Well, we are here with another installment of the Digimon Adventure Tri series. How did I feel? Let’s get into it…

The Bad

1- 02: This one doesn’t stop so I’m just going to get it out of the way right from the start. No one on these movies cares about the 02 kids. I’m almost to complete and total acceptance.

2-Battle: What I didn’t like about this movie is what I have disliked about those that came before it-but taken to a higher level. There is so little investment in the action!

After I saw the episodes on Crunchyroll I remember going on instagram and someone excitedly posted the battle of the three megas against Mugendramon. The entire battle… it was a total of 30 seconds. We waited five months to see this and their big fight is a total of 30 seconds. I’m sorry but that is just insulting. This is their first big fight in these movies and that was all we got!?

3- Length: Saikai and Ketsui could get away with being four “episodes” long. Their content was introductory. I could understand those films wanting to take their time.

But after part 3, where we get a five episode film and we’re really getting into the meat of the story, they decide to then give us the SHORTEST OF THE FOUR FILMS?!

Yes, this was the shortest. It was felt. The fight could have been longer, the time with the kids could have been longer, we could have gotten more out of the interaction between Maki and Tapirmon which felt extremely inconclusive, the battle at the beginning could have been longer, Takeru’s time in primary village could have been further explored. There were MANY chances to make this something that felt more complete but there were missed opportunities everywhere.

4-Missed Opportunities: While on the subject. Why couldn’t Piedmon and Puppetmon be in this “climactic” battle? You had FIVE mega digimon in this thing! Do you know how EPIC it would have been to see the four dark masters return and fight them?! MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon ya’ll did all the work last time.

I wanted to see Mugendramon and Hououmon go one on one. I wanted to see Herculeskabuterimon and Puppetmon throw down. I wanted to see Piedmon and Seraphimon go at it. MISSED opportunity here for something really visually satisfying. ALSO how literary would that have been?! The movie starts with the past where the original children fight the Dark Masters and the movie ends with the megas fighting them once more. Full circle, right?

5- Felt Like Filler: If this was a week to week series, by all means, fill us up. When you’re a film series that comes out twice a year-You don’t have the freedom to do that! I understand they want to have character focused time. Taichi’s focus in the first film tied to the plot. Takeru’s focus and Koshiro’s focus tied to the plot. Biyomon not liking Sora has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT. Sure, consequence of the reboot, but come on! We don’t have time for this!

Entire digital world gets rebooted and the biggest consequence you could think of was it takes Biyomon an hour to realize Sora really aint all that bad? Nope. Sorry.

If it were just an episode in the regular series- sure! But not here. There are only two movies left after this and I’m really disappointed that it decided to go with filler at a time when it is should be enriching the story with plot and raising the stakes.

The Good

1- Plot: The past movies have been asking more questions than answering. I felt that despite how poorly constructed this movie was- it finally gave us answers. We know Maki’s motivation. We know who the big bad is. We know what they want Meicoomon for. We know who Hackmon is working for and where he stands. We know more about the relationship of Maki and Daigo and their past.

I’m content that it seems the pieces are finally starting to come together in a series that has been rather confusing.

2- The Sovereigns: I don’t mean to toot my own horn but F#$^# it, I will. In November 2015, after the first movie came out, I wrote an article on a theory I came up with regarding the sovereigns and this movie. It seems I was on the right track! (Digimon Sovereigns Theory)

I admit, though I appreciate the creative choice for them to present the information the way they did, I would have LOVED it if we could have just been thrown right into the battle from the past. No fancy editing. Just right in there seeing all of it happen.

Anyway, I love it. They were the original chosen kids mentioned in Adventure and four of the digimon became the Sovereigns. Done. I’m on board. I’m here for it. Perfection.

3- Megas: I got to see them. I can’t say much else. I’m sorry. That battle was extremely short and cheap. There could have been a greater effort made. This thing could have been longer.

Ok, so overall, this movie was disappointing for me. At this point I gave Saikai a 9…Ketsui a 6…Kokuhaku a 7…and I have to give Shositsu a 6. Not only was a I disappointed with it but I could actually feel myself losing interest.

Digimon Adventure Tri as a whole for me now stands at a 70%. How did it start so strong and just continuously sink deeper!?