Amazing for the fans, perhaps just alright for everyone else.

althric

As a die-hard Steven Universe fan, I adore this movie. I feel like it achieved exactly what the crew wanted to do, especially in terms of presentation and the direction the story has taken.

As someone who really doesn't like musicals, I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I can't say for certain if the composition of these songs is decent, with me not being a music person, but I can certainly say I enjoyed most of them. Some of them aren't as good as others, but it's appreciated how motifs are re-incorporated from the show for different characters to set different tones.

The stakes don't really feel threatening, especially when an end-of-the-world scenario has already been done in the show and was treated with the same amount of urgency. Personally, the B-story involving Steven trying to fix the Gems after they lose all their memory seems like a much more interesting conflict, which unfortunately is solved quite quickly for the most part. It seemed more thematically relevant to have the main conflict be focused on this plot line, especially considering one of the main themes of the film is change and how far these characters have come. The movie itself seems to acknowledge how unimportant the world-ending machine is based on how quickly all that gets wrapped up.

That being said, the themes are my favourite part of the movie. Once again, Steven Universe understands character development and speaks to the audience with important life lessons. A movie spin-off of a series that premiered six years ago is the perfect way to present themes of change and progression, both in the sense of how much of your life has changed leading up to the present and how it will always continue to do so, sometimes for the worse. I'm sure this speaks to people of all ages and it's a lovely reminder of why Steven Universe can be so important to a lot of people.

If there's one negative to be said, I can confidently say that fundamentally, the Steven Universe crew struggle with pacing. It's been a frequent complaint among fans and unfortunately, the film suffers from it as well. This links back to the two main conflicts presented in the film; the apocalypse-level crisis and the plot with the Gems. It feels like they had to juggle both of these plot threads, and the one I found interesting almost felt like it was shoved to the side at times so we could get back to what the movie thinks is the main conflict.

Overall, however, I feel like the good far outweighs the bad. At the end of the day, this movie deserves its success. Once again I'm completely enthralled by the world of Steven Universe and I'm glad it exists. I'm glad there's a movie spin-off of a mainstream show where conflicts that carry themes of change, self discovery, sexuality and identity can be solved without a bombastic cartoon battle but with characters learning to move on and repair themselves as people. A Cartoon Network TV movie has never felt so genuine. For fans, it's beautiful, and it feels like this was made with the same intent as something like Avengers: Endgame. It's fan service, but it has a point outside of just being that.

New viewers may not be able to enjoy it on the same level as fans who have five seasons worth of lore built up behind it, but for the intended audience, this needs to be seen.

score 8/10

althric 10 September 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5112183/