
Esca is hands down my anime of anime. It's got everything; romance triangles, world war, a shy prince and pissed off princesses, and even a promiscuous pirate! (Well, Allen's sleeves were puffy enough for a pirate...and the owl, come on).
As others have said, the full-on theatrical score is amazing. I highly recommend picking up the soundtrack.
Now the movie for me was a bit of a disappointment as well. Mainly because when I first heard about it, my very optimistic soul believed the movie would be an extention of the series and that, gosh darnit, we'd finally get that ending esca fans deserve! Not...a two hour retelling of the story.

One part I absolutely loved in the film was the beginning. First off, it was animated beautifully and second (although I'm not big into gore by any means) is when Van absolutely decimates that crew without batting an eye. It was a really powerful answer to the "What if Hitomi never arrived?" question. After that the whole story sorta...dropped off.
The tv series has been my favorite anime for years and although others have gotten close, Escaflowne is definitely a very hard act to beat.