ryuuzaki's Blog

To all of the members of my circle,

You may have noticed that I have not been around much lately. 

The reason for this is because that I am happy.  I started my blog on EP during a particulary bad time in my life.  As you are probably aware, I was miserable for three of my four years of university and that did not make life particulary easy for me.  I felt victimised by the selfishness of some of flatmates, stressed by difficulties with my course and health, and my relationship with my long term partner was particulary strained.

I am now happy to say that I am in a much better emotional place.  Vlad and I have lived together for almost a year now in our own (rented) home, and I have been working for an insurance broking firm for over eight months of that time.  Although I am still lacking in a lot of confidence and am still a little anti-social, I am feeling far happier than I have been for a long time.

It is because of this that I have chosen to leave this blog behind me and move onto something new.  I will not be deleting my account on EP because I do not want to deny my past.  If you wish to follow me into my brighter future my new blog, the Cellar Door, can be found at http://ethical-pickle.blogspot.com/ .

I thank all of you that have supported me over the last two years and hope that we will stay in touch.  I wish you all happiness and hope that you succeed in all of your endevours.

Love and Peace,

Ryuu

Hi all.

 

It's been a long time since I last did a proper blog, which is purely because I don't have an awful lot to say.  I found it easy to find things to complain about while I was living in student accommodation, as a certain flatmate of mine was just so irksome.  Now, I have been living with Vlad in our own (rented) home for over six months and everything has been great.  I am incredibly happy here, which is a very pleasant break from the norm.

 

I'm also really enjoying my job.  Although I haven't made a lot of money just yet, it's gradually building and I'm slowly paying of my student debts.  I don't think it's the kind of thing that I want to do forever, but it's a nice stop-gap while I find my feet.

 

The re-write of my story is going well.  I'm now ten chapters in - at about 25,000 words.  I hear that first novels have to be about 80,000 words to be published so I have a lot of work ahead of me.  Writing is my passion, it always has been, and I hope that I can finally make something of that.  Vlad, Lucy and the constant lure of video games provide somewhat of a distraction, but I'll get there eventually.

 

On the subject of video games, I have found myself thoroughly addicted to Pokémon HeartGold.  I have been transferring some Pokémon over from Diamond to try and build up my Pokédex as I am slightly frustrated by the GTS system.  If you want to trade anything, give me a shout.  My friend code is 5070 6724 6251 and I am especially looking for the starter type Pokémon.  I already have Turtwig, Cyndaquil and Chikorita and am prepared to breed you one of these if you can offer one that I do not already have (I should also be soon able to offer Totodile, as Vlad has promised to trade me one of his).  I also need a Kabuto and Lileep to complete my collection of fossil Pokémon.  I can also breed you baby Eevees or some of the rarer fossil Pokémon - Aerodactyl, Cranidos, Shieldon, Omanyte and Anorith.  Just let me know, and help me build up my Pokédex :)

 

I have also been playing Lord of the Rings Online and have been finding it to be one of the best MMORPGs that I have had the joy of playing.  I am currently Aedamoth Fellblood, a level 15 Elf Rune-Keeper, and I think that after many deaths I am finally starting to get the hang of the game play.  Monster Play, however, is another matter.  I tried rolling a Warg on there last night and did not understand it at all.  Oh well, maybe that's something to ask the Kinship to explain...

 

Anyway, I think that is all the news that I have.  I'm currently having a few days off work, but will be back in on Thursday.  Time enough for a couple of walks around Norwich and to scribble out a couple more chapters.

 

Hope you are all well, and talk to you soon.

Well, over the last couple of weeks I have looked at every single theatrical release in the Pokémon franchise, from Mewtwo Strikes Back to Arceus and the Jewel of Life, and also the made-for-TV special Mewtwo Returns.  Although I feel that all of these films have probably lost something in the dub, it is clear that all of these movies are very varied in quality.  Although the quality of animation and musical score remain incredibly high quality, other factors cause the quality of each film to differ immensely.

 

Firstly, it is clear that these films are designed to be fully appreciated by people who are already familiar with the Pokémon universe.  If you have not played the games, or at least seen a few episodes of the cartoon, you will not understand the films.  Although, just being a fan does not allow you to see past the plot holes, pacing problems and utterly detestable character that ruin some of the films.  Anyone who wishes to do as I have done and subject themselves must be prepared to sit through some truly terrible films in order to find some true gems.  And, naturally, by gems I just mean incredibly enjoyable, light-hearted films.  This is Pokémon, after all, a video game tie-in.  You can't really expect these movies to be on par with Disney or Studio Ghibli.

 

Rather than simply list my order of preference, I thought I would use this blog to remind you of some of the good points of each film.  I am, therefore, dividing my choices into several sections, dependent on what I felt was the overall feel of the film:

 

Overall Best - The Rise of Darkrai

I have no doubt in my mind that the best film in the series is The Rise of Darkrai.  This film just has the best pacing, the best build of tension and most breath-taking animated sequences.  It also gets extra kudos for having Ash and Dawn work together, rather than Ash being the sole hero of the day while the rest of his friends just get pushed into the background.  Watching this film's sequels, Giratina and the Sky Warrior and Arceus and the Jewel of Life also help add to the experience, but neither of them are quite as good as The Rise of Darkrai.

 

Most Action-Packed - The Power of One

The most exciting film in the franchise is probably The Power of One.  The fight sequences are brilliantly done, and the whole movie is very fast-paced and so it is impossible to become bored in it.  However, this movie could not really be a contender to the Overall Best category as it just seems to be a little lacking in the plot department.  It does, however, contain far more Team Rocket than any other film so if you (like Vlad) are a fan of them, then this is the film for you.

 

Most Serene - Celebi: Voice of the Forest

Although not the most exciting of films, and very poorly paced at times, by far the most soothing film to watch is Celebi: Voice of the Forest.  Taking a lot of inspiration from Princess Mononoke, Celebi focuses far more on the relationships between people and Pokémon as a metaphor for how people should treat the environment.  The sequences which involve flights through the forest and genuine nice scenes of people befriending Pokémon, rather than fighting with them, make it a nice break from the normal style of the franchise and leave it as a very soothing film which is incredibly easy to watch.

 

Most Unusual - Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

For something a little different, try Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.  This film is far more about the journey than the destination.  Although nowhere near as sedate as Celebi: Voice of the Forest, this film follows a Pokémon lead, rather than a human one, and also gives us many glimpses into the ancient past - a world of magic rather than science.  Although I would have liked to have seen more of this past Pokémon World, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew remains very memorable.  There are no big villains and no threats to the safety of the world, but this film shows that the franchise does not need to rely on these stereotypical devices in order to be effective.

 

Most Missable - Destiny Deoxys

I just did not like Destiny Deoxys, and nothing could convince me to sit through it ever again.  The movie was long, poorly paced, contained an uninteresting main character and battles that lacked any kind of tension.  Everything that could have gone wrong with this film did, and not even some sparkling Team Rocket moments could save it from being the worst Pokémon film of them all.

 

Summary

 

So, to conclude briefly, here are the films in rough order of enjoyment.  This is just my opinion, and so feel free to disagree with me.  If you have read all of my reviews, thank-you greatly, and I really hope that you enjoyed them.  In the list below, the 'best films' are ones that I feel really excelled themselves and proved to be the most interesting installments.  The 'watchable' selection, while enjoyable in part, had a few fatal flaws that I pointed out in my reviews which prevent me from considering them to be the best.  The 'worst' films are ones that I would not recommend to anyone due to the fact that I found them to be dull and unoriginal.  You may well like them, but Vlad and I certainly did not.

 

Best

The Rise of Darkrai

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

Arceus and the Jewel of Life

The Power of One

 

Watchable

Celebi: Voice of the Forest

Jirachi Wish Maker

Giratina and the Sky Warrior

Mewtwo Strikes Back

Heroes: Latios and Latias

 

Worst

Mewtwo Returns

Spell of the Unown

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea

Destiny Deoxys

Welcome to the final review in my special look at the Pokémon movie franchise.  If you have bothered to read through all of these, I really hope that you enjoyed it.  The final movie is Arceus and the Jewel of Life or, to give it its Japanese title, Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl the Movie: To the Conquering of Space-Time.

 

This movie opens with the rather dramatic awakening of Arceus, who has been sleeping for centuries in another dimension.  He declares that it is time to judge the human race.

 

Ash, Brock, Dawn and Pikachu travel to Michina Town and immediately follow advice of some youngsters to visit the ruins.  Here, reality suddenly goes on the fritz, as the water from a nearby lake is sucked into the sky and draws Pikachu and Piplup in with it.  The Pokémon are rescued as a young couple appears.  These are Sheena and Kevin, this movie's new characters.  Sheena somehow summons Dialga who rushes to rescue the Pokémon.  Suddenly, Giratina breaks through from the Reverse World to continue its battle with Dialga (as begun in Giratina and the Sky Warrior).  Sheena tries to use her power to calm the hearts of Pokémon to tell Giratina that Dialga is not an enemy, but Giratina's fury is too strong.  However, when he sees Ash, Giratina recognizes him and calms down enough for Sheena to communicate with.

 

On taking them to the ruins, Sheena and Kevin show the team a machine called the Time-Space Axis which they use to monitor distortions between the worlds.  They also explain the history of the town.  Many years previously, a meteor shower almost destroyed the planet but was averted by Arceus - a God-like Pokémon who reportedly created the world.  Arceus was nearly killed in the process - the 'life plates' that sustained its power scattered - but it was resurrected by Sheena's ancestor, Damos.  In return, Arceus sacrificed some of its strength and created the jewel of life from the life plates that represented the elements of ground, grass, water, electricity and dragon (yes, dragon is an element in the Pokémon world.  Just go with it).  The jewel of life could be used to restore the land, but Damos agreed to return it to Arceus at the time of the next solar eclipse.  When this time came, however, Damos betrayed Arceus and attacked him with an army of Pokémon because he believed that Arceus taking the jewel would cause the land to rot again.  Arceus fled, injured, and was forced to sleep to restore his strength.  He vowed to return and get his revenge for the lost crystal.

 

Sheena reveals that all of the fluxes in reality, including the appearances of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina in the previous two movies, were caused by energy excluded as Arceus awakened.  She also shows the jewel of life to Ash and his friends, explaining that she intends to return it to Arceus to quell his wrath.  However, as she does so she discovers that the jewel is a fake.  Arceus believes that Sheena meant to betray him again and attempts to kill her and the others.  However, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina all appear to protect the humans and engage in an epic battle with Arceus. 

 

Seeing that they will eventually be destroyed, Dialga uses his power over time to send Ash, Brock, Dawn and Sheena back to the time when Arceus was originally destroyed.  Watching from above, they see that the legend was true and Damos really did betray Arceus for the jewel.  Unable to prevent anything, Sheena requests that Dialga sends them further back in time and Arceus responds by sending them back to the previous day.  Here, the are met by a priest named Marcus and his 'Magical Creatures' Bronzong and Heatran.  Subdued by Bronzong's hypnosis, Ash and co are taken to prison while Marcus leads Sheena away to find out where they are from.

 

As they are placed in a separate cell, Pikachu and Piplup soon escape with the help of a Pichu and begin to look for a way to free the others, rescuing a Cyndaquil, Chikorita and Totodile in the process.  Ash, Dawn and Brock find themselves in a cell with Damos.  It is revealed that Damos fully intends to give Arceus back the jewel, but has been imprisoned by Marcus.  Ash realizes that the Damos they saw previously must have been being controlled by Bronzong's hypnosis to act against his will.  In reality, Damos trusts Arceus but Marcus is the one who believes that returning the jewel would destroy their crops.

 

Sheena dines with Marcus, foolishly describing the future events to him and thus causing him to realize how he can save the village by killing Arceus.  He reveals that the jewel is hidden within his staff and tells Sheena that she should be the one to return it.  However, we see Marcus remove the jewel and hide it in his robes before giving the oblivious Sheena an empty staff.  As Sheena reveals this staff to Arceus, he is furious that Sheena would betray him.  Instantly, Arceus is attacked by Marcus's army of Pokémon.  Marcus also pours silver water (whatever the Hell that is) over Arceus which begins to solidify over him, slowly pinning him to the ground.

 

Damos, Ash, Brock and Dawn are freed and rush to save Arceus.  As Ash, Dawn, Pikachu and Piplup face off against Marcus, Heatran and Bronzong, Sheena and Damos combine their powers to attempt to calm Arceus but are stopped when they find that his rage is too great.  Instead, they manage to calm every other Pokémon in the room, causing them to stop obeying Marcus's will.

 

Retrieving the jewel of life, Ash and Pikachu rush to give it back to Arceus but find that they are unable to reach him due to the silver water.  Slowly, they begin to fade out of reality as because Arceus has been defeated in the past, there would have been no reason for them to ever have come there.  Finally Damos succeeds in reaching Arceus's consciousness and Arceus accepts the jewel, restoring Ash and his friends.  Soon after, Dialga returns them to their own time line where they see Arceus is still fighting and has defeated Dialga, Palkia and Giratina.  Suddenly, the past events flash past Arceus's eyes and he realizes that he never was betrayed by Damos after all.  Calmed at last, Arceus expresses his liking for the world as he, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina return to their respective dimensions, harmony restored at last.

 

I did really enjoy this movie, and am glad that it ended the series on a high note.  The animation and music were both on par with the earlier parts of the franchise, and I was pleased to see that this film actually formed the final part of a trilogy.  In the early movies, each film stood alone.  While this was nice, it wasn't necessary as the films were never accessible to an audience who was not already familiar with the franchise.  The Rise of Darkrai, Giratina and the Sky Warrior and Arceus and the Jewel of Life form one arc in themselves.  This worked very well as it allowed the film makers to build a bigger story.  Although the first two installments did stand alone to a certain degree, Arceus and the Jewel of Life efficiently tied up the loose ends left by these films - specifically by explaining why Palkia and Dialga were battling in The Rise of Darkrai and by clearing up the animosity between Dialga and Giratina that was never adequately resolved in Giratina and the Sky Warrior.  Although this could have caused massive retcons, it was handled well by filmmakers and did make a great deal of sense on the whole.

 

I also appreciated that Ash was not the messiah.  At the beginning of this movie, Sheena mentions a hero with an electric Pokémon and I just thought that this would be another sufferer of MAS (note:  See review of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea).  As it was revealed that Damos was this hero, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Although it is Ash that delivers the jewel to Arceus, his victory would not have been possible without Dawn's assistance in battling Marcus, or Damos's ability to calm the heart of Arceus.  In fact, the power of Damos is real saving grace thus, for the first time, making an incidental character the true hero of the movie.  While I would still like to see Brock helping out more, or even Team Rocket, I'm just glad that the filmmakers seem to have realized that it does not always have to be all about Ash.  Here's hoping that any future movies follow in this vein.

 

Although I did like the past setting, as it allowed the movie to explore the way that Pokémon were viewed in an earlier setting (something touched upon briefly in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew but never previously developed), I really feel that I must criticize the movie on the problems of its time travel plot.  We all know about the dilemmas of time travel and this film really suffers from the Grandfather Paradox.  When Arceus is nearly killed in the past, the team begin to fade away because if Arceus dies then there never would have been a reason for them to be there.  However, would this not also have been the case because they gave Arceus the crystal?  By pacifying Arceus in the past, he should never have attacked in the future thus never giving Dialga any reason to transport everyone into the past in the first place.  For the movie to be resolved in a paradox free way, the jewel should have been restored to Arceus in the present, leaving the past intact.  Ash and his friends should have irreparably changed the world with their actions creating a butterfly effect that should have swept the world.  Darkrai would probably have been captured or destroyed in Alamos Town.  Alice and Tonio would probably have never gotten together.  Zero would have taken over the Reverse World and destroyed our time line.  Time travel plots are notoriously difficult to write well, especially when the parallel world's hypothesis is ignored and so this movie suffered, especially towards the end, because the filmmakers failed to address these paradoxes.  Fair enough, this film is for kids, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to try.  Kid's are the harshest critics, and they're not so stupid that they won't realize when something makes no sense.  It's just a shame as these holes really damage an otherwise sound plot.

 

Anyway, although the time travel problems are a really big irk, there really isn't all that more that is bad about this film.  It's fun, action packed and is really gripping enough to keep you interested to the very end.  Although this is the end of my reviews, please look back tomorrow for an overall summary of what I thought about the franchise, including my list of which films are most worth your time and money.

Following the excellence of The Rise of Darkrai, my series of Pokémon reviews now moves onto its direct sequel, Giratina and the Sky Warrior.  This translation seems to sound less profoundly silly than its Japanese title Giratina and the Sky Bouquet so, for once, I have no problem with it receiving a title change.

 

 

The movie begins with a Shaymin drinking from a lake when Dialga suddenly appears before it.  In the mysterious 'Reverse World', Giratina senses Dialga's appearance and breaks into the real world to attack it.  As Dialga is dragged into the Reverse World, Shaymin is pulled in with it.  During Dialga and Giratina's battle, Shaymin absorbs some poisonous gas and uses this to fuel its seed flare ability, puncturing a hole in the Reverse World so that it can return to reality.  Dialga also manages to escape, but in doing so affects Giratina in such a way that the Pokémon looses its ability to phase between worlds.  This whole series of events is watched by two people - Zero from aboard his floating death fortress and Newton Graceland from a floating island in Reverse World.

 

Ash, Dawn and Brock are having lunch when they encounter Shaymin.  They discover that the Pokémon has a fever and so rush it to the Pokémon Centre.  Shaymin tells them that it wants them to take it to the flower garden, but it is quickly captured by Team Rocket.  A portal opens between the human world and the mirror world and sucks everyone but Brock through.

 

Ash, Dawn and Shaymin quickly meet up with Newton who agrees to show them the way back to the real world.  He explains to them that the Reverse World is the opposite to the real world and it also helps keep the real world 'balanced'.  At present, the Reverse World is suffering due to the battle between Dialga and Palkia in The Rise of Darkrai.  Giratina is the only Pokémon native to the Reverse World and is angry that Dialga and Palkia damaged its home, which is why it attacked Dialga previously.  Giratina also shows some animosity towards Shaymin and so the party reason that it because Shaymin caused Dialga to escape.  Although Ash, Dawn and Shaymin manage to escape, Team Rocket become trapped in the Reverse World with Newton.

 

Soon after they reach the real world again, Ash and his friends are attacked by Zero who commands a party of Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone.  They escape by boarding a train and learn more about Shaymin from the passengers.  It seems that Shaymin gather once a year at a nearby garden where gracidea flowers grow.  Here, the Shaymin transform into their sky forms and migrate together.  The team are shown where they can get on a boat to the flower garden, and Shaymin manages to transform after sniffing some flowers - gaining a more aggressive personality in the process.

 

During the boat ride, the party are once again sucked into the Reverse World.  Giratina and Shaymin battle once again, but the fight is interrupted as Shaymin abruptly transforms back to her original form.  As Zero captures the weakened Shaymin, it is revealed that Giratina does not want to kill Shaymin, but startle it into using seed flare again so that it can finally break Dialga's spell and regain its phasing ability.  Naturally, this works and everyone (except for Team Rocket) returns to the real world where Giratina is quickly captured by the floating death fortress.  Newton explains that he and Zero once worked together to devise a way of harnessing Giratina's power, but Newton refused to continue the work when he learned that the process would kill Giratina.

 

Flying to the airship, Ash and Dawn use their Pokémon to hold of Zero's army while Newton hacks into the ship's computer and disables it, freeing Giratina just in the nick of time.  It is revealed that Zero has drained enough of Giratina's power and he flees to the Reverse World.  It is revealed that Zero intends to rule the Reverse World as King and will destroy the real world from within it to prevent it from damaging the Reverse World ever again.  His actions cause a nearby glacier to break free and threaten to crush both the flower garden and a nearby town.

 

Ash, Shaymin and Giratina return to the Reverse World to battle Zero, as the remaining trainers struggle to stop the glacier.  They are assisted by a Regigigas and a herd of Mammoswine who rush to avert the disaster.  Although it looks as though Zero has the upper hand at first, Shaymin and Giratina soon manage to destroy his ship and send him back to the real world where Dawn's Pokémon freeze him against the glacier.  As Giratina leaves for the Reverse World a final time, Shaymin is finally reunited with its family and the film ends with the flock of Shaymin migrating across the sky.

 

Although this is not one of the worst Pokémon films, it does suffer from a number of plot holes and fatal flaws that prevent it from being on par with The Rise of Darkrai.

 

My biggest question was how did Newton and Zero get to the Reverse World in the first place?  It would seem to require them to have some sort of power akin to Giratina's in the first place in order for this to occur, which would negate their reasoning for designing the machine to drain Giratina's power.  The nature of the Reverse World is a bit of a brain bender itself.  I'm unsure as to how exactly it keeps balance.  We already saw in movies such as The Power of One and The Rise of Darkrai the the world can easily be destroyed when the elements go out of balance.  Just what this mirror world is balancing, ergo, I am really unsure.  My misunderstanding could be due to problems with the rushed explanation that Newton gave, akin to the hurried techno-babble at the start of Mewtwo Strikes Back.  It was an interesting idea to actually give entry to another dimension, but it unfortunately required better explanation than it was given.

 

Zero's reasoning was also a little weird.  Don't get me wrong, he's probably been the best human antagonist in the movie series so far since, like Butler, he does have a plan that goes beyond being evil.  I just do not understand why he wants to rule an otherwise empty world.  Since his plan involves killing both Giratina and everyone inhabiting the real world, that would just leave him ruling over his dozen Magnemites and their evolutions.  What is the point in that?  Couldn't he find a way to harness Giratina's formidable powers and take over the real world?  Giratina almost defeated Dialga - one of the Pokémon deities!  What's the point in just killing him when you could use him for evil so effectively?

 

My biggest annoyance with this film was Shaymin.  Now there was a Pokémon that was cuter before it could talk.  It was obnoxious and ungrateful for the most part of the film, and obnoxious and gung-ho while it was in sky form.  My God, I wanted Giratina to eat it.  I'm also not quite sure why Dawn liked it so much, as it was horrible with Ash right up until the last moment.  Legendary Pokémon are at their most effective when they are really cute like Mew, or really powerful and majestic like Dialga.  Cute and annoying do not make you empathize with the character as well.  Also, given that its dilemma was 'getting to the flower garden' did not really build any attention.  Did I care if Giratina was hurt by the sky fortress?  Yes, of course I did.  Did I care if Shaymin found the flower garden?  Not in the slightest.  Shaymin does not rank highly in my list of favourite Pokémon.

 

Other than these problems, the film was certainly watchable.  Apart from some of the finer details regarding the Reverse World, it did have a coherent plot and it contained less little misadventures than some of the earlier movies, meaning that the plot progressed at a reasonable pace.  There was also plenty of action, and the animation was lovely.  The characters of both Newton and Zero were surprisingly detailed for Pokémon extras as well, and so there seemed to be far more about them than, say, Tonio, Alice and Alberto from the previous movie.  It was also kind of nice that it carried on from the previous movie.  This is the first of the theatrical releases to really do this and it really adds a lot of continuity to the universe.

 

I guess there is really not a lot else to say about this film.  Tomorrow, I will be reviewing the final theatrical release Arceus and the Jewel of Life.  Being the last Pokémon movie to date, here's hoping that the series does not end on a low point.

Following the disappointment of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, my intrepid movie viewing brought me to The Rise of Darkrai, otherwise known as Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl the Movie:  Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai.  As the title suggests, the legendary Pokémon that appear in this film are no other than Dialga, Palkia and Darkrai.

 

The movie begins with a young scientist named Tonio reading out his grandfather's journal.  Tonio's grandfather was the famed architect Godey (note: pronounced Go-dee) and describes a dream that he had where two rival Pokémon clashed in an epic battle between dimensions.  As this is interspersed with scenes of a battle between Dialga (Time Bronty) and Palkia (Space Rexy), we can see that this journal has accurately prophesied the future.

 

Ash, Brock and Dawn (the new female sidekick) are shown heading for a Pokémon contest in Alamos Town.  On discovering the town is in the middle of a lake, they are given a lift to it by a passing woman named Alice who is riding in a hot air balloon powered by a Chimchar.  They learn that Alice is a music student who works part time as a tour guide.  As the battle between Dialga and Palkia rages unseen, the distortions cause fluctuations in the air current so to apologies for the bumpy ride, Alice takes Ash and co. on a tour of the town.

 

Alice eventually leads the team to a beautiful garden and it is revealed that she knows how to play a tune on a leaf whistle which calms fighting Pokémon.  They are interrupted when a Gallade appears and indicates that something bad has happened.  Elsewhere in the garden, they find that some pillars have been badly damaged.  Here, they meet Baron Alberto who explains that the pillars were broken by an evil Pokémon named Darkrai who resides in the garden.  This Pokémon is capable of causing nightmares and so nobody really likes being around it.  It's also revealed that Alberto has a thing for Alice, but she openly rejects him because she is in love with Tonio. 

 

It is not long before Darkrai appears, seemingly ordering the party not to approach him.  Alberto attacks Darkrai with his Lickilicky, only for Darkrai to strike back with a dark orb that engulfs Ash sending him into a terrible nightmare in which he is attacked by Palkia.  While Ash recovers at a Pokémon centre, Tonio continues his research into his grandfather's journals.  He discovers that Darkrai can't be all bad as he bonded with Alice's grandmother, and reasons that this is why he has remained in the garden.

 

The following day, Ash and his friends are taken on a tour of the Space-Time Towers.  The Towers turn out to be a massive musical instrument and Tonio and Alice demonstrate how they work.  As this occurs, a strange shock wave ripples through the town centralized on the towers.  Although we see that this is caused by Palkia breaking through to the real world, he remains invisible to Ash and the others.  Darkrai appears in the courtyard outside the tower and, when the Pokémon trainers attack him, sends many Pokémon into nightmares.  As Ash and Alberto pursue him, they see many ghostly shades of the sleeping Pokémon wandering about the city and somehow Alberto is transformed into a Lickilicky.  The town is also suddenly surrounded by an impassible fog so that none of the inhabitants can escape.

 

Alberto, arguing that the strangeness must have been caused by Darkrai, leads most of the Pokémon trainers to fight him.  Tonio argues that Darkrai is really a good Pokémon, as he remembers it saving the life of Alice when they were children.  Instead, he believes the phenomena to be caused by a disturbance caused by Palkia, the deity of space, entering into their realm.  He proves this to Ash by pointing out Palkia suspended in the air between the two towers.  Ash realizes that Darkrai was not previously threatening them, but warning Palkia not to enter their dimension and that his nightmare was a further warning of the battling Pokémon.

 

Palkia and Darkrai begin to battle just as Dialga manages to break through to join them.  As a result of Palkia's injuries, the town begins to dissolve into the other dimension and so it is clear that soon all of the Pokémon and humans within it will be killed.  Realizing that Godey's prophecy holds the key to averting the disaster, Tonio and Alice realize that the song that Alice plays on her leaf whistle - Oración - is the only thing that can calm Dialga and Palkia.  It is clear that Godey built the towers as an amplifier so that this song could be heard.

 

With the aid of their Pokémon, Ash and Dawn climb the tower.  As they are doing so, Darkrai summons all of its strength to stop the deities from attacking, but is seemingly destroyed in the process.  As Dialga and Palkia begin their final attack - which will also destroy the town and its inhabitants - Ash and Dawn start Oración playing.  As Tonio predicted, this song calms the deities and Dialga leaves the dimension once again.  Palkia appears before Ash and Dawn, who request that he returns Alamos Town back to how it was before, and Palkia does as they wish before he leaves.

 

Later, Ash, Brock, Misty, Alice and Tonio mourn the death of Darkrai, but they are gladdened when he appears before them alive and well.  The movie ends with a montage of shots of Dawn competing at last in the Pokémon Contest and the deity Pokémon flying off to a new destination.

 

All in all, this film was one of the better Pokémon films.  The pacing was especially commendable, as the filmmakers seem to have finally gotten the knack of building tension.  Although the film is a little slow to start, there is always the underlying menace as we see brief scenes of the battle between the dimensions and witness how these are effecting Ash's dimension.  Although the main characters are unaware of Dialga and Palkia for at least half the film, the we can see that terrible events are building and that things will not end well.

 

The music and art in this film are also fantastic, and are very unlike previous Pokémon films.  The setting is deeply inspired by the architecture of Barcelona - specifically the Gaudi Cathedral which is clearly what the Space-Time Towers are based upon.  The music is highly Gothic, reminding me more of the score to a Batman movie than a Pokémon sequel which helped give the already dramatic visuals a little extra power.  I know I said I wouldn't dwell on voice acting, but Ash has finally begun to sound like a ten year old boy and not a middle-aged woman with a croaky voice.

 

I also appreciate that, while Ash did help to save the day, he was fully reliant on Dawn's help to do so.  Unlike May and Misty, Dawn actually had a character and was easily Ash's equal as a trainer.  Her opening battle, in which her Piplup puts up a spectacular fight against its evolved form, clearly shows that she can more than handle herself in a tight spot.  In order to play Oración, Ash and Dawn both have to utilize both their Pokémon and physical strength.  Had one of them not been there, the town would have been utterly destroyed.  As I argued in my review of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, Ash's seemingly mystical abilities were beginning to make the films boring as we knew from the start that Ash would turn out to be the Chosen One and save the day.  The addition of a female character who is his equal is a breath of fresh air in the series, and I really hope that Dawn plays such a major role in the final two films.

 

I'm finding it hard to find fault with these films, but if I had to say something it would probably be my slight irk that Darkrai turns out to be alive in the end.  I pointed out in Celebi: Voice of the Forest that a sacrifice becomes meaningless if nobody suffers.  For a moment, I actually believed that the franchise had finally killed off a Pokémon, but as the mourning scene dragged on just slightly too long I saw what was coming.  Come on filmmakers, we can take a death.  Don't cop out with a Pokémon going into suspended animation (Lucario) or turning into a crystal (Latios).  It would be far more meaningful if a Pokémon actually ceased to be in order to defend Ash.  Not that I foresee this ever happening, but I suppose I can dream.

 

I guess I could also complain that Alberto was a bit, meh, as a villain.  Fair enough, their was plenty of conflict in the movie in the battle between Dialga and Palkia, but the love-triangle story between Alberto, Tonio and Alice just kind of died out after a while and was virtually forgotten by the end of the film.  It would have been nice to keep this tension up, as it would just have given the filmmakers more opportunity to develop the characters of all three just a little further.

 

All in all, I think that The Rise of Darkrai was one of the superior films of the franchise.  Although I'm having a tough time deciding which is currently my favourite, this one is certainly up there in the top few with Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and The Power of One.  Tomorrow's film is Giratina and the Sky Warrior which, by the current pattern of Pokémon movies, should theoretically be dreadful.  Here's hoping that it is not!

Following the law of Pokémon movies, each film I really enjoy has to be followed by one that I do not.  The Power of One was followed by Spell of the Unown.  Celebi: Voice of the Forest was followed by Heroes: Latios and Latias (which wasn't dreadful, but was very mediocre).  This time, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is followed by Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea.

 

Our movie begins on an aquatic death fortress where a pirate named Phantom (I kid you not) has just managed to find a strange Pokémon egg.  However, one of his crew members turns out to be a Pokémon Ranger named Jack Walker in disguise.  Jackie steals the egg and escapes on the back of a wild Mantine.

 

Meanwhile, Ash, Brock, May and Max meet up with a family who train water Pokémon for magnificent street performances and decide to travel with them for a while.  In their trailer, Misty sees a vial containing the egg from the opening sequence but the trainers attempt to hide it from her.  Later that night, May has a strange dream in which she is following a mysterious water Pokémon to a beautiful sunken city.

 

The next day, it is revealed that the dream is one that all of the water trainers share as it is a memory of their ancestors of their home, the Temple of the Sea.  They also show Ash and his friends the egg and tell them that it belongs to a Pokémon called Manaphy.  On seeing the egg, Team Rocket try to steal it but are foiled when Jackie (who has been masquerading as a clown) springs into action and (working together with Pikachu) rescues the egg.  Jackie reveals that his mission is to hatch the egg and deliver Manaphy to the Temple of the Sea where it belongs.  Soon after, Phantom attacks and reveals that he wants Manaphy to lead him to the Temple of the Seas as he wishes to obtain a valuable artifact called the Crown of the Seas from with it.  In the chase the follows, the egg hatches and Manaphy comes to believe that May is his mother.

 

The water trainers lead them to some ruins which contain a route only accessible to the People of the Sea, ergo they can begin their trek across the ocean using Manaphy's homing instincts to lead them to the Temple.  The Temple, it also turns out, is usually invisible but will become visible only during a lunar eclipse.  Although the believe that they have given Phantom the slip, Team Rocket have tipped the pirate off to their whereabouts and so Phantom is, in reality, still in hot pursuit.

 

During the voyage, Jackie becomes concerned about the bond May is forming with Manaphy.  He points out that it is Manaphy's destiny to rule the seas and so it is cruel to cause him to love May only to then be forced to leave her.  Although this hurts her greatly, May begins to avoid Manaphy.

 

After some small adventures, Manaphy suddenly goes missing and so the team set off in a submarine to find him.  They soon discover that he merely wandered off to fetch May's bandanna, which she lost earlier.  Suddenly, the submarine goes out of control but Manaphy leads them to a safe place to dock which turns out to be the temple.  They soon locate the Crown of the Seas which turns out to be a huge structure made of dozens of crystals.  Phantom appears and begins to try to steal the crystals for himself which begins a chain reaction, slowly sinking the Temple while flooding its interior.  Jackie chases off the Captain while Ash and May hunt for the scattered crystals to repair the crown.  As things look bleak and only one crystal remains, Ash seals May, Manaphy and Pikachu in an air-tight pod while he struggles to place the final crystal.  He succeeds and the temple begins to rise and drain, but as she leaves the pod May worries about Ash's fate.

 

Suddenly, Phantom emerges from the water and kidnaps Manaphy.  Ash, appearing randomly in a ray of yellow light, gives chase at supernatural speed.  The legendary Pokémon Kyogre appears to assist him as they rescue Manaphy.  After a short battle, the water Pokémon band together under Manaphy's command and destroy Phantom's submarine.  The movie ends with Manaphy returning to the Temple, with May sad to leave him.  She points out that, although she is upset now, she will be alright eventually.

 

Although it may sound like a lot happens in this film, really it's pretty dull.  In fact, even though I've just watched the thing, I was forced to read the wikipedia entry to remind myself of what the plot actually was.  It was that forgettable.  Part of my distraction may have been that the entire voice cast has suddenly changed.  Over the last week, I've gotten really used to hearing the same, mostly terrible voice actors.  Now for them to be replaced with all new terrible voice actors took some getting used to.  Even when I'd gotten over this initial shock, however, I still found myself too bored to pay much attention to what was going on.  It just wasn't exciting.  There was no tension or interesting battles.  There was just a lot of people sitting on a boat talking about Manaphy and the Legend of the People of the Water.

 

There were also some problems with the secondary cast.  I kind of wish the focus had been on Jackie, as at least the film would have been hilarious in a cheesy sort of way.  Jackie was kind of a competent Zapp Brannigan, down to the voice.  He was all kinds of awesome for entirely the wrong reasons.  Phantom, on the other hand, was the epitome of poor villains.  He was a bumbling character who did not even seem to fit into the universe, down to the way he was drawn (Google it.  He looks like a reject from One Piece).  Given that all of the other villains previously were very serious, evidently the filmmakers decided to try something new.  They failed miserably.  Better luck next time.

 

Added to this, we had the plot threads that just went nowhere.  Did Manaphy and May's relationship suffer any hardships?  Not really.  Manaphy looked a little downcast that May wouldn't play with it for about five seconds before this plot device was forgotten altogether.  Also, the fact that May was having the same dreams as the People of the Sea was also skimmed over.  Wouldn't this mean that she, and by extension Max, were also People of the Sea?  In this case, why had neither of them had dreams of this sort before.  Perhaps we'll never know, thought it would have been nice to use this idea to build on their back stories.

 

I was also disappointed that this film suffered from Messianic Ash Syndrome (MAS) once more.  I touched on this in my last commentary but so far in The Power of One, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and now this film, Ash has been shown to be the only one powerful enough to save the world/big tree/sunken city due to some kind of mystical McGuffin or ancient prophecy.  I was kind of hoping, given that Manaphy bonded with May, that it would be her turn to save the day but naturally it had to be Ash.  Please filmmakers, humor me.  You managed it when you made Max the focus of Jirachi Wish Maker.  Next time, let it be Brock to save the day just this once.  Not only are we forced to believe that one ten year old boy can meet every legendary Pokémon (except for poor Raikou), we're also forced to believe that the same ten year old boy is the only hope this world has from a Poképocalypse?  Please movie, you ask a lot of us.

 

Anyway, I guess I should stop ranting.  While this film certainly wasn't as bad as Destiny Deoxys or Spell of the Unown, I certainly would never choose to watch it again.  However, next up is The Rise of Darkrai - a film that fans seem to quite like.  I am also a big fan of the legendary Pokémon Dialga, whom I am told appears in this film, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's viewing!

Hello!  Hope you're still hanging with me, as we're now well over half-way through my sequence of Pokémon movie reviews.  Today we'll be looking at Lucario and the Mystery of Mew or, to give it its Japanese title, Mew and the Wave Guiding Hero: Lucario.

 

In a break from the norm, this movie begins over a thousand years in the past in "a time before Pokéballs".  It is revealed that there is about to be a huge battle between two armies of Pokémon users that will very well destroy a neighboring palace.  Lucario is forced into battle with a band of Houndoom and during this looses his sight.  Using his ability to 'see' by sensing auras, he defeats the Pokémon and sets off after his master, Sir Aaron.  When Lucario catches up with Sir Aaron, Aaron tells him that he has abandoned his Queen and Kingdom.  He then proceeds to trap Lucario within his staff and continues on towards the Tree of Beginnings.  A green light soon shines from the tree and sweeps across the land and in doing so calms the warring Pokémon, leading the Queen to believe that Sir Aaron has sacrificed himself to save the kingdom.

 

Back in present day, Ash and his friends are visiting the castle where a celebration of Sir Aaron's sacrifice is being held.  The group dress up in period clothes and Ash takes part in a Pokémon battle to choose who will get to be the guest of honor during the festivities.  Naturally, Ash wins and is disappointed that his role is to sit and watch while his friends have fun.  He is, however, given Sir Aaron's staff to hold and is shocked to hear a disembodied voice calling to him from within it.

 

While all of this is going on, Mew is also sneaking around the city while taking on the form of many different Pokémon to blend in.  Taking on the appearance of an Aipom, it leads Ash and May's Pokémon away to play with them.  The Mew is also spotted by a trainer named Kidd who sends her two Weavile to tag it with a tracking device.  During the battle, Mew manages to escape by teleporting but pulls Pikachu and Meowth with it.

 

As the celebration draws close, Ash signals the start of the fireworks display with Sir Aaron's staff only to cause Lucario to appear in a blinding flash of light.  Although originally mistaking Ash's 'aura' for Sir Aaron, Lucario opens his now healed eyes and realizes his mistake.  He quickly learns that he has awakened in another time but is still angry that Sir Aaron betrayed his kingdom.  As Ash learns that Mew has kidnapped Pikachu and taken him to the Tree of Beginnings, Lucario agrees to help him retrieve the Pokémon.  Lucario makes quite clear that he does not like Ash, as he believes that he would abandon Pikachu in a heartbeat as Sir Aaron abandoned him.  Ash protests that Pikachu is his friend, not his servant, and so he would never leave him.  Lucario leads the way into the wildness, followed by Ash and his friends in Kidd's jeep.  Team Rocket also hide in the boot of the car as they are worried about Meowth.

 

During their journey, they discover a flower that can store aura as visual memories.  Slowly, they begin to piece together the story of Sir Aaron and it appears that Lucario was right about his desertion.  Eventually, they reach the base of the tree but are attacked by Regirock, Regice and Registeel who are its guardians.  Kidd scans the tree with her impressive array of technology and discovers that it is a living creature.  As Ash and Lucario locate and rescue Pikachu, all of the other humans are attacked one-by-one by the tree's immune system and devoured.  Pokémon, however, are unaffected.

 

As Ash and Kidd are finally devoured, Mew sees that the Pokémon are sad without their masters and commands the tree to release them.  In doing so, Mew falls ill.  It turns out that he has compromised the tree's immune system and, because Mew and the tree have a symbiotic relationship, if the tree dies so will Mew.

 

Ash, Kidd and Lucario race to the heart of the tree.  Here, they discover the body of Sir Aaron encased in crystal.  It is revealed that Sir Aaron did actually use his aura to save the kingdom but in doing so sacrificed himself.  Realizing that aura can save the life of both Mew and the Tree of Beginnings, Ash and Lucario both willing begin to do so.  However, as their power reaches the critical point Lucario pushes Ash aside, sacrificing himself in the same way that his Master did to restore Mew.

 

Thus, Ash and his friends leave safely again and Ash is satisfied the Lucario has gone to be with Sir Aaron.  Bizarrely, the film ends with us seeing Kidd leaving with Butler and Diane from Jirachi Wish Maker but I'm not entirely sure what we're supposed to make of this.

 

I was actually surprised by how good this film was.  It had a coherent and well-paced plot and, unlike the previous film (Destiny Deoxys), it wasn't entirely driven by combat.  Although there was a good deal of action, it mainly focused on the team overcoming obstacles to find Pikachu rather than having to defend themselves from wild Pokémon.  This film was far more about the journey than the destination.

 

It was also an interesting idea to have a Pokémon as Ash's companion.  In previous movies, Ash is usually teamed up with a random new boy to investigate legendary Pokémon.  This film was more about him helping a Pokémon that was easily as intelligent as himself to realize that his outlook on the world is jaded.  Lucario is also far more responsive to his predicament than Sam in Celebi: Voice of the Forest.  He is not, at first, aware that he has been placed in a distant time period and even when he does find out he cannot initially comprehend this.  Lucario shows a great deal of growth within the film as a whole as he learns that Sir Aaron is the hero that everyone believed him to be, and not a traitor as he originally thought.

 

It was also nice to see a lot more Team Rocket in this film.  Since Mewtwo Returns, Team Rocket have been woefully under-used as comic relief.  In this film, not only are they back on form but they also show some subtle signs of their goodness.  For example, when they are devoured by the tree's immune system, the first thing James does is to free his Pokémon from their balls.  This may not seem like much, but it certainly shows a respect for his Pokémon that rivals Ash's as James realizes that he may well die and does not want them to share his fate.  I really hope that Team Rocket continue to appear as much as they did in this film as I feel that the franchise really suffers without them.  That, and Wobbuffet never ceases to make me smile.

 

Like Celebi: Voice of the Forest, the film is also quite sedate and very easy to watch.  The setting is truly beautiful and it manages to succeed in this without (for once) ripping off more popular movies.  Unlike the last couple of movies, I could have quite happily kept myself occupied just by admiring the backgrounds.  It was really quite serene and I'm definitely going to have to find a better quality version of this film just to watch when I'm feeling stressed.

 

Naturally, this movie was not perfect.  The opening sequence in the past was so incredibly stunning that I kind of hoped that the movie would just be about this time period.  There is really no reason why a Pokémon film has to focus on Ash (Hell, how does that kid even always manage to be in the right place at the right time?) and it would have been really quite new and interesting if we had experienced the Pokémon world for a different perspective.

 

The lack of a true antagonist could also be viewed as a problem, as this kind of friction kind of helps give the films a bit more momentum and the franchise has proven that it can make well-rounded villains with Butler in Jirachi Wish Maker.  However, the film does not really loose out too much because of this as there is plenty of friction created with Lucario's animosity towards Ash.

 

It's also a bit off that Ash has turned out, once again, to be the only one with the power to put things right.  Ash was the Chosen One in The Power of One and the only person that could make Mewtwo see that humans were capable of goodness.  Now he's also the wielder of the power of aura, an art that has been lost for thousands of years?  He is rapidly turning into a Mary Sue.  Wouldn't it be nice for someone else to have the power to save the day for once?  I would sure like to see it.

 

These are but annoying gripes, however, as I must say that so far Lucario and the Mystery of Mew has been by far the film that I have enjoyed the most in the series and this quite surprised me as it was one of the few films that I had never heard before.  After suffering through Destiny Deoxys, I was quite happy that this film was so enjoyable as it gives me hope for the final four films.

 

Anyway, tomorrow's film will be Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea.  Hopefully, this film will be as good as today's installment.

Sorry that this review didn't come yesterday.  I had a particularly bad day at work and didn't much feel like watching a Pokémon film by the time it was over.

 

Anyhow, this review will focus on the seventh feature film, Destiny Deoxys, which is the second Pokémon film to take place in the universe of the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald games.  It's Japanese title, in case you were wondering, is the incredibly catchy Pocket Monsters Advance Generation the Movie:  Deoxys, the Visitor from a Fissure in the Sky.  Try saying that three times fast.

 

Our movie begins with an expedition of scientists to the North Pole.  Tory, the young son of the lead scientists, wanders away from his parents to look at the nearby Pokémon.  Suddenly a meteor crashes into the ground and startle the Pokémon, causing a stampede that leaves Tory traumatized.  Out of the crater emerges Deoxys carrying a glowing green egg.  The meteor strike has invaded the airspace of the legendary Pokémon, Rayquaza, who responds by attacking the Deoxys and finally destroying all of it except for the purple egg embedded in its chest, which sinks to the bottom of the ocean.  The scientists manage to retrieve the green egg before leaving.

 

Four years pass and we see that Ash, Brock, May and Max are traveling to LaRousse City because Ash wants to fight other Pokémon trainers in the Battle Tower.  They soon meet Tory and discover that the previous trauma has left him terrified of Pokémon.  However, Ash sees him trying to save a Minun which becomes trapped in a dustbin and realizes that Tory would be happier if he liked Pokémon.  Therefore, Ash makes it his mission to help Tory overcome his phobia.

 

Over the nice bonding which follows, in which Tory attempts to touch Pokémon many times but finds that he is too frightened to do so, we learn a couple of important things.  Firstly, Tory's parents have been experimenting on the green egg and have found that they can cause it to do something if they find away to keep enough energy trained on it.  Secondly, Tory has befriended a strange glowing diamond which doesn't appear to be any known kind of Pokémon.  We are also treated to a couple of random sub-plots involving Team Rocket attempting to find something to eat, and the antics of a very odd Munchlax.

 

Eventually, the purple Deoxys regenerates itself and heads to the city with Rayquaza in pursuit.  Deoxys forms a protective barrier around the city to protect it from Rayquaza, it also creates many copies of itself and uses them to evacuate all of the humans and Pokémon while systematically destroying all electrical devices.  Although Ash and co. originally believe the Deoxys to be attacking them, they later discover that the Pokémon can only see electrical fields and thus it is just removing everything in its way so that it can find the green egg, which turns out to be an injured Deoxys.

 

As Rayquaza breaks through the shield and begins to fight the purple Deoxys, a joint effort between all of the humans and Pokémon in the city powers the generators sufficiently to awaken the green Deoxys, which instantly rushes to help save its friend.  The malfunctioning robots that usually serve people in the city, however, begin to swarm over everything in sight and the two Deoxys expand their shields again to protect Rayquaza from the deluge.  Working together, Ash and Tory manage to disable the robots and, which protecting Plusle and Minun from danger, Tory also overcomes his fear of Pokémon.

 

The movie ends with Rayquaza and the two Deoxys leaving the planet again, while Tory finds new happiness with Plusle and Minun.

 

Normally, I try to find the good points in a film, but this movie just utterly sucked.  The pacing was poor, the battles were uninteresting and I just did not care about Tory at all.  I got so bored during this film that it made me appreciate how, as bad as they were, at least Spell of the Unown and Mewtwo Returns was better than this drivel.  In fact, Spell of the Unown looked like Citizen Kane alongside this!  I was slightly intrigued by the opening battle between Deoxys and Rayquaza but, following this, nothing more of interest happened for about half an hour.  It's like the film forgot the plot and just decided to show us pictures of different Pokémon.  I know Nintendo just want to sell more toys, but this is not really what I expect from a good film.

 

The sub-plots with Team Rocket and Munchlax are also good for a laugh or two, but these probably only account for a maximum of 10 minutes of the overall run time and it is a really sad state of affairs when the comic side-story is more interesting than the entire main plot.

 

Also, whatever way I look at it, Deoxys is just a stupid looking Pokémon.  It looks like something that's just wandered from Neon Genesis Evangelion, something that I expect that the meteor strike at the North Pole was a direct reference too.  Evidently, the franchise has run out of scenes from Princess Mononoke that it can rip off so it's started on Evangelion now instead.  Oh originality, thy name is The Power of One.

 

All in all, the only thing I really enjoyed was the opening spiel.  Rather than spending this time trying to give us the back story in a nutshell, this time we were treated to many pictures of cell-shaded Pokémon which were very impressively animated.  Sad to say, the film went rapidly downhill after this.  There is also a very cute picture of Pokémon waving cheerleader's pom-poms during the end credits but I certainly don't think it's worth sitting through the entire film just to see this.

 

I certainly never want to see this movie again.  Being forced to watch it once was still one time too many.  I only hope that tomorrow's movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, is more entertaining.

Today, we will be looking at the sixth Pokémon feature film, known as The Wishing Star of Seven Nights: Jirachi in Japan and Jirachi Wish Maker in the West.  As I said in my last review, outside of Japan this was the first of the films that was only released on DVD due to the poor performance of Heroes: Latios and Latias in the box office.

 

Our movie begins with a new opening monologue as the narrator briefly talks about all of the legendary Pokémon that Ash has met so far on his journey, leading us to realize just how lucky this boy is.  Since this was the first film that was set in the Hoenn region (as appears in the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald GBA games) we are treated to a new couple of side-kicks for Ash in the form of young trainer May and her little brother Max.  Although Misty has left for reasons unknown, Brock also still accompanies Ash on his adventures.  We are also shown that the all new villainous organization is Team Magma, although Jessie and James are still the former antagonists and their affiliation still appears to be Team Rocket.

 

Anyhow, the narration continues to explain that a comet appearing in the sky for the first time in 1000 years will grant people wishes and warns that people should always be careful what they wish for - the overall moral of this movie.

 

As we finally cut to the plot, we see that Ash, Brock, May and Max have traveled to a location where a carnival is going to be held for the seven nights that the aptly named Millennium Comet is in the sky.  While at this carnival, they attend a magic show where they are impressed by the magician named the Great Butler and his assistant Diane.  During the act, Diane produces a large crystal and Max suddenly hears a voice coming from it that appears to be calling to him.  After the act, Butler reveals that the crystal contains a hibernating legendary Pokémon named Jirachi who only appears when the Millennium Comet is high in the sky and if it has someone to be friends with it.  Later that night, as the comet appears, Jirachi awakens and instantly latches onto Max.

 

After a few cute adventures, Max decides to see if the legends that state that Jirachi can grant wishes are true by wishing for lots of candy.  Almost instantly, the team find themselves surrounded by all they can eat.  It quickly becomes apparent, however, that Jirachi's power is only to teleport objects and, rather than creating the candy, has merely stolen it off a nearby store.  Jirachi instantly exhausts its power and falls asleep.  It recovers in time for the team to help Butler with his act but things end badly as Max is attached by a wild Absol - a Pokémon that only appears before a great disaster.  Although Pikachu and Butler manage to trap the Absol, Jirachi realizes the Pokémon had appear to bring him back to a place called Forina.

 

Shortly after, we discover that Butler does not have the purest intentions.  Prior to being the Great Butler, he was a scientist working for Team Magma who was employed to resurrect a legendary Pokémon named Groudon but was fired when he failed to do so.  It is Butler's intent to use Jirachi to harness the power of the comet and use it to power his Groudon resurrecting machine.  He kidnaps Jirachi and attempts to do so but is stopped by Ash and the others.  Diane also rebels against him and helps the team and Jirachi escape to Florina.

 

Although it takes a few days to reach Forina, the team make it there safely and discover that it is a paradise where Pokémon live happily.  According to Diane, on the last day of the comet Jirachi absorbs its power before going into hibernation for 1000 years, in which time the energy seeps from his body and keeps the valley alive.

 

However, Butler has followed them and captures Jirachi again.  Although Ash manages to rescue him, its all too late as Groudon awakens.  It turns out not to be the true Groudon, however, but a "creature of pure evil" that rampages through the valley sucking the life force out of everything (including Brock, May and Team Rocket).  As the fake Groudon captures Diane, Butler has a change of heart and helps Ash bring Jirachi back to the machine so that they can reverse it's polarity (squee!) and destroy the Groudon again.

 

Naturally, everything goes to plan as Jirachi reabsorbs the power used to create the Groudon and says its good bye to Max before returning to hibernation.  As the movie closes and the team begin to move on, Max hears Jirachi's voice declaring that they'll always be friends.

 

Although this is widely believed by most fans to be one of the better Pokémon movies, my views about it were quite mixed.  I feel that I should probably start with the good things before I give you my gripes.

 

Firstly, Jirachi Wish Maker should probably be commended in that its plot makes the most sense of any of the previous films.  It's all very straight-forward and easy to follow and there is no annoying techno babble.  Although the movie requires you to already have some knowledge about who Team Magma are, it should also be pointed out that these movies are really aimed towards people who already have some knowledge of the Universe and so would not need Team Magma's reasoning for wanting Groudon explaining to them.  Other than this, the story is just a classic tail of 'be careful what you wish for' and makes a nice change from the none sensical rambling that was Heroes: Latios and Latias.

 

There was also plenty for the secondary characters, especially Max, to do in this film.  This made a nice change as all the previous movies centered around Ash and Pikachu, while the only really moment that his side-kicks had was when they helped battle Molly in Spell of the Unown.  In this film, it was Max that bonded with Jirachi and so he was really more of the star of the show.  It was a nice change as it prevented the side-kicks from just being part of the scenery and made it, for once, that the fate of the word did not rest on Ash's actions.

 

The major thing that this film has going for it is Butler.  Finally the filmmakers have succeeded in creating a villain with motives beyond being selfish and just wanting to be evil.  Butler felt insulted and betrayed by Team Magma and wanted to prove his worth to them by succeeding where he previously failed.  Its not until he realizes that his creation could well destroy Diane that he realizes that his relationship with her is the most important thing in his life and changes his ways.  What is this?  Character development?  In a Pokémon movie?  I must say that I was so proud to see this.  Gone are the 2-D villains of the Collector (who I have just discovered is actually called Laurence III - thanks Wikipedia!) and the Iron Masked Marauder who just simply exist to be gits and we finally get a villain that we can relate to.  I'm so happy I could cry.

 

Unfortunately, this movie still suffers from a few nagging flaws.  Firstly, its paced so slowly that there does not seem to be any build of tension.  This has been a major problem with the Pokémon films since Spell of the Unown, as it causes even the final battles to become strangely sedate when they really should be gripping the audience.  At no point in this movie did I feel that the characters were threatened in any way and, unlike Celebi: Voice of the Forest, it didn't even seem like lasting harm was being done to the beautiful environment.  This quite strange, given how exciting both Mewtwo Strikes Back and The Power of One were, and I'm not sure why the creators seem to be having such problems recreating this atmosphere.

 

I also have a small dislike of the character of Jirachi.  While it was very cute, it lacked the charm of Mew, Celebi and Latias.  While I felt a little sad when Celebi nearly died at the end of Celebi: Voice of the Forest, I just felt kind of irritated by Jirachi's 'antics'.  Seriously, it was just a little bit of a pain in the neck and seemed to be more trouble then it was worth, specifically in the scene where its messing around caused some scaffolding to fall on May.  That's not adorable; it's just mean.

 

Also, continuing my theme of the shameful copying of key scenes of Princess Mononoke in Celebi: Voice of the Forest, the fake Groudon was very blatantly the Night Walker.  It even caused plants to wither as its slimy black/blue tendrils seeped over them.  Please filmmakers, accept that your movies will never be as universally loved as a Ghibli film.  Yes, Princess Mononoke is incredibly beautiful and moving but ripping it off will not cause your film to be equally as memorable.  In my case, it just gets me really annoyed as it's making a second-rate mockery of one of my all time favourites.  Please stop this, or I will be forced to add you to my list.

 

On the whole, Jirachi Wish Maker was a very average movie.  Though better in plotting and pacing than Spell of the Unown and Heroes: Latios and Latias, it just lacked both the excitement of The Power of One and the emotion of Celebi: Voice of the Forest.  I'm not sure why fans seem to consider it one of the best, perhaps I'm missing something vital, but I certainly would not have classed it as thus.

 

Tomorrow, I will be focusing on the seventh film - Destiny Deoxys - which I really hope turns out to be far better than its name suggests!

Today's review is of the fifth Pokémon movie, simply known as Heroes: Latios and Latias.  This movie was considered the biggest flop of the franchise and performed so poorly in the box office that none of the movies following it received cinematic releases outside of Japan.  What do I think?  Well, it was better than Spell of the Unown, that's for sure.

 

The movie opens with a woman referring to a legend about a powerful Pokémon defending a city from your run of the mill evil trainer.  Although we do not get the full story for quite some time, here is the York notes version.  An evil trainer once terrorized the city of Altomare using his evil Kabutops and evil Aerodactyl (always with the evil trainers, can't we for once have some morally ambiguous ones?).  A legendary bird(?) Pokémon named Latios came to the rescue and flooded the streets to drown the evil Pokémon and save the town people.  In doing so, he exhausted all of his power and all that was left of him was a gemstone containing his spirit and his two orphaned children (Latios and Latias).

 

The two women telling the story are revealed to be two Team Rocket members called Annie and Oakley (subtle...) who are stealing a book that gives them further information about the legendary Pokémon, gemstone (known as the Soul Dew) and the mechanism that the Soul Dew is capable of powering.

 

We then cut to Ash, Brock and Misty who are taking part in some kind of Pokémon surfing race in the city of Altomare.  Although Ash initially looks to be doing well, he is suddenly pulled off-course by an invisible Pokémon causing Misty to win the race.  As they then take a tour of the city by gondola, we are treated to another scene with Annie and Oakley.  It turns out that Latias has the power to appear like a human but the two thieves have special glasses that allow them to see past the illusion.  Attacking the girl/Latias with their Ariados and Espeon, they almost capture her but she is rescued by Ash.

 

Later, after Ash manages to loose the girl again, Ash and his friends tour the city museum where they see the Defense Mechanism of Altomare.  Ash also catches site of the girl again and chases her only to find out that she's a real person.  He is then introduced to Latias and Latios and learns about their special powers.  While Latias can appear as a mute human, Latios has the ability to project his field of vision, allowing others to see what he sees.  Ash is also shown the location of the Soul Dew but does not realize that a bug sent by Annie and Oakley has followed him and so they now know where to find the jewel.

 

That night, Annie and Oakley manage to steal both the Soul Dew and Latios, while Latias escapes to get Ash's help.  The thieves then go to the museum.  While Annie is content just in stealing the jewel, it is revealed the Oakley is power mad and she uses the Soul Dew to power up the Defense Mechanism with the intent of ruling the world.  She also resurrects the fossils of Kabutops and Aerodactyl and commands them to capture Latias.

 

Latias, meanwhile, has alerted Ash to the danger that Latios is in.  Although Oakley has used the Defense Mechanism to lock-down the city, trapping Brock and Misty, Ash and Latias manage to get to the museum and free Latios.  Due to it being out of water for two long, the Soul Dew suddenly shatters and causes the Defense Mechanism to go out of control.  The waters of the city recede before suddenly rushing back as a tidal wave that will destroy everything.  Summoning all their power, Latios and Latias manage to quell the seas but unfortunately Latios is forced to give his life and become the new Soul Dew in the process.  The movie ends with the Soul Dew being returned to its rightful place as Annie and Oakley are captured and taken to prison.

 

This movie seems to have an even balance of good and bad points.  Like Celebi: Voice of the Forest, the animation is absolutely superb.  Altomare has a really feel of Venice about it and the 3D is so smooth and detailed that it is very difficult to find fault in it - it's just all beautiful and so vibrantly coloured.  Similarly, the music is very sedate and fits the setting well - giving it all a very Professor Layton-like feel.  The balance between cuteness and action that was a problem in Celebi: Voice of the Forest also seems to have been address as, although the film contains its share of cutesy Pokémon antics, it never really forgets itself and so the plot moves on at a steady pace.

 

I also really appreciate the fact that they had the guts to kill off a Pokémon this time.  Latios and Latias were both very cute and lovable, like Mew and Celebi before them, and the movie did not insult our maturity by having Latios resurrected as Celebi was at the end of Celebi: Voice of the Forest.  It was a fairly moving moment too, as Latios knew exactly what he had to do.  Even though his sister was sad, he did not falter in his duty to protect Altomare and his noble sacrifice was probably the most touching thing to have occurred in the film series so far.

 

However, the movie does have some really huge problems.  The plot is really, really bad.  What the Hell is the Defense Mechanism actually for?  Who created it?  Why can't the Soul Dew survive being taken out of water?  How can this machine that supposedly protects the city actually be used if the Soul Dew cannot be harnessed?  Why did one evil trainer with only two mildly annoying Pokémon warrant an entire city being flooded in the first place?  Why was nobody remotely annoyed that their entire city was flooded?  Why exactly did Oakley want to take over the world?  None of these questions are answered within the movie in any shape or form.  For a while, I wondered if I had missed some important bit of information but reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia shows that it was just purely because the film made no sense.  It was almost as though the Defense Mechanism was added as an after-thought when the filmmakers realized that they didn't want to make another movie where the threat was an evil Pokémon trainer.

 

There was also the problem that the minor characters barely got any screen-time.  Brock, Misty, Jessie, James and Meowth all appear far less then they do in any other movie and so it's unclear why they had to appear at all as they did nothing to further the part.  Sure, Team Rocket got a couple of giggles (mainly due to the comedy brilliance that is Wobbuffet) but it would have been nice if they could have had a little more to do.  Since The Power of One, their role in the film franchise has been getting less and less.

 

So was this the lowest point of the Pokémon series?  Well, obviously I can't really say anything about movies 6-12 just yet, but it's certainly a lot more enjoyable to watch than Spell of the Unown.  Although movie 3 may have a plot that makes more sense, it just lacks some of the charm.  The legendary Pokémon in Heroes: Latios and Latias are very memorable and utterly adorable and some of the scenes, specifically the two chases on the canal, are quite imaginative and very impressively animated.

 

Anyway, there really isn't much more to say about this movie.  Tomorrow's film is Jirachi Wish Maker, which I have been told is one of the better ones.  Of course, whether or not I consider it one of the better ones remains to be seen.

Reading through this movie, I really do not understand why it seems to have been so universally panned by critics.  I mean, 14% from Rotten Tomatoes?  Isn't that just a bit harsh?  It may not be high cinema, but I wouldn't say that it was dreadful either.  Anyway, I guess I should put my view point across because I at least may be a little closer to the intended audience than the guys who officially reviewed the film.

 

The movie begins with a brief introduction narrated by Brock which explains a little about the characters and universe.  Gee, thanks movie.  Don't you think that it would have been better to stick this at the front of Mewtwo Strikes Back?

 

After this, we are introduced to a boy named Sam who is heading into the forest to draw Pokémon.  He is warned by a young woman that if he should hear the "voice of the forest" he should remain still, as this is the sound made by the Pokémon that guards the forest when it is using its ability to time travel and to move would be to risk being dragged into another time.  Soon after entering the forest, Sam encounters a wounded Celebi which is being pursued by a Pokémon hunter.  He protects the Celebi, but is also pulled into another time as it flits in terror.

 

Forty years later, we see the Pokémon hunter as an old man being interrogated by an elite Team Rocket agent known as the Iron Masked Marauder (hence-forth abbreviated to IMM).  The IMM reveals that he is looking to capture Celebi and that he uses dark balls which not only capture, but raise a Pokémon to its highest level and turn them evil.  Hands up who can see where this is heading...

 

Meanwhile, Ash, Brock and Misty arrive at Arborville - a tree top village in the forest - and on route they spot a mysterious Pokémon that Professor Oak later identifies for them as a legendary dog named Suicune, who is reportedly able to purify tainted water.  Oak also reveals that he too had seen the Pokémon before many years previously.

 

A short while later, Ash is exploring the forest when he comes across Sam unconscious and soon finds out that the boy is from the past.  They hunt for the injured Celebi and quickly find it and convince it that they are friends.  The Pokémon trainers then travel to a mystical healing spring (boy, there are a lot of these in the Pokémon world) where they restore Celebi to its full health before engaging in some minor adventures where Ash and Sam grow to be close friends.

 

As they are traveling back towards Arborville, they are attacked by the IMM who succeeds in capturing Celebi in a dark ball.  On releasing the Pokémon, it proceeds to destroy the forest and spring while creating itself a protective shield in the form of a giant monster out of bits of debris.  With Suicune's help, Ash and Sam succeed in causing Celebi to regain its goodness and defeat the IMM.  However, in the process Celebi is gravely wounded and even when Suicune restores the healing power of the spring, it is not enough to revive it.

 

Naturally, this is the point when the time vortex opens and a dozen Celebi appear to revive their friend before restoring Sam back to his true time line.  The movie then closes with Ash phoning Professor Oak to tell him how he is sad that he will never see Sam again, only for it then to be revealed to the audience that Oak is Sam after all and so, unbeknown to Ash, they are still friends even then.

 

Before I begin actually looking at the film, I really think that I should say something about the opening themes of these cinematic releases in general.  I should have mentioned this earlier, but I kept forgetting.  Each of these movies thus far has had a scene towards the beginning where Ash battles another trainer to a jazzed-up version of one of the TV shows opening themes.  And they're all freaking awesome.  I don't know what it is about these tunes, but they really get you in the mood to watch these films as they're just so energetic and catchy.  I think my favourite so far has been the opening theme for Spell of the Unown.  If you haven't heard this, go and look for it.  Once it gets in your head it will never leave.  Ever.

 

Anyway, onto the film.  My first gripe is it's bloody western title.  What's wrong with Celebi: Voice of the Forest you ask?  Well, absolutely nothing, but that's only because I've missed out the start of the title.  For the Western release, Celebi: Voice of the Forest was tacked onto the end of the main title of Pokémon 4Ever.  Gah.  Could that be any worse.  Why the Hell is there a four in there?  Sure, it's the fourth film but as the films do not carry on from each other there is really no point in the number being there.  Also, that title means nothing.  It doesn't even sound cool.  Really movie, what were you thinking?

 

Moving onto the main feature, this movie's plot is fairly mediocre.  It's message of respecting the delicate balance of nature is, thankfully, not forced in our face like the message of Mewtwo Strikes Back but the time travel plot is executed very clumsily.  There really isn't any point in it being in the story at all, other than to give Professor Oak a bit of back story.  The repercussions of time travel for Sam are barely touched upon, leaving only a brief mention to the effect of "gee, it's weird being in the future, but I'm sure I'll get used to it".  Boy, you've just lost forty years of history.  All of your loved ones could well be dead.  I don't think this is quite sinking in.

 

The other thing that the time travel plot is necessary for is giving us the biggest deus ex machina of the movie, and when I say biggest I mean larger than the coincidence that Suicune happens to come running to help them out with no prior reason for doing so just so that it appears just in time to purify the spring.  This would be the appearance of the other Celebi to heal their dying friend.  The explanation for this is just unsatisfactory, which I really hope is just due to a poor translation.  Vlad and I like to think that the Celebi are actually just the past and future versions of the dying one who need to restore him to prevent a paradox, but this doesn't come across in the dialog.  Are they the same Celebi or many different ones?  I guess we'll never know.

 

I also disliked the fact that Celebi was resurrected at all.  I know it's a kid's film and it can't be too grim, but it would have been far more touching if Celebi had sacrificed herself to save Ash and his friends to repay their earlier kindness to her.  Her magically Resurrection was almost as annoying as crying Pokémon reviving Ash.  Almost, but not quite.

 

The IMM is also a bit of a problem.  I really don't understand why Pokémon has such trouble making believable, well-rounded villains.  Although not quite as 2-D as the Collector, I was a bit unclear as to what exactly was motivating the IMM.  He wanted to show Giovanni that he was tough, fair enough, but by creating an army of evil Pokémon?  Why do they have to be evil?  And why do villains in this show seem to be proud of the fact that they are bad guys?  Would it be so hard to have a villain who actually believed that he was in the right?

 

My final problem was that this movie maybe took a little too much from Princess Mononoke.  Some of the scenes, specifically the first time Celebi is brought to the spring and the IMM's destruction of the forest, seem just a little too close for comfort.  The first glimpse of Suicune through the trees also reminded me greatly of the first time that the Great Forest Spirit is seen by Ashitaka in Mononoke.  This may just be a personal annoyance, as Princess Mononoke is one of my favourite films of all time, but I still disliked that it was so blatantly ripped off by Pokémon.  No matter how hard Pokémon tries, it just cannot replicate the beauty and depths of a Ghibli movie.  Sorry, but no.

 

All these things said, I just find it impossible to dislike Pokémon: Voice of the Forest.  The scenes of Ash and Sam bonding with Celebi are just beautiful and the animation of this film is so far superior to any of the prior Pokémon films.  They also seem to have finally fixed the problems with 3D animation so it now looks pretty damn good rather than dodgy as it did in Spell of the Unown.  In a word, a lot of the early parts of this movie are just sublime.  It's really nice and calming to watch it, and really not what we've grown to expect from a Pokémon movie.  Sure, there's some fighting towards the end, but it never becomes as intense as something like the battle between the legendary birds in The Power of One.  It's really just great for easy viewing and I did actually enjoy watching it, unlike some of the others like Mewtwo Returns where I found myself getting bored.

Although Mewtwo Returns is technically a direct sequel to the first Pokémon film, Mewtwo Strikes Back, I have chosen to place it at this point of the series.  This is because it is clearly (chronologically) placed at some point after Spell of the Unown due to the fact that it is set in Johto and because some point between the two films Brock's Zubat has evolved into Golbat, so it could not have taken place any earlier.  As this film also did not receive a cinematic release, it is also somewhat shorter and not as nicely animated as the other films that I have been reviewing.

 

The movie opens with a short narrative by Mewtwo explaining the events of Mewtwo Strikes Back.  Since this, the cloned Pokémon have been living in a remote mountain paradise far from the interference of man.  God only knows what's happened to Mew though, as he only receives the briefest of cameos in this film.

 

Although the people who were present for the battle between Mew and Mewtwo have had their memories erased, we are reminded that Giovanni was not on the island and so has been actively searching for the Pokémon and has finally tracked him to the mountain.

 

Meanwhile, Ash, Brock and Misty (seriously, how do these kids always end up in the right place at the right time?) shelter from the rain at an inn beneath the mountain where they meet two naturalists named Luna and Cullen and a random other girl called Domino while learning about the strange restorative qualities of the water that flows from the mountain.  Jessie and James attack, capturing Pikachu, and shortly all of the important cast members end up on top of the mountain just as Giovanni and the other members of Team Rocket attack Mewtwo.  It is also revealed that Domino is the elite Team Rocket agent known as the Black Tulip.

 

The cloned Pokémon are divided by their disagreement of how they should react to the assault.  Mewtwo still believes that clones have no place in the normal world and should flee, but the clones of Pikachu and Meowth choose to defend their right to live alongside natural Pokémon by fighting back against Giovanni.  As Mewtwo observes them getting soundly beaten, he surrenders to Team Rocket to save the life of his friends.  Although Ash quickly rescues him, Mewtwo is left on the verge of depths.  Despite protests of the scientists who want to use the healing spring water for the benefits of humans and not Pokémon, Ash throws Mewtwo into the water.

 

When Mewtwo sees that the waters heal him in the same way that they healed Pikachu earlier in the film, he realizes that he is a Pokémon regardless of the way that he was created.  Striking out with renewed strength, he defeats Team Rocket and teleports the spring beneath the mountain where the Pokémon will be safe.  He then wipes the mind of Giovanni and the other Team Rocket members.  Respecting Ash's promise to keep his whereabouts a secret, Mewtwo chooses to let Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie and James keep their memories of the battle and the film ends (as did Mewtwo Strikes Back) with the clones flying off into the night.

 

I must say that my hopes were not high, given the fact that this film was not released in the cinema as the others and I was still disappointed.  I felt that there was no real developments in the character of Mewtwo that had not already been brought to the forefront in Mewtwo Strikes Back.  After all, the message of the first movie was that we're all the same regardless of birth.  Evidently, Mewtwo had forgotten this as it took him a whole other movie to figure it out.  Even the clone Meowth remembered as he repeated the same "we both see the moon in the same way" speech that he uses in Mewtwo Strikes Back.

 

Mewtwo also really slows the movie down.  Every other scene is just Mewtwo standing on a cliff top being emo about his existence as a clone.  Seriously, it's not deep.  He's just winging that he deserves to live in the darkness because Pokémon will never accept the clones as being equal to them.  Despite the fact that he learned in the first movie that they clearly do not give a damn.  This whining could have been cut from the film as it does nothing to advance the plot or characterization at all.

 

However, I must admit, it was nice having a proper antagonist again.  Giovanni was a convincingly ruthless villain and at least seemed to have a tad more motivation than the Collector did for just being an utter bastard.  It was also nice to see some competent members of Team Rocket in action just to hammer home how utterly useless Jessie and James are.  Believe me, I love the two of them, but no person could be that utterly rubbish.  All they have to do is kidnap one electric rodent.  How hard could that be?

 

All in all, there is not much more to say about this film as it is basically an extension of Mewtwo Strikes Back.  Although it did a few things better than Spell of the Unown, it really was just an utterly pointless movie as it did nothing but revisit themes that were already fully rounded in Mewtwo Strikes Back.

 

Tomorrow, we will be getting right back into the theatrical releases when we look at the fifth movie - Celebi: Voice of the Forest.

Welcome to part three of my look at the Pokémon movies!  This time, I have watched Spell of the Unown or, to give it its Japanese title, Lord of the Unown Tower.

 

This movie opens with a little girl named Molly playing with her father, Spencer Hale.  Because they are happy, you know that something horrible will happen shortly.  They look through a picture book and it is revealed that Hale is researching a legendary species of Pokémon called the Unown.  It is also revealed that Molly has a fondness for the a legendary Pokémon named Entei - so much so in fact that her father pretends to be the Pokémon for her.

 

Hale is soon called away and, will investigating some ruins, is sucked into the Unown dimension.  After having the news of her father's disappearance broken to her, Molly discovers his recent research about the Unown and somehow manages to summon them to her.  She wishes that her father was back and, sure enough, the Unown bring Entei before her.  Molly instantly decides that this Entei really is her father, and Entei seems instantly amiable to this idea as the Unown begin to seal the house within a crystalline structure.

 

Cut to Ash, Misty and Brock who are on their way to a town called Greenfields.  As they approach, they discover the crystalline structure which, by this time, has spread to engulf most of the surrounding countryside.  In Pallet Town, both Ash's mother and Professor Oak watch a news report about the crystal and it is revealed that they both knew Hale.  They then set off for Greenfields.

 

As Ash's mother reaches Greenfields, it is revealed that Molly and Entei are watching them.  Molly states that she wants a mother and Entei grants her wish by kidnapping Ash's mother - hypnotizing her into believing that she really is Molly's mother.

 

Ash and his friends set off to try and find a way into the tower.  Watching their approach, Molly realizes that they are Pokémon trainers and wishes that she can be one to, and Entei instantly grants this wish.  Brock and Misty take up her challenge to give Ash enough time to reach his mother.  As Ash tries to get both his mother and Molly to safety, Entei attacks and engages in a huge battle against Ash's Charizard.  As it looks as though Charizard will die, Molly finally tells Entei to stop, accepting that he is not really her father.  They try to escape only to discover that the Unown's spell is growing out of control and thus there is no escape.  Drawing strength from Molly's belief in him, Entei (who has turned out to be just a dream made physical by the Unowns' power) manages to defeat the Unown and fades away as they are sucked back into their dimension.  As the movie closes, Ash and co. admire the beauty of Greenfields as Molly is reunited with her father.

 

I must say, this film is nowhere near as enjoyable as the previous two.  Although still watchable, it just doesn't make that much sense.  Vlad and I spent most of the film debating whether or not Entei was real or not, and I'm still not that sure now.  Was he made flesh by the Unown's spell, or was he just an illusion?  I really don't know.

 

Also, this film has no real antagonist.  Although an antagonist is not necessarily needed in a tale, it certainly helps pull things together.  Team Rocket are barely in this film (even breaking the fourth wall at one point to request that they appear more in the fourth film) and I suppose you could argue that Entei is the antagonist, but he really isn't all that antagonistic, especially when compared to both the Collector and Mewtwo who were mustachio-twirlingly evil.  Without a battle against something clearly villainous, the story just seemed weak and plodded along at a simple place.

 

Also, although this movie actually contained Pokémon battles, they just seemed to detract from the story.  I, personally, would have rather had some character development with Molly growing disillusioned with her reality than just watching Ash run up the stairs while Brock and Misty battled.  Molly sticks to her guns in believing Entei to be her father solidly until it looks as though Charizard is in trouble and then she suddenly changes her mind.  Poor pacing, guys.  I guess this one's moral is "give up your childish beliefs or you will cause a big crystal to engulf the planet" but this doesn't entirely work as after the girl gives up on her dream she is forced to believe in the imaginary Entei once again to stop the Unown.  Mixed message there...

 

My final complaint about this film is the animation.  I commented on The Power of One saying that the animation was very nice.  In this film, it's still pretty good but most of the film takes place inside a purple crystal that gets pretty boring.  The Unown also look really out of place as they're the only things that are computer animated.  It does make them stand out as being unique but, in my opinion, they just look silly.

 

Anyway, I didn't really enjoy Spell of the Unown that much.  Hopefully, the films are going to start getting better again as I really have a lot of these left to watch.  Tomorrow's review will be Mewtwo Returns.

Welcome to the second part of my long look at the Pokémon movie franchise.  Today we will be looking at the second feature film, The Power of One.  This seems to be the movie of many names.  I previously knew of this film as being Revelation Lugia (apparently it's Japanese title) while Vlad believed it to be called Pokémon 2000.  The title credits, however, do not lie.

 

The movie begins with the telling of an ancient legend.  Apparently, if the elements of fire, ice and lightning are thrown out of wack, the great beast of the sea will awaken.  Cut to Evil McEvilface in his floating fortress of doom as he hunts down and captures Moltres, one of the three Legendary Bird Pokémon that appeared in the original Red and Blue games.  I don't think this villain is ever named, but for the ease of reviewing I shall be calling him 'The Collector'.  With Moltres captured, the Collector reveals that he shall next be hunting Zapdos as his eventual goal is to capture the Legendary Bird that resides in the ocean depths.

 

Meanwhile, Ash, Misty and Tracey are sailing in the Orange Islands, naturally with Team Rocket in hot pursuit.  As the weather suddenly takes a turn for the worse, they are washed up on the shore of an Island where a festival is taken place.  When the islanders discover that Ash is a Pokémon trainer, he is declared the Chosen One and is permitted to take part in the festivities.  He is given the task of collecting three orbs from the Islands of Fire, Lightning and Ice and bringing them back to the festival.  Even though the storm is worsening, Ash immediately sets off to get the first orb.

 

We are then treated to a scene in Pallet Town, where Ash's mother and Professor Oak notice that the Pokémon are beginning to act strangely and are shocked to see that it is beginning to snow in mid summer.  They rightly decide that the Pokémon are sensing some coming disaster.

 

Caught in the storm, Ash and the others are marooned on Fire Island where Ash grabs the first orb.  Zapdos appears and explains to Pikachu (translated by Meowth) that since Moltres has disappeared his is taking control of the island.  Suddenly, the sky fortress appears and captures both Zapdos and the humans.  On board, they are taken prisoner by the Collector who explains that now he only has to capture Articuno to force the fourth Legendary Pokémon to appear so that he can capture the greatest Pokémon of them all.

 

Ash and his friends manage to free Zapdos and Moltres who instantly begin to attack each other, destroying the fortress and attracting Articuno.  As the three legendary Pokémon battle, Ash retrieves the lightning orb and places it with the fire orb on an altar (presumably on the Island where the festival is being held).  He realizes that he is still missing the Ice Orb and Lugia picks this moment to burst from the ocean, only to be badly beaten by the other Legendary Birds.  As more legends are told, it is revealed that Lugia is destined to be defeated and the world will "turn to ash".  Now there's a pun for you.

 

Accepting that he really is the Chosen One, Ash manages (with Team Rocket and Lugia's assistance) to get the final orb and place it in the altar with the others.  This amplifies the ocarina melody played by one of the islanders and calms the warring birds, causing the weather conditions to settle to normal as they return to their respective islands allowing Ash and his friends to continue on their journey.

 

My immediate problem with this film is it's title.  However you look at it The Power of One sounds God-awful.  Perhaps that's why I didn't even realize that this was what the film was called.  It's also really unclear what this is suppose to refer to.  I guess it has to be Ash, as the Chosen One but who knows really.  It could be referring to Lugia or even the Collector as either of these characters could be the powerful one.

 

Mentioning the Collector brings me to my second problem.  While this film is infinitely easier to follow that its predecessor (which is a good thing as there was so much techno-babble in the opening to Mewtwo Strikes Back that it almost made my head spin), it really doesn't have a very clear message.  As I mentioned yesterday, the message of Mewtwo Strikes Back was very clear and if anything a little too in-your-face.  As far as I can tell, the message of The Power of One seems to be "your rabid fanboy consumerism will destroy the world".  I really love the Collector, as he is such a 2-dimensional villain.  He is, basically, an otaku.  His Pokémon collection began with one Mew trading card (interestingly, the one that you would have received if you, like me, saw this film in the cinema) and now has expanded so far that he is willing to risk the life of every creature on the planet so that he can collect it.  I think I'm going to take my trading cards outside and burn them right now.  If you ever see me flying past on my vast fortress of doom, realize that I have taken my fanaticism too far.

 

This film, like Mewtwo Strikes Back, is by no means awful.  It's incredibly easy to watch and makes a lot more sense than the first movie, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot to it when you break it down.  Although the animation is rather nice by Pokémon standards, a lot of the running time seems to be dedicated to flashy aerial battles rather than development.  Although it's kind of nice to see Team Rocket willingly play the heroes (albeit for their own eventual gain) and even choose to sacrifice themselves to help Ash, none of the other characters grow at all.  There are strong indications that Misty has a crush on Ash early on but this goes nowhere.  Tracey's character just may not as well be in it at all, as he barely speaks, causing me to feel relieved that Brock replaces him in the rest of the films.  Good old Brock, even though his only character traits are his nymphomania and lack of eyes he still has more personality than Tracey.

 

Anyway, there is my conclusion, good for easy viewing but a little empty in the content department when analyzed.  Tomorrow, I will be looking at the third movie - Spell of the Unown.  In the meanwhile, I guess I'm just going to have to start construction of my mobile death fortress just in case I spot any rare collectibles.

Well, as promised, here is my thoughts on the first of the Pokémon movies from way back in 1998 - Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.

 

Our movie opens on a brief (and boy do I mean brief) explanation about the antagonist of this film.  Mewtwo is the world's first cloned Pokémon, created from the DNA of the legendary Mew.  Although the scientists originally wanted to create a normal clone the leader of Team Rocket (Giovanni), who was funding the project, insisted that they instead attempted to create the most powerful Pokémon.  On discovering that he is a clone, Mewtwo suffers from an explosive identity crisis and destroys the laboratory.  He is then taken under the wing of Giovanni, who pretends that they will become partners but Mewtwo soon leaves him on discovering that Giovanni only wants to use him to dominate other Pokémon.

 

We then cut to the stars of the TV series, Ash, Brock and Misty, as they receive a letter challenging them to a Pokémon battle.  The battle, it turns out, will be taking place on an island in the middle of a raging storm but with the aid of Team Rocket members Jessie and James, they manage to make it to the island safety.  Once there, they soon learn that Mewtwo has lured them there, as he wants to challenge their powerful Pokémon to battle his clones (thus proving clone superiority over normal Pokémon - told you that he has identity issues).  When Ash and the other trainers inevitably loose, Mewtwo steals their Pokémon and creates clones of them all.

 

It is then that Mew appears and argues that Mewtwo is totally misunderstanding what it is that makes Pokémon strong - it's what's inside and not just their special powers.  As Mew and Mewtwo battle, the clones slug it out and it rapidly becomes clear that no one is going to win this fight as they are all evenly matched.  To stop the fighting, Ash throws himself between Mew and Mewtwo and the shock wave of their psychic powers somehow turns him to stone.  The Pokémon all realize their mistakes and Mewtwo is shocked that a human would sacrifice himself to help Pokémon.  As the Pokémon cry, their tears merge together and somehow revive Ash.  Mewtwo, Mew and the clones then all fly off into the sunset to live a life in peaceful isolation, wiping the memory of everyone else so that they will not remember the battle that took place.

 

The Nostalgia Critic has already done a fantastic review that outlines the many flaws in this plot and I strongly urge you to seek it out.  Although I have a real soft spot for this film, I do agree that his many points are valid.

 

To be fair, this film does have a very strong message.  Unlike the TV show which never really shows the effects of the violent nature of Pokémon, the film stresses a message that we should respect people for who they are and look for things that we have in common, rather than dislike each other for our differences.  This message is hammered home a little two strongly in the dialog at times (especially in a lengthy speech made by Meowth during the battle), but it's still relatively effective and I couldn't help but feel a little pang of sorrow as Pikachu made a valiant peaceful stand against his cloned self.

 

The pacing of the story is also pretty poor, and made more so by clumsy dialog.  Notice the start of the film as scientists try to explain all about the closing process in the ten seconds before they are killed by Mewtwo.  As all this is explained in length later in the film, it's just poor to have the head scientist force it out right at the very beginning.

 

My primary annoyances with the film come from the ending.  Honestly, the tears of the Pokémon bring Ash back to life.  They cry and everything's okay.  Boy, I wish I had an over sympathetic Pokémon with me at all time in case of emergency.  Also, the message of the movie becomes pretty moot due to the mind wipe.  All the trainers learn a valuable lesson about how to treat their Pokémon as friends and not weapons and then Mewtwo brainwashes them into forgetting it again.  Just, what's the point?  The characters have not learned anything, making the whole film entirely pointless.

 

Finally, as with all of the films, this is not a good introduction to the world of Pokémon.  It goes without saying really, but this film does not explain anything about who the characters are or what Pokémon are.  If you don't know anything about the universe (at least as far as the Red and Blue games) you won't understand the film at all, thus making it miss-able.

 

Anyhow, a little brief, but I think I've covered the finer points.  It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I do like the film as a whole.  I just can't excuse the huge problems that I've outlined above.  Please tune in later to read my thoughts of the second film, The Power of One.

Hi all.  Sorry that I haven't blogged for a long time.  I've been busy/ill/on holiday.  To come back in style, I've decided to do another multi-part review (the last being my Halloween look at the Hellraiser franchise.  This time is quite different, as I will be looking 13 of the Pokémon movies.

 

I must admit that I have a real soft spot for Pokémon.  Although I was already into anime before the TV show aired in the UK, I was totally overwhelmed by the fantastic imagination that went into the whole Pokémon universe.  Although I stopped watching the show around when the second movie was released, I am still a big fan of the RPG games and I am currently playing Pokémon HeartGold which is where my idea for this review on.

 

Over the next few blogs, I will be looking at the following movies:

 

Pokémon: The First Movie (Mewtwo Strikes Back)

The Power of One (Revelation Lugia)

Spell of the Unown (Lord of the Unown Tower)

Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns (Mewtwo!  I Am Here)

Celebi: Voice of the Forest (Celebi: A Timeless Encounter)

Heroes: Latias and Latios (The Guardians of Altomare - Guardian Gods of the Capital of Water: Ratiasu and Ratiosu)

Jirachi Wish Maker (Wishing Star of the Seven Nights: Jirachi)

Destiny Deoxys (Visitor from a Fissure in the Sky: Deoxys)

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (Mew and the Wave Guiding Hero: Lucario)

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea: Manaphy)

The Rise of Darkrai (Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai)

Giratina and the Sky Warrior (Giratina and the Sky Bouquet: Shaymin)

Arceus and the Jewel of Life (Arceus: To the Conquering of Space-Time)

 

Although I view Pokémon usually through the hazy veil of nostalgia, I will try my hardest to be unbiased in my reviews and bring forward the good and bad points of each film, bearing in mind their target audience is not someone of my age group.  I will also be watching these films dubbed, as I could not find subbed versions of all of these, and so I accept that there may be translation differences that affect the film quality.  As always, you are free to have your own opinion, this is just mine.

 

I am about to watch Mewtwo Strikes Back so expect my review to be up shortly. 

I have been in bed sick with everything for the last two days - fever, cold, lost voice, upset stomach - and consequentially I have been very bored.  Thus, I turned to looking over the chapters I had written of my story so far and found that, in my delirious state, they bored me senseless.  Thus I've started rewriting.  Over the course of my sickness, I wrote the first four chapters again largely from scratch.  I'm going to have to reread them again, of course, but I'm kind of proud that being stuck in ill inspired me to start writing again.  I hope I can keep it up.  I really want to get this novel cranked out and proof read so I can start looking for a publisher...

 

Pity I have to get back to work.  I hope one day to be able to make a living as an author.  I think that's the kind of lifestyle for me :)

One of the things that the RSPCA told us that we had to have was a cat flap, and not just any cat flap but a magnetic one so that only Lucy can use it.  Also, as our landlord won't allow us to install a cat flap in the house, we need to install it in the shed and set up Lucy a little place where she can sleep and eat if she wants to be outside while we're at work.

 

As Lucy's house arrest will soon end, Vlad needs to install the cat flap for next weekend.  To prepare Lucy for it, I've attached the magnet to her collar.  And I'm kind of worried about it.  Not only is the magnet incredibly heavy, it is also very powerful.  I'm kind of concerned about her scrambling electronic devices and getting stuck to the fridge,  It's also made her bell pretty moot so, provide she isn't stuck to the side of a metallic object, she's now free to become a scourge to wildlife.

 

Does anyone have any experience with cat magnets?  If so, are they okay wearing them?  I know I don't really have an alternative, as infra-red cat flaps are far too expensive for me to afford, but is there a high risk of Lucy finding herself stuck to inanimate objects?

A rarity for me - I saw a horror film that actually sent a chill down my spine.  As it's still fresh in my mind,  I thought that this was a perfect time to share it with you.  As always, there may be SPOILERS.

 

I first heard about Noroi (or The Curse to give it it's English title) when I was researching found footage whilst writing my review of Paranormal Activity.  Over recent years, this style of film making has been achieving great popularity in the Western world.  After the hit that was The Blair Witch Project, we've had such other popular films as [Rec], a Spanish zombie flick that was remade in America as Quarantine, and Cloverfield.  A feature that is often seen amongst them is an opening dialog or caption to state that the footage that you will be watching was found after some mysterious event.  This leaves you wondering for the entire film what could possibly happen at the end to cause the footage to be lost in the first place.  My views on the style are very varied, as I disliked Blair Witch, found Paranormal Activity to be disappointingly tame and quite enjoyed Cloverfield.  But Noroi has been the first that I truly appreciated.

 

The plot of Noroi is very reminiscent of the anime Higurashi no naku koro ni (When they Cry).  The plot begins very disjointedly.  We learn that we are watching a film made by a supernatural journalist called Noroi.  This was the last movie made by the journalist before a fire engulfed his home, killing his wife, and possibly causing him to mysteriously vanish. 

 

Kobayashi investigates the reports of strange noises that sound like baby cries only for the haunted family to die mysteriously days later.  A 10 year old girl named Kana displays remarkable psychic powers on television before she disappears without a trace.  A television personality named Mariko hears strange voices while on a ghost hunt and later startles a man with psychic powers, causing him to lunge at her in a frenzy and warn her to beware of pigeons.

 

Eventually, the strands begin to come together as the characters meet one another.  As Kobayashi begins to investigate Mariko's haunting he eventually manages to record a deep voice saying the word 'Kagutaba'.  On researching this name, he discovers that it belongs to a mysterious entity once evoked by sorcerors in a specific Japanese village to harm their enemies.  Legends have it that, during one summoning, Kagutaba refused to obey its summoners and began to go off and spread evil of its own volition.  Therefore, the villagers instead began to hold rituals to seal and pacify the being rather than summon it.  All is well and good, until the village is due to be flooded during the building of a damn.  As the villagers prepare to leave, they hold one last ritual to pacify Kagutaba, but things go horribly wrong as it seems to possess one of the people involved.

 

Kobayashi and Mariko hurry to the lake where the village once was in the hope of sealing Kagutaba once more, but naturally things do not go to plan and soon they discover that they have made things much, much worse...

 

Noroi was a perfect example of why J-Horror can be so amazingly effective.  I cannot fault this film.  Although I was at first concerned about its complexity, the way that the strands came together was masterful.  It also did not overload the viewer with ghosts and gore.  Most of the scares of this film were caused by pure tension.  Although the movie's tag line was 'Everyone dies' (which was not strictly true as there were at least three characters who's fates were not accounted for at the end of the film) it was incredibly difficult to predict the direction that the film was taking.  I'm normally pretty good at seeing these kind of things coming, but a lot of the turns that the ectoplasmic worm took really caught me off-guard.

 

That said, there were one or two instances were Kobayashi decided to suffer from 'horror movie protagonist idiocy'.  "Let's look inside", "Let's go upstairs", "Let's split up so I can chase the deranged psychic through the creepy woods at night", "Let's adopt the creepy Juon kid who totally won't kill us all".  I point out the fact that if I had seen the creepy Juon kid when Kobayashi did at the start of the film, I would not have investigated into to matter any further.  This is possibly why a horror movie about me would suck.

 

For the large part, Noroi was terrifying.  It did a fantastic job of holding my interest over what could have been an overly complex film and I was utterly satisfied by the way that all of the threads of the plot were significant and drew together so neatly in the end.  For the lover of horror, Noroi is definitely one to watch.  Unfortunately, it does not seem to be currently available in the UK.  I managed to find a download of it fairly easily though, so you should be able to find a way to see it if you're so inclined.