DIGITAL CIRCUS FINALE REVIEW/THOUGHTS WITH SPOILERS
BEFORE WE START THERE ARE SPOILERS
i will talk about EVERYTHING (the best I can with my goldfish brain)
IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EP9 GO AWAY NOW AND COME BACK LATER
...you still here? if we move forward, you agree to possibly seeing spoilers and that's your own fault.
WOW. Ok. What an ending. Now that it's been a little bit for me to get my thoughts... what a good ending. With the way people were talking, I thought it was gonna be Stranger Things 5 all over again. This isn't gonna be a full plot summary, as there are people who can do that way better than I can, but moreso a "this is what Cherry thinks" type of review/yap sesh.
(as we go into this, I am not a professional reviewer. i'm the type of guy to call something peak if i enjoyed even a little bit of said thing. don't take anything in here seriously please god do not. Also if i missed some stuff i'm sorry, i'm trying to remember as much as I can lmao. I might write a more indepth review either once I see it again in theaters or after the youtube premiere so I can scrub through and have the video on standby)
(also in regards to "is jax trans" i will not be covering that here. it is not my place to do so, and I would rather people who know about any deeper meanings to certain things such as the bow being placed on Jax's head and Stevie Wonder's "isn't she lovely" playing right after. It isn't that I do not want to acknowledge these things, I would just prefer for trans people to weigh in on it themselves)
I loved the ending. I loved the finale in general. Was it perfect? No. But nothing is. Picking up right where Ep8 left off, we get the reveal that everyone is a copy/scan of the real world. Given how theorized this show has been, I was not too surprised that the SOMA theory was correct. One of the theories was bound to be, right? First off, this takes immediately after the last episode, although episode 8 took place basically right after episode 7 did as well. I love the muted, gray colors. Everyone is in some form of distress after Caine's death and finding out they're digital copies, as they should be given the circumstances and the color scheme being muted reflects this. Everyone is at the lowest point they have ever been, and this does lead into Jax's abstraction. While it's kinda sudden, it's been built up over the last few episodes such as at the awards show and the scene in his bedroom during the psychedelic looking segment, and as sudden as it is, it makes sense given what abstraction is (supposedly, sometimes it seems to be for just death in general but sometimes it also seems to be suicide) an allegory/metaphor for. It very much mirrors the real world - one minute you're here, the next you're not. Pomni decides to try to see if she can bring Jax back, so she follows his abstracted self to the hallway, and shoots out all the lights before going in to give the Jaxtraction a hug, delving into his psyche/inner mind. She opens multiple doors and sees what goes on in Jax's head, what he thinks of the others, that kind of stuff. We also see how things went down with Ribbit - how Jax got in, how he thinks he killed his mom, how he opened up to Ribbit before pushing her and Kaufmo away, and leading up to the events of episode 1. Eventually, Pomni is able to break through and find the real Jax and this scene is... just amazing. The voice direction, the inflection, the "you could've just talked to me man" and "i don't wanna go" got me tearing up. Everyone else in The Amazing Digital Friend Group are able to pull pomni out and contain the Jaxtraction before laying Pomni down as we then cut to Caine's body floating in the void. He has some inner talkings to himself before pulling out the blue AI and throwing it away. After breaking through some firewalls, Caine is able to get back in to the circus where he talks to everyone. He talks about how he has messed up, done some thinking, and decides to give the cast a little present - he shows them what their real selves have been doing. They've all become succesaful, achieving their dreams and goals. This brings everyone some semblance of closure and solidity - they might not be able to leave due to being scans, but knowing that everyone was able to leave a mark on the world makes them happy. Everyone agrees to live together in the circus, ending the series with Jax contained, and a wave by Pomni to the camera, thus ending the show.
This ending was great. It wasn't perfect, but given how people were talking about I thought it was ST5 all over again but i've never been more happy to be wrong. The music, as always, is top notch with so many good songs. The redo of the episode 1 intro song but with Pomni replacing Kaufmo and no Caine or Bubble (oddly Bubble is not present with a speaking role at all in ep 9, aside from a quick visual cameo) was very cute. Hearing that everyone who got scanned was able to do fulfilling things outside the circus was one of the best moves too. Everyone inside may now just be characters in a digital world, but they’re no doubt real also.
Of course, it isn’t perfect. A lot of the movie is basically The Jax Hour and focuses on him. This wouldn’t be too big of a deal… if everyone else got adequate focus. This is also because every character didn’t get their own focused episode. Zooble never got their own dedicated episode, same with Ragatha. After episode 5, everything became more of an ensemble cast rather than focusing on individuals. We also never got an explanation as to how the IRL people got to the headsets in the first place, which I think would have answered a lot of questions. What’s the deal with C&A, other than possibly being just a bible reference? They could get answers in any possible spinoffs, but as of right now we do not know.
But to wrap it all up, this ending was great. The whole movie in general was great. It’s pulled numbers at the box office too, so people are definitely seeing it. It might not have been perfect, but I’m really happy how the end result turned out.
2087
origamiaround
titsay
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
andulkaphoto
