I would consider myself a fan of Makoto Shinkai's work, my favourite being 5cm per second, but I also loved Your Name a lot. This movie felt like an attempt to recreate Your Name's magic, but falls very short of that due to the subpar writing.
I have big issues with the main character, Suzume. Her motivation for doing everything in the movie is purely nonsensical, risking the lives of millions and millions of people just to save one stranger she met a few days ago. I would have loved to see scenes where she questions her own journey, if any of this was worth it at all (especially after the guy turned into a key and everything was alright again). This same issue applies to some other characters as well, immediately driving 8 hours straight without demanding for any kind of explanation for a stranger they just met.
The cats were also completely disregarded. It seemed like they were trying to make them into proper characters, but ended up only being used as a plot device. And they were also treated extremely poorly by Suzume, who just completely disregards their feelings of wanting to be with Suzume.
Another thing to note is that the movie was very formulaic, following the same structure as Your Name and Weathering With You, but I don't see this as a flaw, because often times it does work out well. In this case, it did not.
Overall, I thought it would have been a fantastic experience, but I could not enjoy it because the issues mentioned above stood out too much for me. The romance should not have been there, and detracts from the beautiful moments in the story.
I have big issues with the main character, Suzume. Her motivation for doing everything in the movie is purely nonsensical, risking the lives of millions and millions of people just to save one stranger she met a few days ago. I would have loved to see scenes where she questions her own journey, if any of this was worth it at all (especially after the guy turned into a key and everything was alright again). This same issue applies to some other characters as well, immediately driving 8 hours straight without demanding for any kind of explanation for a stranger they just met.
The cats were also completely disregarded. It seemed like they were trying to make them into proper characters, but ended up only being used as a plot device. And they were also treated extremely poorly by Suzume, who just completely disregards their feelings of wanting to be with Suzume.
Another thing to note is that the movie was very formulaic, following the same structure as Your Name and Weathering With You, but I don't see this as a flaw, because often times it does work out well. In this case, it did not.
Overall, I thought it would have been a fantastic experience, but I could not enjoy it because the issues mentioned above stood out too much for me. The romance should not have been there, and detracts from the beautiful moments in the story.