Beautiful but not Perfect

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2002)

The good news! Sen is visually stunning movie. The art is fantastic, the CG was put together very well, and flowed evenly with the regular animation. (something which is rare these days) The character designs were original and well drawn, Miyazaki has lived up to his artistic expectations.
The bad news...Sen has it's problems. The story, while very good, seemed somewhat choppy. It was like it was pulled directly out of someone's head and not put into exact order at times. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all out of place, but certain things could have been explained more or moved to earlier parts of the story. Another problem, that I think will be an issue once this movie hits the states, is that this film is very japanese ..and I think the casual movie-goer will miss out on a lot of stuff because of that. And it is because of this I also fear the changes to the script upon it's arrival in the US. This is also not a subtitle movie. Yes, I watched it subtitled, but because of how heavly this movie relies on visuals, I feel liked I missed out on some stuff from watching it subtitled. So unless you absolutely must see this in subs, I suggest waiting for it in theaters or on DVD.
All in all, while this movie is definetly a Miyazaki masterpiece, I don't think it's his best. For those people who are new to Miyazaki, check out some of his other works like Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro..I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.