[FGO] Grand Temple of Time: Solomon Movie Review

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It’s the cathartic ending of the long saga Fate Grand Order has built since 2015. This film showcases the climactic conclusion built upon years since the game’s existence. It’s set around the final chapter past the 7th Singularity. And this is just the first half considering Cosmos in the Lost Belt is another continuation.

For those not familiar with the Fate series, it’s a given that none of the stuff here would make a cohesive sense. There’s just too much story content to cover in one post from start to finish not even including the side stories.

If you start your journey to the Fate franchise with this film, you’ll end up spoiling the previous entries into the story. Prior to the events in the film, there were seven other Singularities that makes watching this the final part.

I think of the viewing experience as watching the Avengers End Game. Heroes from their previous journeys come together for one final push to save humanity’s future. If you weren’t familiar with the game or story prior, watching a new character take a 3 second screen time wouldn’t make sense. But it will for those already existing fans of the franchise. Again, it’s a movie not meant as an introduction for those looking to start the Fate series.

Spoilers ahead.

Plot:

Prequel: [Prequel to the Movie] The organization Chaldea stationed its HQ at the ends of the Earth’s pole was tasked to ensure humanity’s survival for the next 100 years. An alarm was triggered that it forecasted the incineration of humanity stemming from the seven different Singularities that occurred throughout human history. Here several master candidates (mages) are gathered to harness the power of the spiritron system where they can time travel and summon Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes from a place beyond space and time to fight for them and correct the Singularities.

Singularities are events that force incongruence to the known panhuman history. Think of a fractured past that becomes a cancer and splits itself therefore severing its ties to the future. Due to sabotage prior to starting the first mission in correcting the first Singularity, a lot of the candidates except one (protagonist Ritsuka Fujimaru) was able to survive along with the Demi-Servant named Mash Kyrielight. So it came up to the two with the help of Director Romani Archaman and Leonardo Da Vinci to save humanity from the brink of extinction. Thus, operation Grand Order was initiated.

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Actual Plot:

After the events in FGO Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia (7th Singularity), Chaldea ventures towards a place where the known laws of space and time do not apply to confront the King of Mages, Solomon. King Solomon was the master of all magecraft around the Age of Gods and his death hastened the loss of magic throughout the world. Born with the gift of omnipotence to see past and future events, he saw the world and what it will come to be throughout an unending cycle of death and conflict, yet he did nothing.

Set in the year 2016, Chaldea has moved its headquarters to the Temple of Time where there’s no coming back as all life on Earth has been incinerated from the past and there’s only void left for their future. This was humanity’s last stand against Solomon and definitely the final mission the Demi-Servant Mash Kyrielight will undertake.

Born programmed to exist only as a vessel for Heroic Spirits, Mash had inherently had a short lifespan and it’s only the Heroic Spirit Galahad that resides within that keeps her body stable. The strain from going through the previous missions and knowing her short life is coming does not sway her to back down.

In order to defeat the King of Mages, the team has to fight through the 72 Demon God Pillars Goetia. Not an easy feat considering each Demon Pillar is a major antagonist for each Singularity the team has encountered. But all hope isn’t lost as the bands of light that represent heroes from the throne come together in aid of Chaldea.

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After all those years playing through the story content, this movie was an icing on the cake. Story wise, I still think the mobile game had more to offer in terms of depth but I still appreciate the film for capturing the most important parts of the narrative. This film isn’t does not spoon feed new audiences in character introductions aside from who Solomon is.

Comparing how the story unfolded from just reading the dialogues in game versus watching these scenes animated, I’d say there were only few things to be disappointed about. The game showcased only few heroes comings in terms of individual screen time compared to the movie where it actually featured an entire end game setup for the climactic boss fight.

If there was something to be disappointed here, it’s the short screen time allotted to give the mission more depth. The false King Solomon’s motivation to incinerate humanity and start over was born from a conclusion made by eyes that weren’t human. While it is a twisted motivation to screw the entire human race, it was a real rebellion against the cycle of death he wanted to share the vision with.

I thought it was poetic the false King Solomon (Goetia) have come to realize what humans have to struggle with as its own immortal was stripped from him by the real Solomon. In its last ditch effort to just go bare fist with the protagonist just because he was a sore loser (and admits to it actually), Goetia learned what it did not understood and it was only when it was on the same shoes where it can equally die gave it a poetic end.

The pacing was just too fast for comfort but I wasn’t expecting this story to be slow given that it’s an hour and a half runtime. Watching which side was gaining the upper hand in the fight was a roller coaster but this was something that could only be pulled off on an animation that spelled out by dialogue.

This quick up and down with a few moments to breath in between scenes just made some deaths less impactful on screen (again, not much could be done with a limited time to work with). I think the story would have been better as a two part film just like the [FGO] Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot.

I recommend watching the previous films specifically [FGO] Singularity Point F: Fuyuki where the first mission took place right after the fall of Chaldea.

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.