Digimon Adventure Tri. M04 Review: Unexpected Origin Story

Digimon Adventure Tri. Movie #4: Loss, Part 1

Well, I certainly didn't expect that beautiful, beautiful prologue piece that was absolutely super-meta, answering a lot about the origin story of the Adventure/02 continuity and the significance of which is probably lost to more casual viewers. I'll discuss it last, though, and talk about the rest of the episode first.

'Loss' is the fourth movie in this series, and I've made it clear that the slow start to the first three movies, while having its good points, does make the whole series when viewed as a whole feel like a very slow-paced story with the occasional climax. But the fact that it's a series of movies means that the proportion that's going to be relegated to simple buildup also increases. But 'Loss' comes with the advantage that the previous movie actually ends with a big enough cliffhanger to justify having a slower buildup, in that the partner Digimon have lost their memories, and the Chosen Children need to re-bond with them. Oh, an we're in a very familiar lakeside in File Island again, which is definitely tugging at the heart strings. It's a very nice series of cute moments and a very significant mixture of melancholy and happiness. Melancholy that the movie makes it clear just how much history that the Chosen Children and their partners have lose, but also happiness that they rekindled their bonds so quickly, all but Sora and Pyokomon (Yokomon? Pyocomon?), who quickly got off on the wrong foot.

But other than those pair, the rest of the Chosen Children bond very quickly with their partners, with only Joe and Bukamon not getting any real focus beyond a brief scene of them facing each other. But the rest? Making use of last movie's focus on them, we get to see that, yes, Mochimon is still very fascinated with Koushiro's curiousity about everything that's going on, and his Oolong tea obsession, which is a recurring theme last movie (did Tentomon love Oolong tea in the original series? I cannot remember) is shown as well as a nice bit. It's very nice that Koushiro, while not completely ignoring Mochimon and still exchanges dialogue with him, is also still very much intent in uncovering the secrets of the digital world, the same qualities that drew Mochimon to Koushiro in the first place.

Nyaromon finds a very comfortable scent in Hikari (thanks to the whistle that inexplicably appears there), and there's a nice bit of immaturity on Nyaromon's part when she asks to be thrown into the air like the other babies, which surprises Hikari -- Tailmon is such an adult thanks to her default state being the adult stage, but now she's as immature and childlike as the others and Hikari notes that allowing Tailmon to return to a childlike state is a blessing in disguise. Tokomon just goes 'kay, if you say so' when Takeru tells them that they're friends, Tanemon's very high-pitched, panicked shrill of 'don't eat me!!' is absolutely hilarious, Yamato doesn't really make a push to befriend Tsunomon but the end of this part shows them attached to each other anyway... it's all fun stuff, and we do kind of need the longer screentime to establish this.

Sora, meanwhile, starts off at the wrong foot with Pyokomon -- quite literally, as she steps on Pyokomon's petals. Sora is smothering with Pyokomon, insisting that they are friends and they should be friends, ironically repeating the same character arc that she herself went through in the late Etemon/early Vamdemon stages of Adventure, which is her own struggles with her own smothering mother who wants Sora to be more like her. And as teenagers are wont to do, they rebel when they are pushed. Adventure Sora's character arc is often criticized for reducing a strong, female character into one that ends up conforming to the stereotypical woman, but I see it differently. Sora's tomboy phase during early Adventure was her acting out because she's got problems with her mother, a combination of teenage rebellion and soul-searching, when really what's true to Sora is somewhere in-between the extreme tomboy image she tries to become in Adventure, ending up in 02 and Tri as, well, Action Team Mom, basically.

But Sora ends up making the same mistakes that her mother did, and pushes too hard for a friendship with Pyokomon, who quickly goes all edgy-teen and refuses to talk to her. It's the start of a conflict that runs throughout the movie, and while it doesn't end up getting resolved as well as I hoped it would, it's still a very interesting conflict that fits in with the 'Digimon loses memories' storyline.

The episode ends with the baby-level Digimon evolving into their child-level states after lunch, a nice nod to how in the earliest stages of Adventure evolving depends on how full they are. Oh, and I guess I have to talk about Taichi a little. He's regained his group leader status and confidence, rallying them to help search for Meicoomon because she's one of them now, but he's still not completely there yet, looking to Yamato for a reassuring nod. I guess it's also a sign that his new form of leadership considers the feelings of others more, or something?

Meanwhile, we don't get to see much of the other characters, other than the fact that Meiko ends up showing up at the meeting point too late to join in the other Chosen Children to save the world, which, considering Meicoomon's absolutely livid that her partner isn't around, is also going to be a conflict point for this movie. Mei also gets a brief flashback of crackling computers, a fire and a psychotic Meicrackmon, so she is actually hiding something, some dark past. We get a brief bit of Maki's answering machine, showing that she's disappeared, but not much from the woman herself in the present day.

Oh, and there's a hilarious bit when Takeru tries to communicate with the real world with his D-Terminal, which absolutely fails. Poor D-Terminals, they're kind of useless other than to store Armor Evolution Digi-Eggs, yeah?

And then we loop back to the stylistic prequel, something that was only implied in the dialogue of 02, and something that is later extrapolated from future unconnected series like Tamers and other supplementary material. See, 02 established that there are four Digimon Holy Beasts (or Sovereigns, which IMO is the cooler English translation) that ruled over the Digital World, battled the Dark Masters but were sealed... all prior to the start of Adventure. We only ever see Qinglongmon throughout 02 (though the four as a group would play a huge role in the alternate-universe Tamers), where he gives us all the backstory, and the Dark Masters in Adventure make no real references to the Holy Beasts. The thing is, while it's a cool backstory, everything about them feels so disconnected when we eventually learn about it in 02. The Dark Masters tie-in is cool but then they've already been defeated in Adventure, and Qinglongmon's only real contribution was as the mission control, basically, and other than worldbuilding it doesn't really change the goals of the 02 protagonists.

But tying in the Dark Masters/Holy Beasts backstory to Tri? And showing that there were other groups of Chosen Children who saved the Digital World in the past before Taichi's group? We've seen international Chosen Children in 02, but why not in the past? Apparently a different group of Chosen Children battled the Dark Masters during their first rise, and during the ensuing battle, when they were near death, four of the five partner Digimon evolved into the Holy Beasts -- Qinglongmon, Zhuqiaomon, Baihumon and Xuanwumon... but the fifth is destroyed and left for dead.

And the kicker? The two Chosen Children most prominently featured are actually Daigo and Maki, and Maki's Megadramon (great choice for a partner -- Megadramon is a personal favourite in Digimon World and the GBA games) was the one that was slain in the conflict. It's unclear who transformed the other four partners (Orochimon, Triceramon, Hippogriffmon and... -googles- LoaderLiomon, for those who are wondering), whether it's Homeostasis or Yggdrassil or something else. But the flashback is told in a well-animated, shaky-old-style-video style, voiceless and only instrumental manner, with dialogue only spoken like old-style movies as subtitles on a black screen, only for the distraught Maki to reflect that things grow stronger when they're chosen, but what happens to those that aren't, those that are discarded?

It's a very excellent backstory that really sells Maki's grief and motivations in ten short minutes, and as we've seen before in the past with other characters whose partners were slain -- Ken and Takeru in Adventures, but also far more devastatingly Juri in Tamers, who, like Maki, never got her partner back and fell into a dark spiral afterwards. Suddenly the revelation of Daigo and Maki as former Chosen Children puts a lot of their previous conversations and scenes in a greater light -- especially their talk about letting go of their childhood shows a tragic underlaying meaning because he's not talking about Taichi's group, but about Maki herself. 
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Digimon Adventure Tri. Movie #4: Loss, Part 2

So you know what happens when you walk into a movie blind without seeing the posters or trailers? Well, I don't know about you guys, but I literally lost my shit when Mugendramon shows up roaring like the god damned Godzilla randomly in-between a moment of character introspection. 

MUGENDRAMON, MOTHERFUCKERS!

I love Mugendramon. Giant cyborg frankenstein Terminator dinosaur-dragon of death that he is. He's the final boss in the old Digimon World PlayStation game, made up of various parts of other cyborg Digimon, and he looks absolutely badass. And him rendered in this wonderful, wonderful new animation? Worth the price of admission alone.

Of course, Mugendramon honestly has a pretty weak showing this time around. Sure, he rampages and is absolutely unstoppable, but he absolutely fails to kill -- or even hurt -- eight children and their eight child-level Digimon that are unable to evolve. Sure, he rampages and he launches the mother of all cannon blasts onto the kids, but that somehow... teleports them all around the Digital World instead of killing them. Because plot device. 

So, yeah, the fourth movie, despite the glorious inclusion of Mugendramon and the pretty spiffy prologue, doesn't quite do enough, and it's easily weaker than the first three despite the far more epic action scenes. And this part is an easy one to diss. It starts off strong if still slow -- Taichi and Koushiro continue to figure out what's going on with the distortions as they try to track Meicoomon, the group is stable enough and generally happy (other than Sora) but have their heads screwed on tightly enough to know their goal is to find Meicoomon... who, by the way, is missing Mei and in her grief goes berserk again. Everyone's bonding well with their partners other than Sora and Biyomon, who continue their tsundere game from the previous part. Sora gets a nice moment where she sits all emo, and Taichi and Yamato try to talk to her but realize that they have no clue how to solve social situations like this because it's Sora that usually resolves the team's conflict, and as Taichi points out whenever Sora has an emotional problem she tends to solve it alone, or with Biyomon's help. It's all pretty great stuff character-wise since Sora's the sole poster Chosen Child in this movie, but before we get any significant conclusion to their conversation, Sora's still sad and Taichi and Yamato are horrible at playing Sora, but all this is interrupted by MUGENDRAMON MOTHERFUCKERS

Mind you, as much as I joke about it, it's still a pretty great moment. Taichi says all the wrong things, Yamato is at the same time concerned yet pissed off that Sora isn't saying what's wrong, and Sora's full of tears, angry at her two closest friends for not caring for her while they're trying to. It's a pretty awesome, complex dynamic that, well, gets interrupted by the Mugendramon attack.

Which inexplicably splits up the group apart (with very few stuck with their Digimon partners) across various locales in the Digital World, and apparently Meiko shows up face-down in the hot scorching desert. Biyomon continues to be a bitch, stopping only when she realizes that she's been so horrible to Sora that she's reduced to nothing but a silent, teary wreck, before quickly being distracted with the near-dead Meiko in the desert.

Yes, it's probably Meicoomon's doing, intentional or not, that warped everyone, but it's not clear on so many levels -- is she sane when she's doing it? Did Meiko come by herself? Did Meicoomon draw Meiko in? Who's Mugendramon working for, and why is he silent? Only the last question is answered as the movie goes on, but the rest remain mostly unanswered.

In fact, the real-world plotline raises even more questions as Daigo hacks into the missing Maki's laptop. He finds out correspondence with Gennai, some mysterious references to Yggdrasil (dun dunnn DUNNNN!) before being confronted by Hackmon. But we get no answers, no introdump, not even a cryptic reference to the true nature of Gennai or Meicoomon. 

So yeah. This part is awesome simply by its inclusion of Mugendramon, but simultaneously is brought down by it just showing up out of nowhere and separating the team for no real reason other than 'plot plot plot'. The Sora/Biyomon storyline is semi-decent, and Sora interacting with Taichi and Yamato are great, but after Mugendramon tries to murder-kill everyone it's the last you'll see of the plotlines before they're almost magically resolved. So... yeah. Not the most well-paced movie, even if I'm gushing over Mugendramon all the time it's pretty uneven, not being satisfactory in the teen drama, giant monster battle or sci-fi mystery sections. 

Digimon Easter Egg Corner: (because it's honestly time for one of these)

• Meicoomon shacks up in the train carriage in the Dragon's Eye Lake, which was the setting for the third episode in Adventure with Seadramon, and the train would be a recurring setting, as well as the final spot that the Chosen Children leaves the Digital World in at the end of Adventure.
• Mugendramon (Machinedramon in the English dub) is one of the four Dark Masters, briefly seen in this movie's prologue. In Adventure, he was the second-last Dark Master to fall, slain by WarGreymon. The fact that Mugendramon doesn't say anything at all (while not chatty, he definitely speaks a fair bit in the anime series) seems to mean that something's up with the dude.
• Mugendramon's blast sent our heroes to various locales visited primarily in the first season of Adventures:
• Sora, Biyomon and Mei are in the desert with electrical poles (the Gear Savannah), a location that featured, appropriately enough, near a Pyokomon village where Biyomon and Sora bonded in the original Adventure series and unlocked Birdramon.
• Joe's group are at the top of Infinity Mountain, where likewise his partner Gomamon evolved into Ikkakumon.
• Mimi and Tentomon are teleported in front of TonosamaGekomon's (a.k.a. ShogunGekomon's) palace, where Mimi ended up in when the group split up in the post-Etemon arc.
• Takeru ends up in the Village of Beginnings, where he and Patamon ended up in when the group was split up prior to battling Devimon, and we get a brief cameo by Elecmon, the custodian of the baby Digimon there. In Adventure, Takeru and Patamon fought and later befriended Elecmon during their stay there.
• In another nice nod to maturing dynamics in Adventure, in the earlier parts of the anime Mimi used to tease Palmon about her weird plant monster look, but here she gushes over how beautiful she is. Aw, Mimi, you do care.
• Yggdrasil was a concept introduced in later Digimon series (most prominently in Digimon Savers and the one-shot movie X-Evolution, but also various other manga and games), the master computer that reigns over the Digital World, and tends to play an antagonistic role when it decides that Digimon are a virus, or that humanity is a blight, et cetera. The Royal Knights (among them Alphamon, Jesmon and Omegamon, to name a few that's shown up here) are a group of powerful Ultra-level Digimon whose task is enforcing the will of Yggdrassil. 

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Digimon Adventure Tri. Movie #4: Loss, Part 3

I'm not sure why the previous movie lasted for five episodes/parts, and the fourth movie reverted to the four-episode formula. I honestly think that the previous movie hit on all the emotional and action beats simply because of the length it's given, allowing it to fully realize the scope of what that particular part was trying to do, whereas the first two movies are simply, well, not that ambitious. This part is where the fourth movie falters, which is a shame. The fourth movie easily has the most memorable action scenes down pat, it's the movie that starts answering a lot of the questions raised in previous movies, it's the one that moves the plot forwards a lot... yet at the same time it feels disjointed because plot lines aren't give enough time to breathe.

And a huge reason, I think, was separating everyone up onto different locales, establishing where they ended up in the Digital World... and then doing absolutely nothing but a glorified montage before bringing them back together. All it really does is bring Meiko, Sora and Biyomon together for a scene, and the movie didn't really need to jump through so many hoops to get there. And the conflict kind of... resolves itself. I wouldn't say abruptly, because we did have some scenes of Biyomon slowly acting less of a bitch to Sora thanks to the two of them putting aside their little spat to help out Meiko, and later Sora risking herself to save Biyomon when Mugendramon attacks again, but on the other hand we didn't really get into Biyomon's mind enough to really understand her sudden change of heart. I guess the scene on the boat was supposed to be that, with Biyomon telling Sora she's a big soft idiot, and she likes that in her... but it doesn't feel anywhere as well-done as any of the previous partner-bonding moments in the previous movies.

We also get some discussion between Daigo and Hackmon, who introduces himself as a messenger for Homeostasis, who also tells us that Gennai, who was the previous caretaker of balance, have fallen into darkness, as well as telling us that Maki has been allied-slash-manipulated by Yggdrasil, and the two of them are trying to use 'Libra', a.k.a. Meicoomon. Then Hackmon disappears, and we don't see Daigo for the rest of the movie. It does answer some questions, mostly just who's allied with who. Hackmon and Homeostasis are one team, while Yggdrasil, Gennai and Maki are on the other team. The thing is, the movie doesn't really give an establishing moment as to who the fuck Homeostasis and Yggdrasil are, and even if you watched the previous one that only answers Homeostasis's identity. I'm not a big fan of unnecessary recaps, but the fact that these movies are separated by a half-year gap means that the movie really should've kind of made some of its introdump less cryptic. 

What's not ambiguous at all, though, was Maki's motivations behind it all. Between the flashbacks in the previous part, and Daigo's flashbacking to the prologue, as well as the brief scene of Maki wandering the Digital World later in this episode, it's clear that Maki forcing the Reboot and allying herself with Yggdrassil to accomplish that was a way to bring back her old partner, Megadramon. Or, well, its child-level form, Bakumon.

The rest of the Chosen Children/partner Digimon split up would, in theory, raise a lot of interesting character interaction potentials. I dunno, maybe Biyomon feels more comfortable as Meiko's partner? Maybe one of the other Digimon partners latch on to another Chosen Child? But all we get are the different humans telling the Digimon stuck with them how nice they were with their original partner. It doesn't last too long before we go into quick-montage territory, but it did feel slow and unnecessary, especially after the tension that was caused by Meicoomon and Mugendramon showing up in the previous part just evaporating. The moment with Team Yamato was especially grating as none of it really felt like it mattered. Did we nee to spend so much time repeating what Mimi and Tentomon just said, just with different partner Digimon? Did we need the train scene? The only real moment during the first fifteen minutes of this episode that really resonated was Hikari reflecting that Plotmon is happier this way, with all the memories of her abuse prior to meeting Hikari being erased.

And, yes, the Takeru/Elecmon scene kind of establishes that the other Digimon we saw from Adventure are all around (though the jury's still out for those that died in the human world, I think) and mostly the same, just, y'know, rebooted.

Of course, it's not all filler. The Sora/Biyomon/Meiko stuff was... serviceable, even if the eventual resolution leave something to be desired. Meicoomon finally confronts Meiko, and Meicoomon attacks Meiko with a wind blade, angry that her partner didn't come looking for her like the other eight. It's a nice, raw moment of reconciliation, where Meicoomon's angry at Mei for not coming after her, and Mei's angry for all the shit Meicoomon's put her through... but then accepts her partner, faults and all. Of course, 'Ken' and Mugendramon show up again to interrupt all this mushy stuff. Well, at least that felt resolved with Meiko and Meicoomon hugging each other. The fight causes another montage of portals opening, allowing the other Chosen Children to return which really brings the question of what the point of the last fifteen minutes was if all it seemed to do was to get Sora, Biyomon and Meiko separated.

'Ken' reveals himself to be Young Gennai, but he's not the nice mentor we're familiar with, as proved with his creepy manhandling of Meicoomon and that lick of Sora's face is absolutely sending NO vibes, which at least causes Gennai, who seems to going to be the main villain (if not the second-in-command to Yggdrasil) to have this absolutely creepy vibe. There's some revelations about how Yggdrasil was the one that caused the reboot instead of Homeostasis, I think? It's not entirely clear.

Biyomon attacks Gennai, Mugendramon bats her around, Sora hugs Biyomon as Mugendramon sends a big yellow beam of death... and then somehow Taichi and Yamato manage to... do something about the beam or some such? The action in this bit is unclear, really, because it looks like they deflected the beam instead of grabbing Sora and Biyomon away, which would make more sense. Also not quite making sense: Plotmon's Puppy Howling disabling Mugendramon. Plotmon is a child-level. Mugendramon is an Ultimate-level. I can get things like Biyomon surviving being whacked aside by Mugendramon, but Mugendramon is a Digimon that took on all eight of the partner Digimon in their Perfect forms and didn't even break a sweat... so either it's just a cheap way to get the kids out in a way that didn't quite make sense (why not like, have the Digimon throw a smokescreen by attacking the ground, or something?) or Mugendramon is really an inferior copy. Or something.

Gennai and Mugendramon chase after the kids and their Digimon, who are unable to evolve, trying to sow dissent by saying that the partners are enslaved... but it's a throwaway line that didn't really manage to reach them. Now if Gennai said all that to Biyomon before you attacked and went all creepy molester on Sora, maybe you'd be successful in selling your 'for the Digimon' spiel. And honestly, beyond the short picnic at the beginning of the movie, the interactions between the various partners didn't really felt earned, so to speak.

Ultimately, the final few minutes of this part just wraps up the Sora/Biyomon plotline as they acknowledge each other, and the team sets off to make a plan, splitting up and working like a well-oiled team. Meanwhile, Gennai brings in another Dark Master, MetalSeadramon, who proceeds to continue rampaging without causing any casualties. MetalSeadramon, like Mugendramon, is also mute in this movie, and he's definitely a lot chattier than Mugendramon in the original anime, so there's definitely something up with those two. Psycho-Gennai's doing enough talking for three villains, mind you, being easily a very entertaining villain as he puts the Chosen Children's previous choices to allow the Reboot to happen in doubt as they briefly entertain the idea that they fucked up in thinking that the Reboot really is the solution when it's Yggdrasil's will. For... for some reason.

It could've been a lot better in so many regards -- the Digimon/partner relationship, the Yggdrassil/Homeostasis revelations, to some extent Sora/Biyomon, the action scenes -- and the sheer amount of wasted potential is just a huge shame. Mind you, the movie's still enjoyable in spite of all its problems. Meiko/Meicoomon was amazing, some parts of the Sora/Biyomon story was still pretty great, Gennai as a villain is entertaining, the revelations about Maki and her role in all this was well-done, and the fanboy in me is just geeking out at Mugendramon and MetalSeadramon. But at the same time there's still the nagging feeling that this could all be so much better.


Digimon Easter Egg Corner:

• Team Taichi, previously stuck in a nondescript jungle, reach the plateau with television screens, glimpsed briefly during the Yukidarumon episode in Adventure.  
• The giant cruise ship is also a setting from Adventure, piloted by Cockatorimon during the Etemon arc. Despite being anchored near a lake in this movie, it was originally made for desert cruising. Because Digimon.

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Digimon Adventure Tri. Movie #4: Loss, Part 4

Man, that series of transformation sequence really killed the momentum of the final battle, didn't it? Jeez, I love Digimon transformation sequences as much as the next nostalgic kid, but at the same time I remembered how they did the Alphamon/Omegamon battle in the first movie, how Agumon and Gabumon just go through their adult, perfect and ultimate forms in quick succession before combining, showing us their various forms without breaking the momentum of the final battle. Even in the second and third movies, the bulk of stock footage-ing happens before or early of their respective final battles, instead of stopping every five minutes to show how Tentomon evolves into Kabuterimon, then AlturKabuterimon, then HerculesKabuterimon. And the thing is, the child-to-adult-to-perfect-to-ultimate transformation scene takes up way, way more time than the simple child-to-adult transformation, which is a lot less of a momentum killer. 

And we had three of those! Biyomon, Tentomon and Patamon all go into Ultimate forms with full transformation sequences. That was definitely not necessary. That said, though, the action scenes are spectacular as they tend to be in these movies. 

There are some things being wrapped up too, of course, as MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon falls to the combined might of five Ultimate-level Digimon -- considering they both individually fell to a lone WarGreymon in one-v-one battle in the past, having WarGreymon assisted by four others as powerful (and inarguably more powerful, in Seraphimon's case) just absolutely turns the tides.

Sora goes absolutely action hero as she jumps onto Mugendramon's claws to try and break Biyomon free from his grip, and while I could argue about Mugendramon's badass decay in his complete ineffectiveness of taking down Child-level Digimon, it's still a pretty badass scene. How's Sora's ribcage not shattered, though? It's the kind of 'partners bond and life-risking unlocks evolution' thing that the very first few episodes of Digimon had, but instead of simply allowing Biyomon to evolve into Birdramon, she goes all the way to her Ultimate form and becomes Hououmon. 

We also get a nice scene of Maki's reunion with Bakumon in a very beautiful, dreamlike field of flowers, and Bakumon acts just like Biyomon did. Maki's as pushy, if not more pushy, than Sora was in the beginning of the movie, and Bakumon just absolutely rejects this stranger. It's heartbreaking, really, and yes, Maki's not all right in the head, but you can't help but feel pity for her. She makes all the wrong decisions, and it's actually not hard to see how her story runs parallel to the spotlight Chosen Child in at least the second through fourth movies. The most obvious is this movie, of course, but in the third movie, she is also withholding crucial information from her partner Daigo, similar to how Takeru's doing the same thing about Patamon's infection. In the second movie it's less apparent, but she does have some discussion with Daigo about balancing life as a Digimon partner and real-life responsibilities, the same troubles that Joe is struggling with. We don't get to see much of her after that scene (and freaked-out Maki is terrifying) but I'm definitely far more invested in her character than I thought I would.

So, yeah, the Child Digimon put up a relatively good fight even if none of them managed to actually stun Mugendramon the way Plotmon did in the previous part, they did manage to fool Mugendramon with holograms, make use of the icy terrain to evade Mugendramon's cannons, and both Patamon and Joe go straight for a more manageable target than a giant walking dinosaur-shaped arsenal -- Gennai. Joe straight up goes all action hero and wrestles Gennai to the ground, prompting Gomamon to send an army of fish to whack Gennai in the face, and for Palmon to tie him down. It doesn't last long, but it's still a far more believable and entertaining effort than their previous ways of cheesing out of escaping Mugendramon. Joe's really proving himself awesome in this movie, isn't he? Between lunging at Gennai and catching a falling Sora later on during the Ultimate clash, dude's proving himself to be quite the action hero.

Gabumon manages to surprise MetalSeadramon a little with a blast of fire, but he's not as awesome as Plotmon and it really only causes MetalSeadramon to submerge for like twenty seconds before rampaging again. Taichi and Yamato throwing their partners to safety while they are pulled under, before talking to their partners through some trippy mind-space where they acknowledge their bond and boom, straight WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon... is a bit too quick, I think, and while Yamato and Gabumon have their brief "should I call you Yamato-kun or just Yamato" thing going on to show their bond, Taichi and Agumon don't... really? I guess it's just a matter of trust between the two pairs, and the moment that the bond is re-ignited it just re-unlocks something they've unlocked before? Nice to know that Taichi and Yamato don't have to get shot in the heart by angels again to unlock Ultimate forms. That shot of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon bursting out of the lake is just bad ass, and it's a very brutal, quick yet absolutely awesome set of action sequences as the two original Ultimates take down MetalSeadramon. It's absolutely effortless and brutal... and honestly, considering WarGreymon solo'd MetalSeadramon in the original, having two of equal power means poor MetalSeadramon just stands no real chance.

It's cheesy, it kind of comes out of nowhere, sure, but I guess I'd rather have a quick 'hey, we trust you humans' moment than to drag it out through the entire runtime. On a less spectacular but still awesome vein, Hikari and Plotmon are the final pair to unlock evolution, though it's a more modest Child-to-Adult evolution so Tailmon can protect Hikari from a falling chunk of ice. 

Meanwhile, over on Team Sora, the Child-level Digimon managed to trick Mugendramon into burying himself under an iceberg, but if Tailmon can break an iceberg so can fucking Mugendramon. We go through the Sora/Biyomon moment, and we get Hououmon versus Mugendramon, and it's pretty awesome to see Hououmon and Mugendramon duke it out. But while all this is going on, Gennai runs over to Meiko, who's hidden in the ship while the more battle-hardened original eight fought the Dark Masters. And Gennai gets really up and personal with her. It's not quite as creepy as licking Sora in the face, but shit, man. In retrospect, while Biyomon's evolution did kick-start Tentomon and Patamon's confidence to them taking down Mugendramon... probably not the smartest idea to leave Meiko and Meicoomon on the ship alone, Sora. 

Tentomon and Patamon both go Ultimate as well, and it feels a lot less earned. It's definitely a lot more symbolic on Takeru's part, though, where he's confident enough to let Patamon fight the moment his partner wants to, learning from the previous movie to trust his partner as an equal and not just a weaker buddy to protect. And besides, Takeru and Patamon missed achieving Ultimate evolution in their spotlight movie, I guess they get to do so now. The three Ultimates literally spend a few seconds tearing Mugendramon apart, blowing him up with a combined attack... and really, if we didn't spend four times the length of the fight to see three stock evolution sequences it'd be a lot less of an anticlimax. 

A little part of me is kind of sad that Mugendramon and MetalSeadramon are turned into voiceless flunkies that die quickly -- though at least they die to multiple Ultimates -- but at the same time once I got past the stock transformation sequences and see the beautifully-rendered action scenes the fanboy part wants to forgive the showmakers.

Yes, MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon are defeated, but the movie still ends in the cliffhanger with our heroes at easily their worst point. Their victory is pyrrhic because Gennai chokes Meiko and apparently snaps her neck, causing Meicoomon to go absolutely insane, evolve into Meicrackmon and the movie ends with an angry Meicrackmon, Gennai laughing like a maniac and telling Meicrackmon to destroy the world, our heroes all gathered in the ice fields with five out of eight de-powered into baby forms, and Meiko unconscious, maybe dead. Meiko and Meicoomon aren't protected by the 02 epilogue, unlike the original eight, so their deaths, while still unlikely in my opinion, isn't something that's entirely out of the question either. It's a very 'WTF' way to end the movie with another six-month gap between this than the next, the one true cliffhanger without anything really good to come out of it.

So, yeah. This movie is very, very uneven, but it manages to introduce a brand-new villain, Gennai, that's easily one of the creepiest that the Digimon franchise's ever done. Whether he is truly an avatar reflecting Yggdrasil's wishes or just a particularly hammy underling, or if it's Piemon's mysterious black ball that corrupted him, his rant about how his main goal to do the Reboot is to unite all the Digimon in a front to wipe out humanity is a nice bit. Yes, the movie could've been a bit less oblique with the revelations about Homeostasis and Yggdrasil, and it did have a lot of padding in its second half, but it still accomplishes what it set out to do. Still, the fourth movie's easily the weakest of the main four, trading off consistency in storytelling for huge action pieces and flashbacks. 

Digimon Easter Egg Corner:

• While this time it did include MetalGarurumon freezing him first, the way MetalSeadramon is killed in this movie -- destroyed by WarGreymon's Brave Tornado -- is also the same way that he died in Adventures. 
• So this never came up before, but during evolution sequences, the names of the Digimon in various languages slide across the Digivices in different languages. In a nice touch and acknowledgement to the changes made by the English localization, the English words and names for Plotmon, Tailmon and HolyAngemon all use their dub names of Salamon, Gatomon and MagnaAngemon (the Japanese kanji are still their original Japanese names, naturally). However, rather inconsistently, AtlurKabuterimon is still rendered as AtlurKabuterimon in English, instead of his localized English name of MegaKabuterimon.