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Your least favorite Pokémon movies

I really, really, really don't understand what is so special about the DP movies. They're boring, bland, easily forgettable, and the plot is basically just an extended filler episode. I learn barely anything about the characters from the movies nor do I learn anything else about the main cast and the connectivity between the DP movie trilogy just confused me. It didn't feel like a carefully constructed story so much as a series of events barely strung together with a piece of thread. They had potential, but the pale compared to the likes of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew or pretty much any of the OS movies. Even I Choose You! alone was more enjoyable than the DP trilogy all together.
 
Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution. Why was there a need to remake the original movie much less in an ugly CGI format? If they wanted to go with a Mewtwo movie, it would have been so much more interesting had they done a reimagining of it taking place in their movie universe they’ve been using since I Choose You. At least then it could have played out differently enough to justify its existence without being a total retread.
 
Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution. Why was there a need to remake the original movie much less in an ugly CGI format? If they wanted to go with a Mewtwo movie, it would have been so much more interesting had they done a reimagining of it taking place in their movie universe they’ve been using since I Choose You. At least then it could have played out differently enough to justify its existence without being a total retread.
Then they added insult to injury by cutting out the best part of the movie.
 
Then they added insult to injury by cutting out the best part of the movie.
Yeah CGI works fine for the likes of Disney/Pixar but hoo boy it does not work at all for anime, it just looks WRONG on so many levels it's not even funny, as far as remakes go it feels even more pointless then the Psycho remake(as at least that was accomplishing things that Hitchcock had wanted to do with the original film but was limited by the technology of the time)it feels like this film was created to make money first, it's got a soulless cash grab feel that i've not seen from any other Pokemon movies.
 
The stupid Keldeo movie. It was the last Pokémon movie I saw because it was just that bad. Hated how everyone in the Pokémon Center acts like it's a normal-a** Pokémon. I mean it's a freaking mythical, but no, Nurse Joy acts like it's as common as a Pidove.

Also hated how Kyurem could just... change forms by will randomly and everyone acts like that's normal too. Why would Kyurem want to swap forms? Shouldn't it want to go back to being the original dragon? Why is it limited to only using Reshiram OR Zekrom's powers even WITHOUT the DNA splicers? Literally nothing is explained!

The biggest problem with the movie is how much of a brat Keldeo was. Everyone acts like he's some poor kid that's being bullied, even though he was the one who STARTED the fight in the first place. No wonder his mentors told him not to fight Kyurem, since apparently they're weaker than Keldeo and got frozen in like 2 seconds.

Everything wrong with this movie is how indifferent everyone is to what's going around them. Suddenly Iris can drive a blimp and no-one asks any questions. It feels like everyone's about to say "That's just how it is" and move on. There was absolutely no growth for anyone, because of how indifferent everyone was throughout the movie. Keldeo started as a brat and ended as a brat. None of the rest of the cast did much and we got WAY more questions than answers.
 
The stupid Keldeo movie. It was the last Pokémon movie I saw because it was just that bad. Hated how everyone in the Pokémon Center acts like it's a normal-a** Pokémon. I mean it's a freaking mythical, but no, Nurse Joy acts like it's as common as a Pidove.

Also hated how Kyurem could just... change forms by will randomly and everyone acts like that's normal too. Why would Kyurem want to swap forms? Shouldn't it want to go back to being the original dragon? Why is it limited to only using Reshiram OR Zekrom's powers even WITHOUT the DNA splicers? Literally nothing is explained!

The biggest problem with the movie is how much of a brat Keldeo was. Everyone acts like he's some poor kid that's being bullied, even though he was the one who STARTED the fight in the first place. No wonder his mentors told him not to fight Kyurem, since apparently they're weaker than Keldeo and got frozen in like 2 seconds.

Everything wrong with this movie is how indifferent everyone is to what's going around them. Suddenly Iris can drive a blimp and no-one asks any questions. It feels like everyone's about to say "That's just how it is" and move on. There was absolutely no growth for anyone, because of how indifferent everyone was throughout the movie. Keldeo started as a brat and ended as a brat. None of the rest of the cast did much and we got WAY more questions than answers.
I remember watching this movie several years ago and just thinking it just looked like a stretched out normal episode of the show. At no point it feels like an actual movie.

I'm mostly indifferent to the movies (and really the entire anime) but i like to watch them every now and then. But this one just felt off completely off in terms of being just a movie.
 
this movie has already been mentioned like twice alrady in this thread so im not going to dwell too much on it, but yeah, i think the keldeo movie is the worst movie ive watched so far. i havent watched that many movies truth be told because my relationship with the pokeani is 'if its got my favorite pokemon im going to watch it', but the keldeo movie was just.... bland, boring, things happened and nobody questioned. i have no doubts in my mind that it was probably either made on a rush to meet some sort of deadline, or was meddled with by higher ups so much that its just a husk of what it was supposed to be.

its probably the n1 reason why i think the swords of justice are the worst legendary group. if theres one impression i got from that movie, its 'these guys are boring as hell.'

as a second place, i really dont get the genesect movie. im going to assume its just an alternate continuity, because to this day i cant wrap my head around the fact that theres apparently two mewtwos now. and also, it was just very boring as well. but at least not as boring as the keldeo movie.
 
as a second place, i really dont get the genesect movie. im going to assume its just an alternate continuity, because to this day i cant wrap my head around the fact that theres apparently two mewtwos now. and also, it was just very boring as well. but at least not as boring as the keldeo movie.
i mean, type:null's dex entry in pokemon sword mentions stolen research notes lead to one being created in galar, so it's entirely possible a similar situation happened with mewtwo.
 
My 5 Least Favorite:

#1) Hoopa and the Clash of Ages (The worst of all the films to me, here): What hasn't everyone said about this one before? Just...just the worst so far, IMO, completely uninspired with a random Legendary meet and greet free for all out of the blue-- and bland, forgettable, except for Hoopa which is just beyond annoying here.

#2) I Choose You!: Nostalgia pandering cash grab IMO, with two completely forgettable characters in place of Misty & Brock who will never show up again in an AU film. Sorrell and Verity are just not fleshed out that well at all, makes it hard to truly care for them much.

#3) Mewtwo Strikes Back- Evolution: See above, the CGI is very YMMV, but I didn't really care for it and much prefer the cel-shaded 2D look of the 1999 film. 3D is just not really my thing. Furthermore, as this film is predominantly about cloned Pokémon fighting against their originals, I had hoped that the character designers would rectify an issue of the original film and clearly distinguish between the two Pokémon. Unfortunately, they didn't. While initially, the cloned Pokémon have markings to indicate that they are indeed cloned, once the rest of the trainer’s Pokémon are taken and turned against them, they lack any distinguishing features to indicate I shouldn’t be rooting for them. I understand that this better illustrates the motifs of non-violence and differentiation in nature and nurture. However, I don’t believe they executed it effectively. All it does is cause many to be confused who is good and who is bad.

#4) Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction- Just very, very bland, and forgettable. Also the fashion dressing up scene with Serena & Bonnie comprising a film is just...ehhh, nothing inherently wrong with it, but felt pointless to include them trying on dresses. Also, the way Pikachu dies is very...strange, to say the least.

#5) Giratina and the Sky Warrior- Shaymin is just really, really annoying, and Brock does next to nothing in this film besides get sidelined. Zero is also very "MWHAHAHAHA" style generic to me, thinks he's so special only he can protect the Reverse World: shame, I actually kind of liked Newton Graceland his teacher.

Dishonorable mention: M13, mainly due to Zorua's "Meema" catchphrase
 
Okay, the Mewtwo movie is the finest. The fucking genesect movie is the one I despise. Okay, since when is Mewtwo a girl? Second, why does Ash pretend like he has no idea who Mewtwo is, and Mewtwo is still a jerk to Ash despite the fact that they were homies by the end of the Mewtwo movie? I know Ash wasn't supposed to remember anything after the first movie, but when Mewtwo reappears, he's supposed to remember that garbage. It would have been far superior if they had known each other. Even without his mega stone, I liked how Mewtwo Mega developed. Shiny genesect was also a jerk. Keldo is also a bitchy character. Sorry.
 
Here's my three worst.

#3) Giratina and the Sky Warrior: Shaymin. just Shaymin. For a Pokemon that's meant to be the Gratitude Pokémon, it really complains a lot about everything and thus is very annoying. Zero just isn't a memorable or good villain. Brock doesn't really have much of a role here as well.
#2) Kyurem and the Swords of Justice: Keldeo is rather annoying and his goal makes them appear overconfident at best, and arrogant, prideful and rash at worst. They also want to fight Kyurem, causing everything to go wrong. Also ,why does Kyurem just want to defeat Keldeo all of a sudden, so far as to hunt Keldeo down with an army of Cryogonal? It just doesn't make any sense and also isn't that good.
#1) Hoopa and the Clash of Ages: Or as I call it, Anything Goes: The Movie. I've made the joke that the movie was commissioned by Smogon to advertise their Anything Goes tier multiple times on the Discord. It's literally just Legendary Pokemon duking it out, with not much of a coherrent story in between. It's just bland, forgettable, and a waste of a movie slot.
 
Okay, the Mewtwo movie is the finest. The fucking genesect movie is the one I despise. Okay, since when is Mewtwo a girl? Second, why does Ash pretend like he has no idea who Mewtwo is, and Mewtwo is still a jerk to Ash despite the fact that they were homies by the end of the Mewtwo movie? I know Ash wasn't supposed to remember anything after the first movie, but when Mewtwo reappears, he's supposed to remember that garbage. It would have been far superior if they had known each other. Even without his mega stone, I liked how Mewtwo Mega developed. Shiny genesect was also a jerk. Keldo is also a bitchy character. Sorry.
It's not the same Mewtwo
 
The XY era movies, largely forgettable and firmly in the period of promoting the contemporary event Pokemon first plot second. Doesn’t help the games went to just giving you the event Pokemon rather than new areas and lore included.
 
Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, there's some bad movies out there but this one is my worst for how much it's a blatant cash grab that plays on people's nostalgia for the first movie. This is the Lion King (2019) of Pokemon Movies, and the CGI looks really off-putting at best.

And this is all before you factor in the dub production, it changes just enough from the 4Kids First Movie that neither fans of 4Kids or the original Japanese will like it but also is so derivative that you're better off watching the original anyway.
 
I don't like most of the movies after DP. They are either really bland or confusing. The Power of Us is probably the only movie post DP that I really like and I don't see why Ash needed to be in it.

The Victini movies could have been interesting if Iris had been more relevant to the plot since both she and the villain are very Native American coded. They even made two movies, why not let her be the focus in at least one of them? Instead we end up with a movie that almost feels a little racist?

I don't like the AU movies, why couldn't they just be set in the same universe as the regular anime? Why make a movie that is supposed to pander to the Genwunners but exclude Misty and Brock? Instead they replace them with a girl with no backstory and a guy who is just a reference to Kimba the White Lion??? Also Ash's dream sequence about Pokémon being fake is kind of trippy. In a way "I choose you" is interesting because it feels like a weird fever dream. Not sure if I would call it the worst but it is definitely the weirdest Pokémon movie ever created.
 
I don't like the AU movies, why couldn't they just be set in the same universe as the regular anime? Why make a movie that is supposed to pander to the Genwunners but exclude Misty and Brock? Instead they replace them with a girl with no backstory and a guy who is just a reference to Kimba the White Lion??? Also Ash's dream sequence about Pokémon being fake is kind of trippy. In a way "I choose you" is interesting because it feels like a weird fever dream. Not sure if I would call it the worst but it is definitely the weirdest Pokémon movie ever created.
Was it supposed to pander to long time fans? It was an anniversary movie celebrating the anime's 20th anniversary, but I don't think it was supposed to be pandering or at least I didn't get that impression. It was supposed to be a retelling of Ash's beginning adventures as a trainer, which doesn't really come off as instantly pandering to generation one fans. I never quite understood the backlash to replacing Misty and Brock from the movie, especially when they announced that they were going to appear in SM shortly afterwards. I Choose You primarily focused on Ash and Pikachu, so Misty and Brock wouldn't have had much focus if they had just replaced Verity and Sorrel instead. Their appearances in SM allowed for Misty and Brock to get more center stage focused, something that wouldn't have happened if they had appeared in I Choose You or really any other Pokemon movie.

Honestly, I like Verity and Sorrel. Admittedly, they were probably included in order to feature both Piplup and Lucario moreso than anything else, but I liked their friendship with Ash. It kind of made me wish that they had been part of the series proper somehow, which counts for something. I don't think that they're the best movie exclusive characters, but they generally worked fine for their roles in the movie. I love I Choose You. It's at least tied with Lucario as my favorite Pokemon movie. It was a great way to celebrate the anime's 20th anniversary, I liked most of the changes they made from the original series and I think it did a terrific job in capturing the heart of the anime, which I still think is the bond between Ash and Pikachu. I also really love its cover of the classic Pokemon opening theme. It might be my favorite version of that song. I remember that they played a small trailer before the movie in theaters playing the song and it made me cry a bit. It just made me happy to be a Pokemon fan after all these years.
 
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