Films that have grown out of a television series face a number of issues, one of the most challenging of which is finding a story that justifies their existence. It's too easy for these films to be cursed with wafer-thin, overstretched plots. This film faces the opposite problem, presumably because it's adapted from multiple books that would under other circumstances have provided the basis of more than one season of television. There's certainly enough to suggest that possibility here. The show was underrated and deserved a more coherent conclusion; it's perhaps because most of the film's viewers have spent five seasons with these characters and this world that we're willing to forgive a plot-heavy, character-light conclusion. For those of those of us so invested, it's enjoyable and immersive, but we do wish it had been more; like the show, the film's climactic battle is thrillingly intense and coherently staged where it could easily have been bafflingly chaotic. The final pay off works; you just can't help wishing it had been more.
