What a mess

Rating: 3/10 (11 October 2015)

There is a lot of very high praise being thrown about in these reviews, which I can only imagine is coming from Miyazaki fans who automatically love anything that he does. Because while this animated feature is an admirable piece of visual art, it lacks any other redeemable traits.
The plot is nonsensical and full of loose ends (and loose beginnings). The characters behave in frustratingly random and unexplained ways. The core plot points are half-baked. And the ending is truly terrible. As I neared the end of this overly long story, I was just wishing it would be over already, and when the end did come, it seemed as though the director was in just as much of a hurry for it to end as I was. The ending felt rushed and corny, with a good dose of deus ex machina which still failed to bring sense to the plot.
Read the book - it's pretty good. But give this movie a miss.