Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom

Love the overlord series and the movie is no exception. Some parts of the movie feel rushed especially the fight scenes but not to take away the fact that the story is great and builds on the previous 4 seasons.

The scheming carried out in the anime is insane and the ending really leaves you wanting more. I recommend watching the anime before you set out to watch the movie. The movie does little effort to set the basis of the previous 4 seasons which can leave viewers confused. This anime seriously needs to be known by more audiences considering it's not just another run in a mill isekai anime. Thankful to madhouse to give fans more of Bone Daddy Ainz!!

What is quite clear from this fantasy adventure is that being behind thick stone walls is scant protection from the menacing "Jaldaboath" who is bent on destroying the Sacred Kingdom. Fairly easily, it has to be said, he manages to capture it's Sacred Princess and it falls to the young page "Neia Baraja" to work with what's left of their army to elicit the help of the undead Sorcerer King - the only creature who might be able to counter the powerful magic they face. Luckily, he agrees to help out and with the enthusiastic young "Neia" as his attendant, he must strive to rally the kingdom and face their nemesis and his maids. Yep, it's all a bit procedural, this, but it's still pretty much end-to-end action with loads going on and with the possible exception of the annoying "Remedios Custodio" - the Grand Master of the army, the characters are well suited for a slowly bubbling tale of good versus evil. The animation is very linear, the backgrounds have no movement at all and the characterisations rely very heavily on the facial features, but the episodic nature of their escapades marries the mysticism of ancient culture with the action scenarios quite entertainingly. It does dip a little towards the end - and some of the editing isn't the best, but I found it flew by for two hours and quite enjoyed the stand-alone nature of a narrative that has it's basis in a game but that doesn't impact at all on the plot.

I love the overlord series. It is fun and the plot is intriguing. The DND references and the overall characters in the series are just quite amazing for a fan of RPG games like myself. I watched the anime series and did some revisit from time to time. That might be the reason because for me, compared to the anime series, the movies have to leave out a lot of scenes just to make it to the runtime and it kind of ruins the overall vibe you would get from it and the sequences of the plot. I know it would be quite demanding for the editors to put all of the scenes and even though they did have to leave out a lot, the movie is still fun to watch with a lot of action going on. It is just that for me, I did not get the vibe I usually get whenever I watched the series and I kind of hoped that they could have done it somehow. Overall, it is an appetizer before the main dish of season 5 comes out.

Movie just released a few hours ago, just got home from the theatre having watched this in IMAX and- wow, if you could see the smile on my face.

Yes, being a long-term fan and reader of the novels and a huge fan of the word-building and lore of this series, I had a blast seeing Neia, Shizu and all my favorite characters from these particular volumes brought to life. The sound design and voice-acting was even better than I had hoped for. Each spell cast feelt extremely impactful, and Shizu's lines consistently got a laugh out of me and the rest of the theatre I was in, for example.

However, I REALLY don't think this movie will bring in any new overlord fans. It gives a BRIEF super-condensed run-down of the general concept of the story at the beginning, so someone unfamiliar with the series COULD watch it without consuming anything beforehand, but I imagine that it'd leave them... confused and concerned. Honestly, I don't think they should've even put that in there- this really is a movie only for the people already into the series.

To explain, the movie plays off and delivers a lot of it's fun to viewers through circumstance and character relations in ways new watchers simply wouldn't have the background knowledge and previously-established intrigues in order to recieve said enjoyment, or even be fully-aware of the fun to be had. That all being said, I still have a few criticisms keeping it from a 10/10 even as a avid fan:

A negative aspect of the anime that unfortunately carried over was their habbit of leaving too much on the chopping room floor. Of particular irk was the exclusion of the fight between Ains and Buser, talks between Remedios' help party and Blue Rose, and the throne room scene. These scenes would've helped the pacing and would've likely helped those that didn't read it prior to follow along, plus they are very fun scenes in the novels.

Also, since this movie is the product of two volumes smashed together, it feels really long due to there being a good 'ending point' feeling halfway through, and then it just keeps going. It's for this and the previous reason that I really think they should've just done two movies and made it a two-parter with a cliffhanger. That being said, if it HAD to be both volumes across a 2-hour runtime, they did much better than I imagine most studios would've done with the assignment.

Overall, I had a lot of fun and thought that it was great. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had here, just, I do NOT expect a bunch of positivity for this movie as new-comes wouldn't enjoy it as much, there isn't as much fighting as one would expect, and I can easily see some of those cuts not going over well with the more fervent and hardcore side of the fanbase, but again, if you're a long-term fan like I who's read all the novels but are not so into it you own an Ains body-pillow of your own you'll definitely have lots of fun.

While this is a good addition to the Overlord series, I'm afraid it falls a bit short of the series. The lack of the guardians and the interplay between them and Ains is completely lacking in the movie, as Ains is going in alone. So many of our favorite characters are either missing or minimized. The battle sequences with Ains are also a bit lack luster, more of a firework's display rather than the epic thought out battles of the past. Also, the running joke of the Hard Sell is funny but may get somewhat annoying as it goes on and on. This film does contain several truly gruesome moments far beyond what the series contains, so expect some splatter. All in all, it is a decent film and Overlord fans should enjoy seeing Ains back in action.