- Released: 21 July 2021
- Directed by: Johane Matte, Francisco Ruiz-Velasco, Andrew L. Schmidt
- Running time: 1 h 44 min
- Rating 2.5/5
Synopsis
The casts from Trollhunters, 3Below and Wizards unite to face their biggest threat yet: the Arcane Order, which plans on starting Earth anew and wiping out all of humanity.
My Thoughts
Okay, so, as I said in my earlier Trollhunters review, the Tales of Arcadia franchise means a lot to me. It offered me a lot of comfort during my depression, catered right to my needs and it's just been one of the shows I've been keeping up with the longest. Enter Rise of the Titans, the final installment in the overarching series.
Needless to say, I was hyped as fuck for this movie. Like, much more than the average movie. Did it deliver... Um...let's just say my opinions are very very mixed.
I'll get the good stuff out of the way first. Starting off with the visuals: they look fantastic. Tales of Arcadia has always been one of the better-looking Dreamworks series if you ask me. It definitely cut corners in some places, but overall just looked rather well done and had some great textures going on, unlike in, say, Spirit: Riding Free. This movie definitely upped the visuals even more. From the new (and old) environments to the particle effects to the textures and the grand titans; it all looks great. I wouldn't put it up there with some of the best-looking Dreamworks films (How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, for example), but it definitely is a step up from the show. There's also a large decrease in recycled assets.
Seeing all these characters unite again for one last time was satisfying, and I liked how a lot of them were utilized. Stuff like Walter being engaged to Barbara, Jim facing his inner demons about whether or not he's still the Trollhunter, the father-son moments between him and Blinky, those were all great. There were also some really heartwrenching character deaths in this one.
However, despite how visually pleasing it looked and some good moments, there's two major things that caused the low rating of the movie. Starting off simple: the Steve m-preg subplot. I don't know what bizarre mind coined the idea, but it somehow miraculously made it into the movie and it was horrible and disgusting. Keep your fetishes out of your children's cartoons, people. The movie constantly got back to the whole "Steve-is-pregnant"-thing, even in intense moments. Also, like, it doesn't even make sense. Aja explains that for Akiridions, the seventh kiss causes pregnancy. That's her race, not Steve's. Steve is a human. It logically wouldn't have even worked unless they'd both been Akiridions.
With that unfortunate part of the movie out of the way, let's talk about the straw that broke the camel's back for me (and a lot of other people): the ending. So, what exactly happens leading up to it? The Titans and the Arcane Order are defeated, but at the cost of a lot of lives of our allies, Toby included. The main crew is naturally heartbroken over this, and Jim realizes that he can travel back in time using the McGuffin they retrieved from Hong Kong earlier to prevent their deaths.
Now, this, in and of itself, I don't fully mind. The concept, I mean. Trollhunters and by extension Tales of Arcadia as a whole has never been immune to fucking around with timelines. Heck, it even was a major part of Wizards. The execution there wasn't flawless, but it was still an overall good series. And I would've trusted the crew to deal with time travel again, if they hadn't done exactly what they did in Rise of the Titans.
Jim travels back in time. Does he go back to the start of the movie so he can prevent the deaths of Nari, Nomura, Strickler and his best friend? No, instead he travels back literally all the way to the start of the fucking first series. Well, okay, but surely he still picks up the amulet? Nope, he instead lets Toby have it. This just...doesn't make sense and is contrary to so much stuff in the Arcadia series.
First of all, it basically means that literally all the three series, all the characters and plotlines the audience has grown invested in over the last few years, have been for nothing. Since that timeline is completely erased. Jim never becomes the Trollhunter, and the relationships he forges to other characters (sans maybe Toby, I guess) will be very different. Heck, will he even end up getting the same father-son bond with Blinky? Who knows. Remember, none of the series we've been following since 2016 are canon anymore since there is now a completely new timeline. It's more of a canon AU at most.
Second, the series literally had an entire plotline explaining on why Jim was the Trollhunter, regardless of the amulet. Unbecoming is a season 2 episode of Trollhunters that deals with this exact concept, having an alternate timeline where literally everything goes to shit because Jim ended up not picking up the amulet. It ended with him realizing that he is the Trollhunter and that the amulet makes no mistakes.
Third, this is the final installment in the series. I've seen open endings before and I've come to accept them. But this movie was purposefully ending the entire Arcadia quartet, six seasons and a movie worth of content, and it ends with not only retconning everything that previously happened, but also a completely new beginning. We'll not be getting a series retelling the entire story from Toby's point of view (unless after this review they confirm so, but for now Titans is set to be the finale of it all). This is just...it. So all of these characters we attached ourselves to, it's all for none.
Look, I am not the biggest fan of killing off characters just to revive them later, but I honestly much prefer it to whatever the hell this ending was. Had the magical McGuffin thingamajig just been used to revive Toby (and maybe the others lost), I'd have been okay with it. Not my favorite course of action, but they can make it work. They did so with Aaarrrgh, after all.
The incredibly frustrating ending and m-preg aside, here's some other stuff that didn't work for me. The title, in my opinion, should've been Tales of Arcadia: Rise of the Titans, rather than Trollhunters. It only would've made sense. This is not the finale to only the Trollhunters series, but the entire Arcadia quartet, so why they went with Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans here is beyond me. Krel, Aja and Douxie aren't even Trollhunters, so what's the point?
Also, Archie choosing to be imprisoned with his father rather than returning to Douxie. This little dragon has been Douxie's only family (sans Merlin, I guess, but he's a piece of shit) for over 900 years, and he made it very clear he wasn't too fond of his father in Wizards, yet in Titans, he in a random spur-of-the-moment decision chooses to stay behind with his father in the Trollmarket of Hong Kong. As if the incredibly close bond he's shared for centuries with Douxie just meant nothing.
So, while visually pleasing and definitely having some cool and well-executed moments, this movie is very much bogged down by its uncomfortable comic relief m-preg subplot and of course the fucked up ending. I still commend the entire Tales of Arcadia crew for finishing these three series plus the movie, and a lot of aspects I genuinely did like. But I can't give this movie a very positive review, the last few minutes just feel like such a big F-you to the three series that have been building it up before.
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