Not an essay time:
First off, before I delve into the meat and potatoes of the episode, I will say that I wasn't expecting to see TR after the events of the last episode with the trio approaching TR HQ each not knowing the others are heading there, though how Jessie ended up with the balloon is beyond me (smile).
Moving onto the main plot, the Pokemon Hunter is basically Poundland J. Though the two do share similarities in the sense that they both fly on pseudo-legendaries and that they both have arm cannons that turn pokemon to stone, of course J had better tech (like being able to see camouflaged pokemon), hence why I called the hunter in this episode, Poundland J. If I can give him some props though, he definitely made Hydreigon look like a menacing threat, it fits the bloke's aesthetic for sure and made me disappointed that Ghetsis didn't use one in BW as that is his ace 'mon in the games. Also I liked how Hydreigon's other heads were able to restrain Latias and Latios.
When Ash commanded Latios to use Psychic, I literally facepalm'd as Ash should know Psychic moves do nothing on Dark-types, but of course it proved to be a distraction in order for the Eon pokemon to get into Poundland J's blindspot and unleash the unaliving blow on Hydreigon. I should've at least realised that, so I'll hold my hands up there.
Now, I want to address my stance of the Latias situation. From the start of MPM I was in the "Ash won't capture Latias" camp as I didn't think there would be any evidence from her initial appearance that would support this especially given that she was wary of humans and it does take time to restore any semblance of trust, hence her following Ash in stealth mode. Of course I do understand that some fans weren't happy that Ash didn't capture Latias, but honestly I'm glad that he didn't considering what transpired here especially with Latios, who was still distrustful towards humans, thus it wouldn't feel right for Ash to have captured Latias, and to be fair, MPM was more about the journey and helping people and pokemon in need than capturing 'mons.
Finally, and I'm not gonna lie when I saw the Eon duo fly through Alto Mare, I legit gasped and was like "frick off, is that Alto Mare?!". Initially I thought it was out of left field to see Alto Mare of all places in the main series, then I remembered that Latios/Latias debuted in M05, but I also learned something about the place that I didn't know, that being the fact that Latios and Latias frequently visit Alto Mare as told in the prologue to M05 that was unfortunately cut from the dub, hence why I never knew this.
One more thing, this episode reminded me of XY139 in the sense that both were penultimate episodes of their series and featured a plot revolving around a legendary pokemon and ended with the antagonist getting arrested by Jenny.
not sure if this is the first time a movie location has ever made it into the anime.
I think it is.
That being said, there have also been instances where people/items that appeared in the movies had made appearances in the main series, like the mother & daughter in SM or Dawn's Lunar Wing that she got in Alamos Town.