...This is actually a pretty good Pokemon movie for me. It hits my sweet spot for what I look for in a Pokemon movie. And considering I expected this to be horrible because of the gimmick, it's a nice surprise.
There's one thing I've disliked about a lot of the pokemon movies after the 5th one is the slow removal of Satoshi being the chosen one. I know every movie can't be like that, but rather than giving him a different but still active role, he's become more a chess piece where they can move him to advance the plot. It makes him and his group feel like add-ons and sometimes downright idiotic as they stand around and do nothing so the plot can continue.
It's not really until seeing it here that it clicked. Here, it's obvious that whoever wrote Satoshi knew how to do it ala pre-AG movies. Satoshi has had more range and personality than the last bunch of movies I've seen. He's happy-go-lucky because BW, but he also has moments of downtrodden-ness, of helplessness on top of the usual he's given. The way they write the "stand around so the plot can continue" is more clever so it feels a tad more believable - you get to see the jerk of remembrance and the active chase when he does something he pretty much doesn't do anymore after this. (He either already knows or is oblivious after this movie.)
Also, this movie proves you CAN fight off Psychic! So the Zoroark movie is such BS!
I loved the Satoshi-Victini moments, yes, I do.
That's not to say this movie doesn't have its flaws. It has quite a few:
-Rocket Gang not having any purpose here. They aren't even comedic, just failures that have to make an appearance. Why can't they help out even if it's a tiny bit? I'll never understand the writers attempt to erase that side of them. It's like they can't be anything more than joke failure characters.
-Satoshi only using Pikachu. Again, he has other pokemon so why can't they come out and help? This is a very odd and stupid trope that keeps re-appearing in these newer movies. Did the writers change and the new ones had no idea how Pokemon movies are supposed to go? Was there some suit-enforced limit on extra non-legendary/non-mythical pokes appearing beyond the opening? Did the movie writers have no trust in the pokes being able to hold their own in the movie?
-Iris is USELESS. For Real. You can take her out and change zero. She does nothing but lose immediately in that tournament. Dent is, at least, semi-useful, but really only because he makes food and has 1 more brain cell than Iris and Satoshi. But he doesn't really do anything in this movie either. Change how the food is produced and you can take him out too.
The literal thing Iris tends to bring in all these movies is her not-Pikachu who tends to feel redundant anyway. Why not have them fight against the Psychic type instead of doing jack-all?
-The tournament. There's a big stink about it in the beginning but once the girl mentions Victini, it's get dropped and dropped HARD. It's never declared who the winner is and is never brought up again, not even during the credits. That's a HUGE oversight since the whole reason they're there in the first place is because of that tournament.
-Dread. He's a bit wish-washy. He wants to do all these to make his mother's wish come true but when even his mother goes "stop" he ignores it and continues on? If you wanted him to be an idiot like that, at least make the wish HIS dream that his mother inspired. That'd give reason for his total subbornness in face of everyone telling him to stop.
-Victini doesn't join the party. He's totally Satoshi's now like Latias so that he gets left behind is such a cop-out. |