>i wasn't confused
well maybes it's because you read the manga, just looking a dozens of people giving there opinions that had no idea about the manga, they where all confused asf and over nothing. I showed this film to a few friends and they where like "what?" 60% of the time.
>The build up was in the flashback for all the side characters
No it wasn't, that's what you call a character introduction. The movie introduces a character and then that's it. They don't actually build up the characters and their relationships, you can't tell me a single important thing about sahara and mashiba because the movie absolute neglects them.
What you just stated about them, tells us nothing the character of mashiba or sahara, or there relationship with ishida, how he see's them, how they see him. The scene when he tells everyone off bends entirely on the personally interactions and arcs he had with them, absent in the movie.
>It's been years since I read the manga
That explains a lot, i suggest you reread and realize just how shallow everything feels in comparison.
The manga has shoko graveling at ishidas moms feet, and the scene of her crying in bed, the movie definitely had time for the scene but completely changed it for no reason and made it worse.
>In the movie, you can tell Shouya doesn't understand the consequences of his actions yet.
ishida getting off at attention does nothing for the whole ideology his actions have been built upon.
The idea of killing boredom was deeply explored, his psychic and attitude explained, even if you didn't like what he did you could totally come to understand why he would.
absolutely non-existant in the movie, they also did a sub par job at showing the bullying, how ishida got everyone to participate and what the sensei actually felt(which gives so much more weight to the scene when everyone turns on him in class)
Instead everything in this movie is just lesser compared to the manga, it's actually embarassing.