Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're continuing the "Digimon Adventure tri." series by taking a look at the fifth entry that came out in 2017. That movie is "Digimon Adventure tri.: Coexistence".
Now, as much as I'd like to say that I'm looking forward to watching this movie, I have noticed a bit of a pattern. You see, upon looking back at the "Digimon Adventure tri." movies I've covered so far, I've noticed that the quality in those movies have been a ridiculously mixed bag. You see, the first movie was really good. It helped set up the plot, and get familiar with our returning characters from the "Digimon Adventure" series. The second movie didn't really have much of a story, and yet it had that throwback to the first season of Digimon's writing. The third movie, while it did have more of a story than the second film, also had a ton of logic issues and story elements that didn't really make a whole lot of sense. And I say that, considering that I have been a fan of Digimon, and seeing how the story played out in "Confession" kinda hurt my brain a bit. The fourth movie definitely picked up on it's plot, while also keeping a nice balance with the throwback to the first season's writing.
So, you can kinda see where I'm going with this. These movies, so far, have not been as great as I thought they were going to be. We're now up to the fifth movie, and I have no idea where this one is going to lean towards, when it comes to the quality of the writing. It could be really good, because the previous entry, which was "Loss", was really solid. So it gives me faith that this movie is going to be just as good. However, it could easily dive right back into the mediocre quality that the second and third movie share. I have no idea. The only way I'm gonna find out if is thing is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Digimon Adventure tri.: Coexistence".
7 minutes later
Did Mimi seriously just say that there are no Digimon that should've never been born? Yeah, I mean Devimon, Myotismon, and the Dark Masters were all just friendly Digimon. Of course they never had evil intentions when the DigiDestined first encountered them. They were all just happy-go-lucky Digimon that would've never harmed a fly. Good lord...I get what Mimi was trying to say, in regards to how Gennai told Meicoomon that she should've never been born, but it still sounded really stupid on Mimi's part.
16 minutes later
OK, as cheesy and as stupid as that pun was, it was still kinda sweet. Granted, I understand that not a lot of people are fans of puns, but I still thought it kinda worked. So, I gotta give them a little bit of props there.
19 minutes later
I think I may have found a problem with this movie, guys. And I'll talk about this later on in the review, but this movie's tone is rather sporadic. It hasn't really been consistent with what it wants to be. Mind you, the movie is still OK. It's just that I wish this movie was a little more consistent with it's tone.
2 minutes later
So Matt is afraid of ghosts...interesting. Granted, I don't remember him ever being afraid of ghosts when I was watching Digimon, but I guess you learn something new everyday, don't you?
11 minutes later
You know, guys, I find it kinda funny how Agumon seems to be the voice of reason over Tai, when it comes to Meicoomon. Especially when you consider up to this point that Agumon has done nothing in this movie, other than talking about food. I just find it a little bit odd that the leader of the DigiDestined is still getting thrown under the bus, even when he's in high school. Just thought I'd share that with you, guys.
3 minutes later
Holy shit, are they actually showing all of the digivolutions on-screen at the same time?! My god, they are. I complained about the pacing on the digivolutions in the previous film. And now, the filmmakers are actually taking that suggestion and putting it to actual use. You know what? Even though they're still showing the god awful CG models for the Digimon in these sequences, at least they're speeding up the process. And that's always a positive.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Digimon Adventure tri.: Coexistence". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Wow. Where the hell do I even start?
Actually, I think I know the perfect place to start. I'm gonna start with writing. Specifically, I want to talk about the movie's tone. I kinda brought it up earlier on in the movie, where it didn't know what it wanted to be with it's tone. It ranges from either being serious, to just being goofy and lighthearted. Now, I totally understand that Digimon usually had that sorta perfect balance. You could totally have serious moments in the show, while also staying true to being lighthearted when it needed to be. But you see, the difference between this movie and the TV show is that the TV show knew when it wanted to be either serious or silly. Now granted, it sometimes leaned towards being more silly than serious, but it still knew what it wanted to be, overall. This movie, on the other hand, has that problem where the moments of when it wanted to be silly just come right out of nowhere. Such as when the DigiDestined are stuck in the Digital World, which has also been wanting to get the DigiDestined out of it's world, which is a bit of a long story in of itself. But anyway, when the DigiDestined are sitting around together at a campfire, they are talking about what has happened to Meicoomon, and how Meiko herself thinks that she's lost faith in the possibility that she and her Digimon aren't partners anymore. And all of this is some really decent stuff, but then it gets broken up when Agumon starts talking about food. Well, to be fair, it was more of Tai bringing up something about sharing, which gets Agumon to bring up food. So that one I can sorta forgive. But the other example I want to bring up is when the DigiDestined are back in the real world. So, they are being chased down by the police, along with their Digimon. And to make a long story short, Izzy ends up putting the Digimon back in the computer world that he made back in the first movie. So now the police are interrogating them on what they did with their Digimon. And then Nishijima manages to turn custody of the DigiDestined over to him. And because they can't go back to their homes, what with reporters hanging around their homes, Nishijima decides that they should lay low for a while until this calms down. So, once they are together at the high school, now that it has been closed down for the summer, they decide to start telling ghost stories. Ignoring the fact that they found out that Meicoomon destroyed a power plant, and there are sightings of Digimon all over the world, they decide to tell ghost stories. And the only reason why I think this scene even exists is that because the DigiDestined have no idea what to do, now that they're in the real world again, they needed to do something to lighten the mood so that they don't get boggled down by what's going on with what's happening to their world currently. And while that may have been the intention here, it still feels really out of place to me. And that's why I believe the tone is rather inconsistent. And when I think about it, even the two movies I mentioned at the start of this, which were "Determination" and "Confession", knew what they wanted to be with their tone. But this movie isn't, and it does sorta bring the movie down a bit.
I haven't really talked about this much in my reviews for these particular movies, but I do want to make mention of the new DigiDestined member, which is Meiko. Up until now, I haven't really mentioned her much, and part of that has do to with my disinterest for her. Now, when I say that, I am not saying that I don't find her to be a bad character. But when compared to the other DigiDestined, she really feels kinda bland. Now that might have to do with the fact that she wasn't part of the group during seasons 1 and 2 of Digimon. So to have her as part of the group just felt kinda out of place to me. Now the other reason why I haven't brought her up much has to do with her Digimon partner, Meicoomon. And the reason why I haven't brought Meicoomon up much at all has to do with spoilers. But I think I can talk about her a bit here in this movie. So, as you've probably noticed in the review for "Loss", Meicoomon goes on a rampage, thanks to Gennai. And no, I'm not calling him Dark Gennai anymore, because it just sounds fucking stupid. But anyway, ever since Gennai told Meicoomon that she should've never been born, she starts going berserk and digivolves to another form. And with Meiko, she's been wondering why she was chosen to be Meicoomon's partner. Because she feels that she has let her Digmon partner down, because she hasn't been around her for as long as she wanted to be. Now the reason why she says that is because whenever she and Meicoomon are together, it's just like normal. But when they're separated, Meicoomon starts to become violent and becomes a monster. This is technically explained by Hackmon, who makes another appearance in this movie. And he basically explains that because of the "reboot", he believes that Meicoomon has gone through some kind of genetic mutation, and it may be too late to save her. And I'm giving you the condensed version, mostly because that if I talked about it anymore in greater detail, it would result in huge spoilers. But I will say that the issue definitely seems to be more focused on Meicoomon in this movie. And we do get more of a backstory as to how Meiko met Meicoomon when they were younger, and how Meicoomon first started to become violent. Now like I said earlier, I'm not really into Meiko, as a character, but I will say that her development in this movie is pretty good. It's just, for me, it was a case of too little, too late. But regardless, I know that there are others who will probably find Meiko more interesting than I do. As for everyone else, the only character who I can make mention of is Agent Himekawa. And I'll be honest, I really don't give a shit about her. The movie tries to make you care about her backstory. About how she wanted to save the Digital World and be reunited with her Digimon partner again. And I would probably care more about her, if she were more interesting. But she really isn't.
So, overall, I can definitely say that the writing in this movie is more of a mixed bag. While it's certainly not as mind confusing as what was shown in "Confession", there are still certain things about this movie that really brings it down a bit. And for me, it just ended up being kinda weak. Now, while I can say that the writing is definitely a step down again, the acting is still pretty good, for the most part. I have noticed that Tai's voice actor sounded a little stilted at times, but it's not something that most people will notice. Especially if you're not watching the English dub for these particular movies. However, if you have gotten into these movies up until this point, then you're not going to mind the acting for these movies. Everyone else turns in a pretty good showing. Nobody here really phones it in, so at least the acting is still consistent with what was in "Loss".
Animation here is still really good, as is the art style. It looks really beautiful and consistent with what was in the previous "Digimon Adventure tri." films. Now believe or not, I'm actually going to praise the digivolutions in this movie. Not so much the CG, because that still hasn't been fixed whatsoever, but more so the pacing of these sequences. You'll recall in my review of the previous movie where I bitched that the digivolutions had to be shown one at a time at a very slow pace. Not just because I had to see the god awful CG models of the Digimon, but because it took forever just to get all of the Digimon to digivolve. Well, somehow, from the previous movie up until this one, they actually showed all of the Digimon on-screen for their digivolutions. Which is fantastic, because if they had this same bullshit from the previous movie, then the pacing in this movie would've been dragged down to a screeching halt. Thankfully, the filmmakers learned their lesson and showed all of the digivolutions on-screen at the same time. I kinda wished they did this in the previous film, but hey, I'm happy to see some level of improvement. Because that shows me that the people who made these movies actually give a shit. Sure, the CG is still shit overall, but I guess we'll see if it's improved on the final movie or not.
Sound-mix is still mixed well, as is the music being pretty good. Overall, guys, am I able to recommend "Digimon Adventure tri.: Coexistence"? Only if you've been following this series of movies up until this point. Because, obviously, I can't recommend to any new viewers of Digimon, and I certainly can't recommend it to non-fans either. As for myself, like I said, this movie is certainly a mixed bag. It leans a little bit towards being rather weak, but it's still not as mind numbingly confusing as "Confession". So, I guess that's somewhat of a positive. And now, I have one more movie to go for this series. And I can't believe we're about to hit the home stretch. I certainly hope that it's going to be better than what was shown here, but considering that this series of movies has been so inconsistent with it's quality, that I am not having a lot of hopes of that happening. But still, like I said, if you are a fan of Digimon, and you've liked what you have seen with these movies so far, then by all means, check it out. As for myself...I think I'm gonna go watch something else. I think I'll go watch my copy of "Venom". Because, why not?
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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