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What's your favorite movie?

I've seen all 22 movies, although some more than others. I don't really have a Top 3 but my favourite one would be Spell of the Unown, which is also the one I have watched the most. When I was young I used to watch it over and over on VHS.
 
I've watched all of them except the 1st movie's remake, my favorite would be The power of us by a large margin, followed by I choose you, Lucario and the mistery of mew and the rise of darkrai
 
Watched all except gen 5/6 films and M01 remake.
  1. Pokemon Heroes (sub) - Mostly due to the setting and music, and Latios is one of my favorite legendaries.
  2. I choose You (sub) - Awesome self-contained story that gives me strong DP vibes, especially with the rival. The trippy Evangelion-esque scenes really sell it for me too.
  3. The Rise of Darkrai (sub) - Probably my favorite plot of the bunch, it's just a really strong film.
  4. 2000 (dub/sub) - Extreme nostalgia and both versions of Lugia's Song are amazing.
Destiny Deoxys would be on there but it gets super boring towards the end.
 
The Lucario movie is my #1. My other favorites are (in chronological order; I don't have rankings for them) Entei, Jirachi, Darkrai, and Everyone's Story/Power of Us.
 
  1. The Power of One: A great adventure movie that always feels exciting and has an interesting plot.
  2. Mewtwo Strikes Back: Has its flaws, but has great sequences and it's fun to revisit.
  3. Spell of the Unown: Has the strongest plots and drama.
  4. I Choose You: A fun movie focused more on the journey and the relationships than in the plot, with great animation to boot. I really hope future movies learn lessons from it.
I don't know how I'd rank the others since I liked M8 when it came out but haven't seen it in like 10 years, but I consider M12 and M17 very underrated.
 
Movie 3

1. The antagonist isn't hell bent on capturing some legendary Pokemon/world domination, but is a grief-stricken child. This hits far closer to home since her problems are relatable to anyone.
2. The conflict is personal for Ash. In the majority of the movies, the conflict isn't personal for Ash at all. He usually just falls into the role of hero. Here, it is his mother that is in danger, which is a nice change from the usually formula.
3. TR, Brock and Misty all play significant roles. Usually, the companions are dead weight in these movies, but not here.

Movie 3 is Pokemon at its best IMO. It is not just a good Pokemon movie, but a good anime movie in general.
 
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Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. The plot is solid, the conflict doesn’t have a moustache twirling villain, Lucario has a great arc, visuals are memorable (the hologram like time flowers for example) and the backstory is compelling. Even Max gets something to do by introducing Lucario to chocolate, which gets a callback in the end credits. Kidd is a good character with development too, inadvertently the reason for Pikachu being taken but genuinely non-malicious and wants to protect the Tree of Beginning because of how human interaction affects it.
 
I dont like the new movies to be fair.

Movies from 1 to 9 are really special to me cause in my country this movies were broadcasted on Christmas holidays so I have a lot of good memories.
 
I dont like the new movies to be fair.

Movies from 1 to 9 are really special to me cause in my country this movies were broadcasted on Christmas holidays so I have a lot of good memories.

The Black and White era movies on definitely feel more cookie cutter, done more to promote the legendary of the movie than be a good movie. The Victini movie also spent too much and too little effort on the two version gimmick, which was skin deep and only affected the plot in one place. The manga for the Volcanion movie omitted Serena, Bonnie and Clement, and didn’t suffer for it, which shows how unimportant to the story they are.
 
My favorite of the movies in The Power of Us because it has a compelling cast of relatable characters who are almost all given just the right amount of relevancy and they each have their own different story (hence the Japanese title, Everyone's Story), so there's bound to be at least one character you get drawn to if not several to keep things interesting for you. The only flaw it has is that it suffers from Too Long Climax Syndrome endemic to most of the Pokémon films, but it's only really apparent on subsequent viewings when you already know what happens, on that first viewing it's not noticeably too long and keeps you well engrossed. The dub of it is also the best it has been in years with Sarah putting in her best performance as Ash since the Victini movies, the best post-4Kids dub before this one.

Other movies I particularly liked include:
Spell of the Unown - Antagonist you can empathize with and Ash has an actual reason to be caught up in it this time
Pokémon Heroes - Saw it some time ago and can't remember exactly why I liked it so much but I remember I did
Zoroark: Master of Illusions - Compelling plot, detestable villain, only complaint was once they had established that the Time Flowers operated under the Novikov self-consistency principle (depicted future events will occur as depicted regardless of efforts to prevent them) they essentially spoiled the ending to some degree, I'd have to watch it again to remind myself how spoilery the visions were. That and that Peg was pretty clearly shoehorned into the script to give Shoko Nakagawa a role in what felt like the result of somebody reading through a finished script 6 weeks before premier, realizing they hadn't set a role for her and quickly throwing one together and hoping it stuck.
Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel - Much for the same reasons as above, compelling story with a truly detestable villain. This one is lower because Alva didn't do as good a job of getting what he had coming to him compared to Kodai
 
Haven't watched all of them yet, but I'll go with Pokemon Heroes. Latios and Latias are some of my favourite legendaries, the scenery is amazing, and the climax is surprisingly dark for Pokemon. I also like the Lucario and Еntei movies.
 
I stopped watching the movies by the BW era, as their quality had dropped right off a cliff, but of the ones that I have watched (which is as far as "Arceus and the Jewel of Life"), "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew" is very much my favorite. While when I first watched it the Regis did scare me (especially they were almost juggernauts that not even super effective damage could remotely slow down, let alone their almost alien cries), but it was overall the best movie in the franchise. The story was solid, Lucario had a good character arc, the visuals could be stunning, each character had their own pivotal role, the climax was breathtaking (and heartbreaking at the same time), and, for the first time in a while, there was really no malicious force causing the crisis, just the nature of the Tree of Beginnings and the Regis doing what they're supposed to do: protect from possible invaders. Plus, it did have "Unbeatable" playing in full during the movie, which is one of my favorite anime opening songs, so that was an added perk. And I love the fact that Sir Aaron may have either been a beta idea for Riley or possibly his ancestor (both would make sense, to be honest), which I greatly liked. So, overall, my vote goes to "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew".
 
The Rise or Darkrai for me. It’s also the first Pokemon movie I ever got to watch so it remains special for me. Nothing will ever replace this movie for me.
 
I've seen every movie, but I would have to say my top four are:
  1. Spell of the Unown: Etei
  2. The Power of One
  3. Mewtwo Strikes Back
  4. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
Those are the four that I can (and have) watched over and over again. Honorable mention also goes to Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. I loved that May was the star of that one; it was different.

Most of the newer movies (DP onwards) don't really do it for me, with the exception of The Power of Us and Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution (which in fairness is basically just a remake of a movie that I really love, lol.)
 
I like the Japanese original of the first movie. The English dub and the remake changed too much when they cut the Ai/Amber plot which made Mewtwo kind of flat. The conflict with Mew is also very onesided and black and white in the English dub.

I like the third movie but I don't like how Molly's parents magically came back to life. Her arc was supposed to be about grief. I think it would have been cute if Hanako/Delia had adopted her and she made cameos in some episodes.

The second movie is a cool adventure but lacks depth. I wish Misty/Kasumi did more than cat fight with Melody and be tsundere about her secret crush on Satoshi. The scenes with Team Rocket were wholesome.

Movie 20 feels very weird and confusing because it suffers from an identity crisis. It wants to be a remake of OS but it also wants to promote SM and be kind of dark and thoughtprovoking at the same time. I like the scene when Satoshi dreams about a world without Pokémon. I like the Kimba and the White Lion reference in Luxray's death scene.

The Manaphy movie is unique since it focuses on the female protagonist Haruka and her emotional bond with Manaphy. I like how she is allowed to cry and how the movie takes her emotions seriously without making fun of her. I don't like how she is reduced to a damsel in distress and I never understood why Satoshi thought it was worth risking his life for the temple??? Sure, he has plot armour but still. Feels like a cheap attempt to get some "feels" in there even though the movie was already full of emotions.

The Jirachi movie is kind of interesting to rewatch as an adult since it discusses abusive relationships but it could use some more depth.

The Power of Us is interesting because of its side stories but feels more like an OVA. I like the guy who is a compulsive liar and the old lady. I don't even remember what Lugia and Satoshi did lol.
 
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