The last act of The Amazing Digital Circus has finally been released to tie up the loose ends of the indie darling. After having watched it I have some thoughts on it. My ambition is to keep this as spoiler free as possible so I will not go into any details.
There has been a specifically large push to keep as little information on this online as possible. This is due to the fact that a lot of people are gonna have to wait for the online release, mainly because of the somewhat limited distribution as opposed to the worldwide YouTube releases glitch has had previously.
The Last Act
The Last Act generally expands on everything you’d really expect it to and brings the show to a fitting conclusion. You really shouldn’t be going in to this expecting something completely mind bending or a twist only a fan theorist would dream up. The last act focus more on the characters inner lives then an outside threat and at points the style it puts to use feel downright experimental. It picks up were it left us in the last episode and tries to bring it all into a final conclusion. I’m very happy with what we got and I think it manages rather well.
The movie is comprised of episode 8 as well as a one hour finale, The Last Act. For the people who hadn’t seen the show previously there is a recap that mostly seems to be there for the parents. You shouldn’t watch the movie at all unless you have seen the series, obviously, but I see why they would include it.
In The Last Act we get some answers to questions that have been asked since the inception of the show. I know some answers won’t be liked by parts of the community but I think if you watch the show it all makes a lot of sense. There are some details that gets glossed over but as a whole I left the cinema feeling closure.
In some aspects I think the show could have been expanded a bit. There are some characters that I feel could have needed some extra time or space in the show, especially in the ending. What is here is good though and I’m sort of happy it ended when it did. Gooseworx seem to need some very well deserved rest and although I can imagine myself watching this show forever it makes sense for it to end here.
As for critiques, my main issues don’t stem from the show itself but rather the circumstances around it. I think the whole way this was set up was rushed. I think we are all sort of aware of the odd way this has been put on theatres and my heart really goes out to those unable to see it due to where they live, or even personal economy.
Generally that’s not what I would say about a movie just cause it was put on cinema but this is a pretty special case. The show started as a free thing mostly funded by merch. Although it eventually will be put on YouTube for those who can’t afford or can’t get to a screening, I think a lot of people will be spoiled, we partially saw it happen through the leaks already. No matter how much the pre-movie clip tells the audience to not talk about The Last Act online, I don’t think that’s gonna stop people, especially now that its released for real.
The merch
It’s sort of a minor thing but it left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. After the movie credits, we were “given the chance” to scan a special QR code to buy exclusive The Last Act-merch and its also announced in the clip before the movie. I get why they’d do that in YouTube videos, Glitch has to receive money somehow and AdSense is clearly not enough for an online production at this scale. At the same time, I have never experienced a movie on cinema ending with a “please buy our merch” before.
The income would preferably come from the tickets, right? Generally in traditional movie making, it’s somewhat of a risk when you make a movie if it will pay itself back. I get why Glitch would like to take a safer approach by asking for way more money from their fans in the form of an ad in maybe the biggest movie of the year. In the theatre I attended the whole crowd cheered every time the Glitch logo appeared.
I don’t really buy that it’s ok because they are indie either. The Last Act will obviously be a financial success, no matter what. I refuse the idea that this somehow won’t be booming in the box office. If it somehow would be a relative financial failure in that sense, its not due to audience turn over, but rather the poor management of the cinematic release. I don’t even think that would be an issue. They have gotten so many cinemas to comply by mobilizing their audience I doubt there is a lack of viewings. I suppose time will tell but this will definitely give a return on investment.
I don’t think its the end of the world or anything it’s just odd to me.
Outside of my grievances around how The Last Act was managed I think it’s a really great ending to a really great show and if you are at all interested you should watch it. It’s sort of sad to say goodbye to this set of beloved characters but I think it was well worth it and I’m really happy to have been able to watch this as it has been released. hopefully they get the cinematic releases down a little better the next time they will be doing something like this.
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