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Scherzo of Deep Night is an undeniable step up from Aria, but a misstep at the same time.

Skipping ahead to the fifth floor, it fumbles in it's explanation of the stakes introduced since; a PK gang (obviously a precursor to Laughing Coffin), has emerged, targeting the duo and the frontline players as a whole. Kirito has already had a near-fatal encounter with them, and wants to train Asuna in the basics of fighting other players for her own safety.
Except none of this feels real or particularly important, because the movie duology has skipped all of their intended relevant stories.
Moving on from this slight detractor, ... the movie is largely what you'd expect from one of these; there's a boss, they have to clear the floor, there's some ham-fisted excuses to add some more stakes (the two major frontrunning guilds are squabbling, which loops back to the skipped floors where their rivalry is introduced and explored, as well as the PK gang that is secretly goading them on), the movie struggles to find a way to reintroduce Mito in a story where her presence doesn't make sense, etc. The choreography, animation (with the glaring exception of the abysmal floor boss), soundtrack and performances are all excellent as usual, but this movie has very little to write home about. Fans of the series will probably enjoy it for what it is, people indifferent to the series or uninterested in backtracking in the timeline will probably dismiss it as a waste of time.

Aria tries a bold new direction, and largely fails because of it.

Retelling Aria mostly from Asuna's POV is a great concept, one Kiseki Himura's manga tried and mostly succeeded at. Where this attempt falls flat is the introduction of a new character, Mito. Mito's existence serves no major purpose other than, seemingly, to rob Asuna of her original motivations and agency (or perhaps to pad the runtime). Asuna, originally having tried the NerveGear on a whim, is now pushed to by her friend. Asuna, originally struggling with her helplessness and taking it upon herself to learn the game for the sake of clearing it, is ... now pushed to by her friend.

Where this movie succeeds, though, is the second half. Mostly a retelling of the anime's second episode, it provides a compelling alternate take on a well-tread story, with a better representation of it's characters and a superb action sequence that's frankly good enough to make you forget the first half that makes little to no sense in the context of the rest of the series.

Notable elements of this movie are, of course, the animation, soundtrack, and performances. At the very least, if the plot is weak, it's a beautiful movie that definitely reflects the quality you'd expect from a movie in this franchise.