(Average) Origin: Spirits of the Past

NOTE: I watched this movie in English

Movie in one sentence:
Like most stories; a boy is too devoted getting back a girl he barely knows.

Movie in more sentences:
Humans and nature got separated after an experiment went wrong 300 years ago, and a young girl that used to live in better times wakes up in this nearly destroyed world. She discovers the forest is now a living being that has given humanity rules they have to obey if they wish to use their resources.
She can't accept the lives of the struggling villagers that took her in, who lack the urge to change, thus she leaves to join the opposition; and helps them with their plans to destroy the forest with a weapon that happened to have been left behind by her long dead scientist father.
 

One of the many pro-nature animated movies the world has to offer, but I guess that aspect of it was done better than in most other environmental movies. At least, I didn't feel lectured to.

An aspect that was less well done was the supposed romance. The two main characters go from 0 to 100 on the love/friendship scale, and I have no idea what triggered it. After the girl decides to leave, the boy just immediately goes after her, pretty much demanding her to come back "home" and screaming her name like a maniac the entire second half of the movie. I don't understand why, they didn't share that many scenes together in the first half. Definitely no romantic ones.

Overall, I found this movie to be slightly boring, even though I kept watching. There's some great action in it, but it's so short and few, it's not making up for the emptiness of the story and its characters.

Another thing that bothered me was how easily this living forest gave away superpowers to these humans they supposedly distrust. Even if they had a good relationship, it's a foolish practise.
It's clear they don't possess the foresight needed to really know who is deserving or not, as they once gave the "villain" of the movie their blessing, so how can they trust themselves to know who to hand over their gift? Why was it so easy for the boy to convince them to do so? And why do these powers do what they do? Who would tie grey hair and superhuman strength together with forest life? It's cool and everything, but the only thing that refers back to it is when the humans turn into a tree if they overuse their powers and can't control their emotions.
Comic book hero-strength is not what I think of when a forest decides to bless someone, I'll be honest to say.

Besides the chance to turn into a tree, another downside to retrieving these powers is that it turns characters pretentious and dramatic. The male lead went from a playful child to a typical action movie hero the moment his hair went grey; there was nothing to relate to anymore, it was such a shame.
Especially at the end he turned into a wannabe forest-Jesus-hippy, I puked. He should've stayed a tree.

I don't think you'll have major regrets watching this, but there are definitely better movies out that deserve your attention.