So then, before getting to the plot, one thing you'll probably want to know is what happened to the 02 team. Well, as far as the story has led it to believe as of Chapter 4 (English dub reviews), they're dead. We see Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Ken fall in battle against a new Digimon, who will later be revealed to be Alphamon, and a human world organization tracking any Digidestined have been unable to find any of the hundreds of them we see in 02 or the movies. As far as tri. is concerned, the original 8 are all that's left (for the most part). Either way, we're off to a great start because this one bit in the opening of the film highlights something that becomes a problem for not only this film but later films too, inconsistencies in logic and self-handicapping. Even with the excuse of "they probably weren't expecting to fight Alphamon", why would those four not take T.K and Kari with them, especially when two of them, Yolei and Cody, rely on them to be able to reach Ultimate level? This also bleeds into a problem that some would either agree with or ignore, the film itself leans heavily towards Adventure nostalgia over 02 nostalgia. While they remember that Kari and T.K have D3 Digivices, they might as well be original models because those two don't use anything the D3's can use over the originals. No armour eggs, they use someone else's (more on that later) D3 to travel to the Digital World in a later film, I really hope you weren't a fan of 02 because you're going to be ignored here. I personally find it to be a missed opportunity because it would be interesting to see the two teams work together, especially when the only time we've really seen that is Revenge of Diaboromon, which would later become Omnimon tries, fails, gives power to Imperialdramon, they win, most of the team do nothing in the main fight.
Back to what we did get through, in the human world, electrical distortions are causing electronics to fail, and the distortions allowing powered up Digimon to enter the human world to cause chaos. The first one we see? Kuwagamon. After Tai leads it out of the city and is about the sacrifice himself because he can't fight back, Agumon Deus Ex Machina's his way into the story to protect him. After Digivolving Agumon into Greymon (further adding to the self-handicapping), the two Digimon travel two and from locations using distortions only to end up at the airport, where two more Kuwagamon appear. Due to the chaos, Kuwagamon caused and the destruction that the Digimon can do together, a secret government agency transports Tai and most of the team to the airport to assist in the battle. The two exceptions being Mimi, who got there a little late, and Joe who is letting the stress of exams get to him, and chooses not to go in order to continue studying. T.K, Kari, Angemon and Gatomon team up and defeat one of the Kuwagamon, Sora, Izzy, Birdramon and Kabuterimon team up to defeat another, while Matt and Garurumon fight the one Greymon was fighting before the injuries of the fight caused him to tag out. That third one though is pulled back into the Digital World though by force, never to be seen again (yet). Once the battle is over, the team learn some information from the government organization that helped them, including why the Kuwagamon were stronger and more vicious, and what's causing them to come to this world. With the new information in mind, most of the team (again, Joe's studying), decide to reunite to protect the human world from these new "Infected Digimon".
Unfortunately for them, when bugs fail, whoever's in charge decides to send in the equivalent of a nuke, Alphamon, who's target seems to be a new ninth (though technically thirteenth at bare minimum) Digidestined, a timid girl by the name of Meiko Mochizuki who just moved into town, and her Digimon, Meicoomon, a champion level Lynx Like Digimon. Due to the strength of Alphamon, Tai and Matt (although not before Tai has some panic attacks about collateral damage) team up to let Agumon and Gabumon form Omnimon. Unfortunately for them, Alphamon retreats before Omnimon can release an attack, causing some damage to the waterfront. The team accepts Meiko and Meicoomon into the team, closing the film out. I know I am skipping over key plot threads, however, it is primarily to keep some aspects a surprise in the film, because the slower, character-driven moments are the highlights of the movie. While the action scenes do look great, especially with how animation techniques have advanced since Adventure and 02, allowing for the fights to look breathtaking at times, its the character interactions, how they play off each other, that work in this movie's advantage. The biggest problem with this movie's story is the release structure. This is part one of six, and it really feels like the first of six films. Even with something like Alphamon, the stakes feel considerably lower, its clear that Alphamon is not the big threat tri. is building up to. It's hard to even compare it to an early season villain like Devimon was back in Adventure, but that's because they had to learn about what they could do on the island. This is after the events of Adventure and 02, and while there is still room for the team to grow in power, they're still extremely powerful as is.
The presentation is strong, not flawless, there are some character designs I'm not a huge fan of, Mimi comes off as a little bland now in this new style, and there is one song in the score that is quite ear grating, but overall the presentation is solid. All the characters have that air of being older, while still being very recognizable. One thing that is strange to see going in though is how they show the height of the Digidestined. By the looks of it, Digimon doesn't get taller as they get older, so what was once partners noticeably shorter than the kids now look tiny by comparison. Agumon now goes up to Tai's thigh, it just looks awkward now if you're used to how the cast looked in Adventure and 02. The human world is fine, and the team do go into the Digital world eventually, allowing for the human world to look more "normal" if you would. In terms of the score, the soundtrack is a mix of both the English dub and the Japanese dub of Adventure. While the intro to the film is a remix of the English intro, and one I'm honestly not a fan of, the main Digivolution theme is Brave Heart, the Japanese Digivolution theme and synced together with a new Digivolution animation that's far more colourful than the original show's. I honestly love this new Digivolution animation, though apart of me wishes they tried the 3D model thing again. In the original show, for Ultimate and Mega Evolution of Agumon and Gabumon, along with the Digivice and Crest used in the Ultimate Level Digivolution, they used 3D animations to make the effects stand out more. This was even carried over into 02 with some of the background effects for the Armour Digivolution, along with. Davis and Ken's Ultimate and Mega Digivolutions. I can go further, but I'm sure you can get a general idea. Granted, 3D models were probably used in the animation process but styled in a way to make them look 2D, I just wished that, if that's right, they let the 3D models stand out more for the Digivolutions.
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| FINALLY, the goggles have a use for something other then deciding who the leader is! |
It's hard for me to review this movie on its own merits because it's clearly just the start of a story, and while many of you could say that I do that for TV shows, individual episodes are clear-cut stories, and I review them based on how well they've handled presenting themselves. In that regard, Reunion did do a good job, I wanted to see more the moment I finished watching it, but if you're looking for a movie you can watch that's self-contained, you're going to want to steer clear of this. Its a series of movies written like they're a TV show. I'll give a full summary of views once I review Chapter 6. When that happened, I don't know, as there are reasons this is currently only going to Chapter 4 for now. I'll see you back next week for Chapter 2, and on Sunday for the Lego AT-TE review.
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