This review contains spoilers for the movie and for the Madoka Magica anime, this review also discusses topics such as suicide and self harm,where to begin,
Finally writing a review 5 years after watching the movie for the first time. Truth be told I didn't watch rebellion until about 2 years after finishing the main series. I had heard many mixed opinions about it online and how it ruined some character arcs from the main show so i put it off for a while. but when i finally got around to watching it I was completely starstruck. I really don't understand how people can say its a bad continuation or a butchering of Homura's character at all. everything the characters do makes perfect sense.
Homura's Spiral
Starting off with the best girl, Homura Akemi. I really sympathised with Homura in the main series I do love a classic regression trope and her repeating time over and over again to save Madoka from her fate at the cost of them growing further and further apart is so tragic. I was left a little unsatisfied with her "ending" the main show, no way a girl who spent years repeating the same month to save the girl she loves would just move on and keep fighting in a world where that girl no longer exists. no way. so naturally rebellion is a continuation of her character arc, they do pull a little stunt in the beginning which makes you think "huh wait this isn't how the main series ended right? what's going on?" ~~at least for me since it had been 2 years since I had watched the show~~ but you and Homura very quickly realise something isn't quite right in this version of Mitakihara city. As much as I love the begining scenes with all the fluffy fanservice and the holy quintent beating up nightmares and being an unstoppable magical girl team the movie starts getting good when homura decides to investigate further and figure out whats wrong. We figure out whats wrong is that the main girls are stuck inside a witches labrinyrith and homura determined to find the witch responsible sheds her "Moemura" persona and becomes the brooding lesbian we all know and love ~~also i find it really funny she accuses so many people of being the witch like...girl go look in the mirror.~~.

anyways after an AMAZING fight between her and Mami and a little confrontation between Homu and Sayaka we get to one of my favourite scenes, Homura crashing out in front of her bae. but honestly this scene was so sad, the way she goes on about how she thought she made Madoka up and she was going crazy broke my heart, Madoka obviously doesn't know the entire context and tries to comfort her and maybe says something that will have a much greater impact later on but we'll get to that later hehehe. Homura decides to confront the truth and by doing so sets the fake mitakihara on fire and now we're in this weird nut shaped building in the sky ~~sorry i am bad at explaining~~

here we finally see the cat we love to hate show the side of himself we are all too familiar with, evil kitty....
he tells homura his and the other incubators plan to control madoka and homura very obviously not a fan decides to corrupt her soulgem and turn into a witch to keep madoka safe (very selfless of her) she turns into the coolest witch design in the show and marches toward her execution while the holy quintent try to stop her. ultimatley madoka's words talk her down from her plan and the distrupt the incubators plans yipee!!!!! now everyone is out of homura's labyrinth and in the real world waitng for the law of cycles to claim homura and everyone gets a happy ending right? WRONG!!!!!!

Selfish or Selfless? okay so, to fully understand the reasoning behind homura's action we will have to rewind to her scene with madoka in the flower field, here homura tells madoka about a "nightmare" she had where madoka moved far away where she could never see her again and everyone forgot about her, a dream where only homura remembered her. madoka comforts homura by saying she would never do such a thing, that she is too much of a cry-baby to ever make such a tough decision and she would never choose to leave homura, her friends and her family. homura remarks that she should've never let madoka make that wish and she should've stopped her back then, she tells madoka that she is strong and kind enough than she gives herself credit for and she does have the capability to make those sorts of decisions. So what does this scene tell us? well it tells us Madoka's true feelings about her final wish and how she did it even though she knew it would hurt her and the people she loves, i wrote a longer post about this about this on my tumblr where i talked about how Madoka's low self esteem is a big factor in why she decides to become a magical girl in every timeline no matter Homura's interference. Madoka is someone who only sees herself as useful and worthy if she can help someone, she sees herself as an average middleschool girl compared to popular and pretty girls like her friend Hitomi and successful women like her mother. Madoka thought the best way she can contribute to society and help people was by sacrificing her soul in exchange for the capability to finally be useful (at least in her eyes). he idea of her soul being used for something useful and helping others was a desire she succumbed to every time (even if her wish was always selfless). You can choose to read her final wish as "suicide" since it is her destroying the existence of madoka kaname to become a saving grace for all magical girls across time. you might say im reading too much into it but when madoka reaches out to homulily what do we see? scars all over her arm. but that is just my interpretation after all but i feel like they wouldn't have put in self harm imagery if they didnt want the viewers to think it. anyways so now to the scene itself, we see homura with her corrupted soulgem, a homura who knows that being the law of cycle's is hurting madoka. a homura who said that should've done anything to stop madoka back then. and how homura has a chance to "save" madoka. so what does best girl do? well... yeah she snatches her girl up. cue hauntingly amazing ost and madoka being very very freaked out and then. homuras soulgem breaks and the universe becomes her labyrinth, we see the pink spool of thread representing madokami fall off frame as homura cracks her soulgem in her mouth. then we see the universe getting rewritten as kyubey freaks the eff out about what the hell just happened as homura teases him about how she is the "devil" and is now the concept of "evil" (which i dont think putting up a villain façade is going to help u now homu sorry) and she appoints him and all the incubators to take care of all the curses left out in the world. suddenly we are back in mitakihara, the real mitakihara. homura is aurafarming at her table and little umbrella while her clara dolls are off goofing around. sayaka confronts her about what she did she puts up the act of being uncaring and evil while her clara dolls throw tomatoes at her (either to really hit the nail that shes the villain or that shes a bad actor, up to you to decide!) then we finally see madoka again, shes the new transfer student and homura is the one leading her around the school (homura getting to kive out her fantasy of being the one who looks after and protects madoka here) suddenly madoka begins to remember that she doesnt belong here and almost acends again before homura intervenes. its here she asks if madoka treasures this world and if she considers stability more important than desire(a nice callback to the first episode of the anime) and madoka remarks that she does treasure it but she feels that it is bad to break the rules if you feel like it. homura says that madoka may one day become her enemy but she will keep fighting for a world that makes her happy while she returns her red ribbons.

then after the beautiful ending song by kalafina we get an after credits scene where homura sits on a chair at the edge of a cliff presumably the same place where her and madoka where sitting in the intro of the 2nd movie. dances around with her new soulgem and falls off the cliff while the viewer is left staring into the eyes of a traumatised kyubey.

OOOH BOYYYY this movie. its amazing. i love it, it makes so much sense of Homuras character to go in this direction after losing Madoka at the end of the anime, as the saying goes "absence makes the heart grow fonder" hehehe
and i just love every artistic decision made as well, gekidan inu curry's work is phenomenal but all the details in the background are also stunning. and the ost. THE OST!!!!!! i kid you not i bought the limited edition blu ray of this movie JUST so i could have the ost on cd i love it so much, the leitmotif of No, Not Yet in almost every song is addicting and Kalafinas ending song Your Silver Garden has a masterpiece of a production god bless you Yuki Kajuira.
I could talk someone's ear off about all the little details in this movie omg i love it, i love it so much im scared for the new movie because i have such high expectations now. but i believe that Gen Urobochi will pull through, he usually does.

sorry this review turned out to be more of a rant and plot explanation ahahah first time writing a review on anilist can you tell

I love Homura, I think people that hate on her don't understand how a lesbian situationship at 14years old CAN cause a crashout of this degree. final thoughts, amazing movie, perfect sequel and i cant wait for the next one