This review is written as a berserk fan so I can't help it if im biased against this second film installment. Anyways firstly as a berserk fan I first saw the anime sometime in 2001 and then proceeded to move onto the manga which I've since read many times over and let it be known that berserk is probably one of the great works of art and dark fantasy out there.
So when i first saw the movie remake I won't deny that I was excited. However after the first installment I was rather skeptical considering the super condensed story line and clunky 3d animation. However, I gave it the benefit of the doubt that being a first attempt, perhaps the second attempt would get it right.sadly I was very wrong. Lets start with the one good point, the animation is great making the sword swinging, blood spilling and gratuitous boob grabbing all that more satisfying to watch. Seeing guts in smooth fluid animation is absolutely great, something that the original anime couldn't capture due to the low budget and superbly clunky animation. However, I couldn't help but feel that the original anime did a much better job of capturing the art style of the manga. Perhaps the ICONIC battle of the golden age arc (fans will know which one im talking about) was absolutely ruined by this film despite the fluid animation, so many of the scenes depicted in the manga were just outright skipped.
Sure its nice to see guts swinging his sword around with the assistance of a bigger animation budget, but so much of the awesome stuff he does in the manga (not to mention the low budget anime) is just ignored and replaced by fluid and nice looking but ultimately empty animation. This same 'glossing over' effect also goes for the story, no character development is allowed and many smaller but hugely valuable interactions and events are just skipped for the sake of cramming what is essentially hours of BERSERK into a condensed but ultimately tasteless 80 minutes.
I also found it weird that so much time was spent on a particular sex scene which although important as a plot device didn't really warrant the amount of time and emphasis it did on screen. But perhaps I'm blinded by my previous experiences and memories and perhaps the movie isn't really that bad. But I GUARANTEE that if you enjoy what you've seen in this movie but haven't been acquainted with the original manga.then do yourself a favor and go read it cause its a world of difference.Word of warning, if you do take my advice don't expect a conclusion to the berserk saga cause for all its beauty and genius, the series has definitely taken a dive and is unlikely to ever be concluded at the rate the author is going.