The movie is great and is definitely worth watching, if you are not obsessed with idealistic stuff. If you're expecting perfection, then don't watch it; don't watch anything at all it will only add to your feeling of frustration. But if you simply like anime, then it is a good film.
Actually, the basic rule of any movie-lover is to watch movies before reading any comments or reviews on them. Comments and reviews are actually useless; they make you biased, since they present only personal opinions of people who are complete strangers to you. So why should you listen to them if you are clever enough to form an opinion of your own? I was lucky to watch this series without this extra "educational baggage", and I liked it. If I had read the comments or reviews before, I probably wouldn't have watched it, and I personally think I'd have lost a lot. The plot seemed to me good enough; the characters (all of them taken together) were quite balanced; enough action, enough saliva; some very hard to find values, a lot of big words and actions, and some characters developing through the movie, which is on the whole a rare thing in anime and sure, interesting to watch. Some moments were fantastic, some were so-so, some seemed too short, some felt too long. Just like in any other anime film you care to name.
The basic problem of people who hate this movie (I can't even think how anyone can HATE a movie) is misunderstanding of the plot, or rather, not understanding it at all. And instead of trying to make it out, these people flood forums with negative reviews saying that the plot is awful. I actually never read the novel, and I never saw the manga, but still I had no problems with understanding the plot, the characters, their backgrounds and their complexes. I think anyone with some common sense and a tiny bit of imagination can grasp what is going on in there. 8-) And then again, there are dozens of sources that can help clarify some places.
I'm not arguing with people who dislike the director's work, drawing style, color schemes, or scene arrangement those are sensei, they probably know better, they're the experts. I'm just a humble TV-rat, these things are beyond me, I never notice them.
And there are people who just were not touched by what they saw. Ye gods, that does not make it a bad movie, guys. There are a lot of films that raise problems we are not interested in can we call these movies bad and advise others against watching them? This film is not a masterpiece (though I'm sure the criteria are different with each individual person among the audience), but it surely does not deserve to be labeled a failure (though the criteria are different again). The ending did seem a bit abrupt, and I can say I wanted more, looks like it ended two or three episodes earlier than it should. But, considering the circumstances, what can I do about it? Just accept it the way it is. There will be nothing more, alas.
My point is: watch the film, if you feel like doing it. If you're not biased, if you're not taught how to think of the movie, you will most likely find something that will compensate for the time you spend watching it.
P.S. (About people who write reviews) In one of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children reviews (not on IMDb) some guy wrote that it was so stupid when Cloud jumped with that big sword of his; considering the size of the sword and Cloud's constitution, Cloud shouldn't be able to even raise the sword, let alone jump with it so high in the air
(8-(
