This is one of those films that for Pokemon fans is essentially genesis, we all remember the opening with the punchy new version of the theme and the experience of seeing our heroes on the big screen for a feature length adventure, it made for a pretty magical time, but that was the original and I watched it hoping for familiar feelings (even just a little) but it just wasn't there and I realised really quickly why.
So i have 4 main issues that led to my rating only being 4 the scriptwriting, editing, voice acting and the soundtrack.
-The script and editing- The film rides off the main beats of the original in that the plot start to finish is pretty much canon but with what I can only describe as a lot of fluff bolted on, the type you see in a lot of modern remakes that clearly doesn't understand what made the original great. The original scenes were punchy and exciting it all happened so fast that it kept engagement, this is something the remake did not do! Nearly every scene is made longer with often altered dialogue that is clumsy and lacks the humour of the original, its like someone had a word count they needed to achieve for the script and was falling short so used dumber words and made longer sentences to explain the same thing and drained it of all life. Sometimes though the scenes were just longer to show off the CG which was fine, I mean it was beautifully rendered which accounts for all 4 stars in my rating but sometimes the animation was a little wooden but I digress all in all the longer scenes for this didn't really add anything positive.
-The voice actors and soundtrack - Some good, some bad and some certainly annoying... Ash is passable at best as is Misty, Brock and many of the familiar faces except Team Rocket who I felt were just way off the mark, I just don't understand why they didn't reuse the original audio! That would have been awesome and surely more cost effective! They also dropped another crucial element of the original film and that was the soundtracks!!! Now this one really really hurt as I thought from the opening scene that we were going to hear new versions of the old songs and I was onboard with that but after that initial opening tune which was a pale imitation of the original it all went silent!?!
I can't quite understand it but most of the film has been re-scored with tunes that sound like they were bought from a royalty free store and it spends a lot of time in silence throughout the film including some crucial and memorable moments where the music was a pillar to the emotion of the scene.
Overall watching this hurt. The beautiful CG dangled a carrot of excitement only for some big wigs to take it away by trying to make it more than it needed to be and missing every single reason of why the original was fantastic.
I still hope that one day someone tries this again but corrects the mistakes made in this one, in the meantime if you haven't watched the original then you are in for a treat.
So i have 4 main issues that led to my rating only being 4 the scriptwriting, editing, voice acting and the soundtrack.
-The script and editing- The film rides off the main beats of the original in that the plot start to finish is pretty much canon but with what I can only describe as a lot of fluff bolted on, the type you see in a lot of modern remakes that clearly doesn't understand what made the original great. The original scenes were punchy and exciting it all happened so fast that it kept engagement, this is something the remake did not do! Nearly every scene is made longer with often altered dialogue that is clumsy and lacks the humour of the original, its like someone had a word count they needed to achieve for the script and was falling short so used dumber words and made longer sentences to explain the same thing and drained it of all life. Sometimes though the scenes were just longer to show off the CG which was fine, I mean it was beautifully rendered which accounts for all 4 stars in my rating but sometimes the animation was a little wooden but I digress all in all the longer scenes for this didn't really add anything positive.
-The voice actors and soundtrack - Some good, some bad and some certainly annoying... Ash is passable at best as is Misty, Brock and many of the familiar faces except Team Rocket who I felt were just way off the mark, I just don't understand why they didn't reuse the original audio! That would have been awesome and surely more cost effective! They also dropped another crucial element of the original film and that was the soundtracks!!! Now this one really really hurt as I thought from the opening scene that we were going to hear new versions of the old songs and I was onboard with that but after that initial opening tune which was a pale imitation of the original it all went silent!?!
I can't quite understand it but most of the film has been re-scored with tunes that sound like they were bought from a royalty free store and it spends a lot of time in silence throughout the film including some crucial and memorable moments where the music was a pillar to the emotion of the scene.
Overall watching this hurt. The beautiful CG dangled a carrot of excitement only for some big wigs to take it away by trying to make it more than it needed to be and missing every single reason of why the original was fantastic.
I still hope that one day someone tries this again but corrects the mistakes made in this one, in the meantime if you haven't watched the original then you are in for a treat.