4 out of 5

Directed by: Toshiyuki Kubooka

It’s what we’ve been waiting for; and yet, as the film’s coda mentions, it’s only the beginning.  It took two prior films to figure it out, but the concluding Golden Age cinematic entry finally fulfills the feeling of Something More that the 90s anime earned during its short run, meaning that coda statement actually carries some weight and excitement, and makes us hope the intention for another trilogy is eventually realized.

Interestingly, it’s not because of the lead-in of the prior films that Advent manages to be the best of the three; in fact, it stands on its own as a good movie – maybe not as something you can watch without context, but it feels comfortable with the snapshot of the tale it wants to offer, versus its forerunners which struggled with the sense that they were playing catch up.  As a reviewer on IMDB suggests, somewhere between the abrupt (but rather stunning for that abruptness) conclusion to the series and the elongated conclusion offered here, there’s a perfect version of this story.  Regardless, whether intentionally or not, Advent seemingly sets aside the need to establish a separate movie vs. TV narrative and just tells its story – of Griffith’s rescue, of his acceptance of demonhood and the chaos that follows – and ends up being a much, much stronger movie by not trying to heft all that narrative baggage around.  In other words, it assumes you know why you’re here already, and thus can take its time to sell the horrors.

And lord, horrors they be.  The nightmare sequence was already impressive in the anime but it’s simply astounding here, coupled with an odd, but fitting, lack of music and an excess of imaginative creepies,  it is an insane and dark sequence, all the moreso since it goes on for about a third of the movie.

Which leaves two thirds for some equally important bits: Winding through Guts and Casca’s wayward relationship and Griffith’s haunted memories, and then – newly animated – some post-battle wrap-ups, which gives us a nice segueway to where things go from here.

And though I was tempted to five star this, I had to admit that was just the excitement of seeing this part of the story re-told.  More critically, there are still some glaring pacing and characterization issues with the film.  I can excuse the lack of lead-in to Guts’ return to the Band of the Hawk as part of that “fuck it, they’ve seen the show” approach to the story, but we never quite bridge the gap from rebel to romantic for Guts the way the show as able to, and so the reunion and boob-groping sex with Casca feels a bit indulgent.  There’s also a crap transition to what’s going on outside of the demon-tornado – i.e. no transition at all – which begins an unfortunate section of the film that keeps going to a black screen, pausing in the middle of dialogue for no discernible reason, and cutting to another scene.  It’s a complete flow killer.  Possibly there are some translation differences that make it seem more abrupt, but I don’t think that would change the odd editing.  It’s almost as though, without any anime precedent for some scenes, they had no idea how to cut them in and so… didn’t.  Just jammed ’em in there.

On the flipside of all of this, the films do take a decidedly more sympathetic view toward Griffith, including his depiction here, which does make his downfall… bigger?  Sadder?  It completely works in the show as well, but I like that the movies didn’t choose to just cast him as an easy villain.

I haven’t had many complaints about the CGI / drawn mix in the past two flicks, but that doesn’t prevent me from seeing that it’s much improved here.  The film, in general, feels a lot smoother, both animated-wise and in how the action sequences are captured.

Berserk 3 was absolutely worth the wait / experience of the prior two occasionally clunky flicks.  While it still faces some impact hiccups due to pacing and editing issues, the patience employed from the get-go, in the pre-credits sequence, suggests the film-makers finally understood the contemplative complexity the series was able to portray, and delivers a satisfyingly frightening final third to the Golden Age in the process.