jmorris-44326

Cinematically, everything looks great. The world is beautiful. However, the story was a little contrived, the characters weren't represented well apart from Aja and maybe Jim, and the ending was just a terrible send off for such a fun series. Several characters' old insecurities that were addressed long ago were trotted out again just so they could be shoehorned into the plot. Steve spent the whole movie as a walking gender roles joke, which grew increasingly gross and which seemed odd given how much effort went into developing him in the series. The other characters were just there to join in on the catchphrases or to die off in increasingly predictable ways. Some silly hero movie tropes came out, like how despite having all the forces of magic and technology at their disposal, all the hero fights turn into slugfests. However, all of that would mostly be fine and could almost be overlooked.

What's not fine is the cheap mechanic that was used to wrap everything up. It undoes all the characters' growth, development, relationships, and sacrifices throughout all the series for no compelling reason beyond lazy writing. It also tosses aside the themes of teamwork, camaraderie, and making decisions together that have been a big part of the series; as if no one but the trollhunter matters.

I think I'll go rewatch the shows from the beginning and just pretend this movie never happened.