I'd say I loved everything that happened in the story until the end where the dad comes back. For me, it defeats the narrative that had just happened in the earlier scenes. One of the examples would be the scene where Pepper watched the Ben Eagle magician film where he had to choose between two people to save.
The movie was all about Pepper's will and belief in things like magic and faith. Like how he believed he moved a mountain and a bottle. I sort-of expected the dad to not come back at all after Pepper was in the Hashimoto's room and saying that he didn't want Hashimoto to die to have that same effect. As if he just made a decision on who he wanted to save. Just like he "made the mountain move", just like he "bombed Hiroshima" to end the war for his dad.
I felt that the movie just really wanted to have all the happy endings, like Pepper getting revenge on the bully, Dad coming back from war, Hashimoto not dying, etc. The ending felt very forced for me, I guess. Should've ended by just Pepper accepting what happened since he was already grieving. It also took away from the impact the end scene/ plot could've given. With all that already happened, in the end it just felt like "oh wow dad is back nice" and not as emotional as it could've been.
Though either way, I loved the movie. Bittersweet.
The movie was all about Pepper's will and belief in things like magic and faith. Like how he believed he moved a mountain and a bottle. I sort-of expected the dad to not come back at all after Pepper was in the Hashimoto's room and saying that he didn't want Hashimoto to die to have that same effect. As if he just made a decision on who he wanted to save. Just like he "made the mountain move", just like he "bombed Hiroshima" to end the war for his dad.
I felt that the movie just really wanted to have all the happy endings, like Pepper getting revenge on the bully, Dad coming back from war, Hashimoto not dying, etc. The ending felt very forced for me, I guess. Should've ended by just Pepper accepting what happened since he was already grieving. It also took away from the impact the end scene/ plot could've given. With all that already happened, in the end it just felt like "oh wow dad is back nice" and not as emotional as it could've been.
Though either way, I loved the movie. Bittersweet.