Anime Best Installment In The Franchise
Note: I haven't seen the VN. Also, the films assume you've seen the previous installments.
As someone who has mixed opinions about the Fate franchise, HF blew me away. I thought it would be incredibly difficult to adapt as film trilogy. However, it actually benefits from it by skipping the prologue, trimming the Slice of Life scenes, and adding new scenes to help maintain the momentum built up by staying on topic. While there is less breadth for character focus by assuming the audience has already seen previous entries, they're able to meaningfully utilize the cast without taking the focus away from Shirou and Sakura.
The fights are visually spectacular and the Bloodier and Gorier battles have more tension as they don't end with someone running away. Instead, there's a lasting impact on the story. And the pretty visuals don't just extend to the fights.
Your enjoyment depends on how much you resonate with Shirou and Sakura. Whereas most of the romance in UBW with Rin was rather boring due to Rin being basic compared to the rest of the cast, however, in HF Shirou and Sakura's bond carries the story. As for Shirou's character, this is my favorite portrayal of him due to becoming a sympathetic Nominal Hero. His development essentially follows how far one would go to Always Save the Girl. Sakura's development is easily the most fascinating in the franchise.
Rin fits her role here better than she did as the Deuteragonist in UBW. Now, the biggest flaw I had was Kirei seeing as how important he is to the plot. He's pretty underdeveloped outside of Fate/Zero, so with all the new scenes you'd think they'd put in a much longer Flashback to grant a better understanding of him and elicit a bigger payoff for The Climax.
I also wish the Final Battle lasted longer as certain parts in the 3rd film were rather unnecessary and that time could've been devoted to fixing the flaws mentioned. The dialogue at times is completely on-the-nose with its themes, but works due to the situation they're in.
Lastly, the ending. It's not bad, but I feel its themes would be more impactful were there more consequences. The point of Shirou's development is him going against his ideals and twisting them into a more selfish goal. Yet, aside from physical pain, he doesn't suffer from it. I'd have suggested Rin dying either in a Redemption Equals Death or have Shirou be forced to kill her. I also felt Rider should've died in a Heroic Sacrifice.
Overall, Fate truly saved the best for last.
Anime What did I just watch?
I expected to write a review about the Heaven's Feel route's weird morality means only caring about people you know personally moral, but since that barely came up and had little effect on the plot, I won't talk much about it.
This was my first proper introduction to the Fate/whatever franchise. Everything I knew going in was the result of this site and Wikipedia. If you're looking for a jumping-on point for the franchise, don't start here. Quite a bit isn't explained. A lot of characters show up to die gruesomely within the first movie, and it's not wholly clear who they were.
There are a number of Exposition Dump s regarding the game's infamously complicated rules of magic, but I often end up not being entirely sure what's going on.
So, are these bad movies? Not exactly. I wouldn't have watched all three if they were. The animation is beautiful and the fight scenes are downright incredible. The attempts at making scary imagery are definitely scary. It might have been interesting as an alternate route if you've seen one of the other shows.
And, because I feel like ranting; there is a girl in these movies named "Illyasviel von Einzbern". She is supposed to be German. Her name is a ridiculous piece of Foreign Sounding Gibberish. "Illya" is a real name. In Slavic languages. For boys. "Viel" is a German word, meaning something along the lines of "a lot" or "a large amount". It is not used as part of names. "Ein" is a common prefix for words that is sometimes used in names, but I have never seen "Einz"
In conclusion: It's far better than Battlefield Earth.