Not sure if anyone else was excited for this movie, but I caught up on the entire series in preparation for this movie and it was a great payoff for the work. I had asked last week what was necessary viewing for the movie, and now I know while you can get away with not watching anything past Sinners of the System, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't finish the entire series prior to the film.
No spoilers, but despite it being a prequel to season 3 it answers a lot of questions and plot points from season 3 in a way that's best enjoyed already having these questions in mind. There are characters and thought experiments that, while important to the movie, I would not have cared nearly enough about had I not at been completely caught up.
So anyone on the fence but does enjoy Psycho Pass, high recommend, i thoroughly enjoyed it. And for anyone curious, still doesn't hit the highs of season 1 but it's been consistently close since Sinners of the System came out so I think it's something worth watching
All spoilers must be tagged!
Is season 3 necessary to watch the movie? I watched all Sinners of the System movies (and liked them), but I dropped season 3. Really didn't like it. It felt too far removed from the Psycho Pass world
It's not necessary, you could have a complete experience without it for sure. But I will say you feeling like that about season 3 doesn't surprise me at all, and it was a risk the team took that I personally loved but I can totally understand why people wouldn't like it.
I'll put it this way; the movie fills in the gaps that season 3 introduces, and there are story beats in the movie that I think only truly hit with the context of season 3. But if you didn't like 3 that's totally fine, tonally it's a mix of case 1 and case 3 of Sinners of the System, if you liked those two movies (not sure if they technically count as movies lol) you're probably gonna like the movie.
I could go further in depth but it will spoil things, just let me know and I can go more in depth :)