Review M21: The Power of Us

[Silktree]

Pros:

1. Johto Pokemon being prevalent, even if Lugia is just there for the lore.
2. The new characters being memorable (except for their names), with the exception of Margo who was fodder for Zeraora.

Cons:

1. Ash and Zeraora only serve as a painful reminder that this is still a pretty typical Pokemon movie. They are painfully dull to watch.
2. The climax was the result of a poor plot device. I get what they were going for, but Effect Spore does not a sensible cure make.
3. They could have removed some scenes and I wouldn't have noticed a difference.

Overall, I'd rank it fifth on my list, but those cons drag it quite a bit below the Lucario movie (number four) for me.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Effect Spore does not a sensible cure make.

Haven't you even heard of antidotes being made out of poisons?

 

[Silktree]

In real life, the antibodies can counteract poison, so you'd think that an Effect Spore antidote would just be... a Full Heal. What does that have to do with human diseases?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

In real life, the antibodies can counteract poison, so you'd think that an Effect Spore antidote would just be... a Full Heal. What does that have to do with human diseases?

I'm sure it could be reverse engineered into a human medicine as well, seeing as it also affected people.

 

[Silktree]

So it would cure poison, burn, freeze and paralysis. That isn't what (looks up) Toren said.

And of course the problem with that is that Natural Cure is an ability that he ends up using, anyway. Why not do it to begin with?

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I'm more baffled that a single jar of Effect Spore was able to cripple an entire city

Did it have self-replicating properties or what

 

[Max1996]

I'm more baffled that a single jar of Effect Spore was able to cripple an entire city

Did it have self-replicating properties or what

I suppose it was very concentrated in the jar?

Anyway, the English dub seems to be a lot better than I remember...

 

[NeoMiniTails]

I'm more baffled that a single jar of Effect Spore was able to cripple an entire city

Did it have self-replicating properties or what

I think it honestly gives a good example of how powerful Pokemon's powers can be when concentrated to its purest form.

It was a bit ridiculous... But hey, its a movie.

 

[Nicolas721]

The movie excels at characterization, specially the 5 guests + Zeraora. They feel very human, they all make mistakes and have flaws, and at the end they understand that the only way they will become better people is to acknowledge those flaws. Also, each character had background and loved ones that made them the person they are now, which was another great detail. Maybe the message "Together we can do anything" was repetitive and preachy, but it's necessary in this day and age where we all want to be part of something bigger. That makes it possibly the most motivational Pokemon movie.

The story works for the characters, but I expected something better. The first 2 acts were nice enough, and gave me hopes that the "1-hour long climaxes" were a thing of the past, but nope, as it's usual with static setting movies there's one here. Yes, I should have saw it coming, but they're the reason why I don't like static setting movies much and I'm convinced they can do better. Also, I think that not continuing the travelling aspect of M21 was a big loss. Another gripe was that there were many times where an Electric-type Pokémon could power up a device, or a Flying-type could deliver a message, but that didn't happen for the sake of drama.

Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the credits sequence was possibly the worst of all 21 movies. The cute drawings should had been a part of it, not the whole of it. The dub song didn't help.

Anyway, the movie is a step back from the adventure, dreams and immersion from M20, but is a step forward in terms of characterization and personality of the side characters, so it's on the same tier. The Sun & Moon series should learn from it, as its protagonists have vague goals, almost non-existent flaws and very simple relationships with each other.

 

[sc190191]

Well I finally watched this movie. I certainly liked it, not anywhere close to one of my favorite Pokemon movies, but it was still quite good. It is by far the best thing the Pokemon anime has produced since November 10, 2016...

The only issues I had were there were too many last second saves (but we're quite used to that by now) and convenient stuff like Risa having to run the light down even when anyone who had left earlier could have just taken it with them. The art looked a lot better than SM, but I didn't like the CG background Pokemon (I really don't like CG Pokemon, I guess the next movie is going to be tough for me), especially the several Vulpix we saw, every one was CG and looked awful.

I really enjoyed the emotion in the story. I wasn't expecting to enjoy all of the main characters, but I really did enjoy each one of them. Although for those of you that hated XY because Ash was put on a pedestal, this was way more over the top than that, he was pretty much perfect in every way possible, it was a bit much for me. Margo was exceptionally adorable, and I really enjoyed that Sudowoodo.

Not sure if anyone will read this anymore because it is in archive now, but does anyone understand what was going on with the whole "where are your eyebrows" thing Ash asked Risa? Does she draw on her eyebrows or something? I just didn't understand that scene and its so minor but I just don't get it, her eyebrows were back in the next scene. It was a really weird addition to the movie, that I still don't understand.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Not sure if anyone will read this anymore because it is in archive now, but does anyone understand what was going on with the whole "where are your eyebrows" thing Ash asked Risa? Does she draw on her eyebrows or something? I just didn't understand that scene and its so minor but I just don't get it, her eyebrows were back in the next scene. It was a really weird addition to the movie, that I still don't understand.

She had makeup or something on her eyebrows, if I understood correctly.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

So, did Rick put some kind of secret camera to Risa's sun glasses?

I like how Eevee's leg injury paralleled Risa's brother's, but as far as I know, he only appears in the first scene.

That was a parallel to Risa's own leg injury.

 

[BigDocFan]

So, did Rick put some kind of secret camera to Risa's sun glasses?

I'm guessing he did, can't think of any other logical explanation

 

[P_S_B]

Just having a look at that Guardian 'review' and I'm instantly imagining some poor middle-aged salaryman standing in front of his boss accepting his fate having just been told he's been assigned the Pokémon movie. You can't really tell anything about the movie from his ramblings, but you can clearly tell that he didn't want to be there even in the slightest and had probably already written 90% of the 'review' before he even set foot in the theater. Given that it was one of the better Pokémon movies it would have been nice if it could have been reviewed by someone actually able to appreciate it.

 

[TapLover]

I just noticed that Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2019 mentions this movie under the Japanese name (Everyone's Story) when talking about the amount of Pokemon episodes (1,006 episodes "as of March 2018").

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I just noticed that Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2019 mentions this movie under the Japanese name (Everyone's Story) when talking about the amount of Pokemon episodes (1,006 episodes "as of March 2018").

Maybe the movie's English name wasn't known when that part of the book was being written?

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I swear that there's a Pokémon-related error in every edition of GWR Gamer's Edition. Once they said that official artwork of Explorers of Sky and a screenshot of Guardian Signs were from Black & White.

 

[P_S_B]

Maybe the movie's English name wasn't known when that part of the book was being written?

If that section was written in March 2018 then I doubt it would have been known. We didn't know much about the movie in general at the point, let alone the English dub title.

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

Very good movie. Why can't the Sun and Moon anime bee in this art style?
Satoshi can be cheerful, but not do things like sticking his butt in the air.

 

[KyseL]

Finally got around to watching this movie.

When it comes to the story, I liked it from what it tries to do narrative-wise, and some of the themes it tries to explore, but everything else ranged from ok to convoluted to meh.

However, visually this has to be my least favorite thing Pokémon related so far. Aside from some really good animation in a few places (mostly on Zeraora) the rest was pretty much TV quality at best, which is disappointing to say the least. Not only that, but the art style doesn't do it any favor either; there was a lot of unnecessary detail that only added clutter (shading, blushes and hair looked awful in a lot of places, disrupting the sense of volume) and.mostly took away resources that could have been used on better animation maybe. There was also the issue with terribly inexpressive faces, making it so that any character that wasn't "Liar Magee" and "Old Lady Whatshername" had a range of no more than 3 slightly different expressions (this especially frustrates me after we were given the beauty that is Sun & Moon's expressive art). The CG looked generally out of place and bad, but I guess we should be used to that by now.

I have to admit, I wasn't a huge fan of how M20 looked, but it is leagues better than this.