. To make matters even more dire these characters have odd dialogue and some pretty awkward scenes together when theyre not kicking the enemys ass which bytheby is the only time theyre palatable and looking back on it more it seems that whoever was shooting these action scenes excelled when the battles were at a distance such as the opening warfare at the beginning of the film but it becomes a boggled and deranged mess in closequarters combat meaning that theyre only cool to look at about half of the time theyre on screen the rest of the time before the films endgame you will be cringing at awkward writing I think theyre mistaking for chemistry? Whats particularly sad is that the VAs are doing their best to make this work I can tell Lena and Aaron tried digging through the scripts as well as motivations to breathe some semblance of life into these pale concepts these are renowned and highlevel talents in this movie yet in the end they only achieve barely making these voices heard due to being smothered by terrible lines. Characters do have arcs and throughlines in the film indeed though dont expect for any of them besides Nyx just barely to be fulfilled in a satisfying way. If a death does happen you will not care. Perhaps this is just the curse of Kingsglaive being based on a JRPG which are known to be jumbled messes of metaphysics and fate with shaky stories and some stand out but most of the time forgotten characters but hey it looks pretty right? Sure. No denying that but I also cannot deny that theres nothing worth looking at twice. I get an impression that Kingsglaive does not desire to be a work of art on its own but more so telling the viewer to buy Final Fantasy XV. Hell its even in the title of the film. So what else is there to say about it? Not much really. Should you watch it? When you have two hours to kill on a boring Friday night but I dont blame someone for having this on their plan to watch list for years and never actually looking at it. Kingsglaive despite how beautiful it looks is an afterthought. At its best it will make you buy Final Fantasy: XV. At its worst? Youll feel like youve just thrown away two hours of your life and change the channel.