CW: Domestic abuse, mental illness, trauma
Spoilers for: A Silent Voice, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, Other Digimon franchise installments
So, I just watched Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning; and even with my low expectations from the previous installment and my mixed feelings towards 02, it honestly went below the bar I set and kept digging past the bedrock. There will be spoilers to explain why, and also spoilers for other iterations of the franchise.
Before I get to into the major problems with the movie, I will again go over the positives I have. The animation is indeed impressive, and I did enjoy the music score as well. Regrettably, I cannot say much positive about the plot and characters apart from a scene early on that suggests they walked back the end of the last movie (with Tai in public office attempting to open up relations between the real world and digital world like in the TV anime).
As mentioned at the top; the real focus of the movie is quite heavy, centering around Ukkomon and its tamer Rui. I will likely get into more detail in the future, however; the bottom line is this- Rui claims to be the first human to partner with a Digimon, with the timeframe being right before the Highton View Terrace incident in the OVA. This would be an intriguing idea... were it not for the other side to this backstory.
Rui was raised in a household with a terminally ill father and an abusive mother when Ukkomon entered the story. Though at first it seemed his life was improving, it was later revealed that Ukkomon's solution was to take control of Rui's parents like human puppets. I intend to flesh this out more in the future; but this is just the worst way to handle this storyline. It's not like it's impossible for this franchise to do it well- one of my favorite aspects of my favorite season; Tamers made the trauma build naturally over the course of the story. Ukkomon's actions in this movie still pale in comparison to Dr. Kurata functionally committing the digital world equivalent of genocide in Savers/Data Squad.
Here, it feels misguided at best and downright harmful at worst; indirectly suggesting that the model Ukkomon set forth is beneficial, if not vital for the concept to work. Clearly, they aimed at my heart and hit me in my stomach, to paraphrase the famous muckraking piece.
There's another piece from FilmInk that goes into the film's mishandling of abuse; and it was a major help for writing this. To put this into further context, this would be analogous to A Silent Voice being a work about perpetuating the cycle of bullying based on disability rather than trying to break it. It's not a movie for the faint of heart, but it's also one I consider excellent and a far better story about this topic than this. It's a story that actually explores the effects these acts have on not just their victims, but their perpetrators.
I'm not saying it's impossible for a Digimon story to be a parable for toxic relationships alongside its spectacle; just that I've had specific issues with 02's handling of them in the past. Here, however; is where it's inherently clear to me their additions to the canon have done more harm than good. It especially doesn't help that there other re-imaginings that avoided this movie's pitfalls; one of which came out the same year as this movie.
Since I invoked Into the Spider-Verse in comparison to Last Kizuna; I think it's only fitting I do the same here for Across the Spider-Verse. Not only did that film succeed in every area this one failed in, it also proved to be the ideal counterargument to Rui's dilemma here. Specifically, I would like to highlight the scene where Miles openly rejects the idea that tragedy is helpful; let alone necessary to be a better hero.
MILES: "So we're supposed to just let people die because some algorithm says it's supposed to happen?!" (Lyla shockingly says "whoa, whoa") "You realize how messed up that sounds?!"
MIGUEL/2099: "You have a choice between saving one person or saving an entire world, every world."
MILES: "I can do both! Spider-Man always..."
PETER B. : (Dejectedly) "...Not always."
Right after that, under the subtle guidance of Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk; Miles breaks off from Miguel's leadership; inspiring numerous other variants to follow suit. This is a scene that not only makes for a compelling moment in the story; but shows how well it understands the characters.
By contrast, this movie plays out less like a movie focused on the 02 cast and more like "The Tragedy of Rui and Ukkomon, featuring the cast of Digimon 02." Despite the movie's attempts to claim otherwise, it is not a happy ending. Whether or not you consider the changes made to the timeline, Ukkomon was still complicit in Rui's trauma and actively made the problem worse with the misguided attempts to solve it. Likewise, Rui is likely facing down time in jail or a psychiatric hospital for what he's done; if not both.
Again, hate to repeat what I said during my posts on Last Evolution Kizuna; but how do you make the distant finale of the 02 season look like a more coherent ending? What is the point of trying to use these characters again if you're going to continually make them feel like supporting players in their own story?! It's just simply and completely unbelievable!
While this is far from the first time a Digimon adaptation has dealt with dark subject matter; this is the first time I've been utterly disgusted by how it fundamentally mishandled the story. Not even Frontier's mixed results with their season bungled things this badly.
This season never had a universally-loved reputation; but this movie is easily a symbol of everything wrong with 02 and modern Digimon in a single 87-minute package. It's another story that likely would have fared better as an OVA miniseries with more time to flesh out the characters and plot. As it stands, Digimon 02: The Beginning is functionally the end of any further desire to see this iteration of the franchise. A full review will follow after I watch the English dub and post thoughts on that as well. That is all for now, and I really need something to drink,
No comments:
Post a Comment