Watched it Tuesday, first time I've seen a Pokémon movie at a theater. It was...better than I expected! I was afraid of it being thoroughly meh but I ended up enjoying it. It comes across a lot better onscreen than reading a plot summary - it's better than the sum of its parts.
Missed the first few minutes, but I've seen the first episode plenty of times so I figure I didn't miss much. Were there any major differences?
The Characters of the Movie weren't bad, although with the exception of Cross I don't think they gave them enough to do. My impressions:
Verity really does seem like Not Misty, with a bit of Serena and/or Lillie (mommy issues). She could have been Misty without changing much.
Sorrel actually seemed original rather than a copy of someone else. I liked his sad backstory (though it was weird that Ash and Verity didn't seem sad at all hearing it). I'm surprised that his Lucario didn't do much though, considering what a hypemon it is.
Cross is like an even edgier Paul crossed (haha) with an ******* jock from an 80s movie, with a voice similar to Gary's. He worked pretty well as a villain, I don't think the usual sorts of villains we get in the movies would have fit the story as well.
I loved Bonji. Part of that is because his voice reminded me of Stuart Zagnit's Prof. Oak voice, my favorite voice in the franchise, and I like how he looks like a dwarf or gnome. He deserved WAY more screentime, they should have introduced him a lot earlier. At least they gave him a great monologue after the climax.
Team Rocket got screwed over.
Couldn't they have at least fought with Ash once?
That dream scene of Ash in our world might have been the best part. It seems like they were suggesting that the Poke-world is a higher plane of existence than ours and it almost felt like Ash had died and gone to Hell. One of the most intriguing scenes the anime has ever done IMO.
Marshadow was cool in concept but the execution could have been a lot better. I think what was going on at the end was that Cross intended to kill Ho-oh and that was more evil than Marshadow could handle, driving him mad. It wasn't really clear though.
Pikachu speaking human actually didn't bother me in principle - Ash understanding Pika-speak in a crisis moment doesn't seem too farfetch'd to me. I need to hear it in Ohtani's voice, though.
The music...well, it was better than the dub tv music, I'll give it that. Some of the fight music actually had a Japanese sound. Still doesn't hold a candle to Miyazaki's music, and seeing Pikachu defend Ash from the angry Spearow without Tears After the Cloudy Weather just felt wrong.
The visuals were great though, can't fault the movie there. The scene where Butterfree left looked spectacular with those sunset colors.
My biggest complaint...the movie needed more time. They tried to cram in more story than could easily fit in an hour and a half, and the pacing suffered. I wish they'd given it a full 2 hours. They could have given Bonji and TR more screentime, worked the beast trio into the plot (I didn't like how Suicune and Raikou only got short cameos), and given a clearer explanation of Marshadow's role.
Where the movie did excel was providing an overview of what Pokémon is like. The atmosphere and themes of the series were strongly present, despite the weaknesses with the story and pacing. And not just Kanto; it had the feel of the series as a whole. Ash's portrayal fit with that, coming across as a combination of early Ash and later Ash. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who's not familiar with Pokémon but wants to get a taste of what it's about.
Could have been better, but could have been a lot worse. I'm looking forward to watching it again in Japanese, wish I could have seen it that way on the big screen.
