Pokémon: Mewtu schlägt zurück - Evolution

"Where am I? What am I? Who am I?". Existential conundrums that plague Mewtwo's, the most powerful Pokémon in existence (at that time...), telepathic mind. Facing an identity crisis as he produces copies of beloved Pokémon in an attempt to create a superior race unbounded by the restraints of human training. No Pokéball prison. A cruel irony that was beset upon Yuyama, the director of the original and, on a personal note, beloved anime feature of the franchise. His return to this similar shot-for-shot CGI remake begs the fundamental question. Why?

The criticism that Favreau's last year's identical remake of 'The Lion King' received can instantly be applied here. Emotionless 3D character models unable to express visible emotive responses, relinquishing all personality that emanated from the hand-drawn animation. Ash, in particular, resembled an empty shell, resulting in the infamous final tear-jerking scene to be nothing more than vacuous void. Due to the personal attachment for the original, Yuyama and his team were constantly at battle with my nostalgia. Slight differences in the script and character actions consequently inserted a yearning to watch the original instead. Team Rocket's English dub? No! That is not James! Not my James. My ears were bleeding! The dialogue was surprisingly more basic, feeding every plot detail with excessive explanations that the visual commentary already provided. Having said that, the upgraded animation style levelled up the smaller details. Pokémon models looked exceptional, especially Vulpix, with appropriate scaling and textures. Effects such as weathering and raging waters were some of the best examples within animation.

Objectively speaking, it was beautiful. But why? The argument that this remake will introduce the original story to a new audience is futile, considering the anime style has rarely aged. If anything, it's manipulating nostalgia for some easy yen. Doesn't work for me. Mewtwo should've asked himself "why am I doing this again?"...press B to cancel!

It's basically a word for word, and shot for shot remake of the 20 Year Old movie, but the difference is that the animation is very astounding.

While I think this movie was executed fairly well, that thought doesn't help me clear the cloud of nitpicks I had with this movie. For the majority of movie I was unable to focus on the story because of the bizarre choice to make every single shot linger for seconds too long. I felt like no editing was done between angle transitions, because it felt like so much of a buffer would happen before the next sentence was said. Otherwise, the animation was near flawless (except for the bizarre Onix at the beginning) and I enjoyed watching a great movie from my childhood remastered. I felt the same charm and emotion as I had watching the original film for the first time, and I'd still widely recommend this film to any Pokemon fans!

This was a very random movie to see pop up onto Netflix, but it gives me hope that other projects can be made with the partnership of Netflix and Pokemon.

I rarely write reviews on here, im only writing this to give my opinion. I grew watching the original, it was my childhood and i loved it. This remake isn't as bad as everyone says, at some parts I would get goosebumps on how closely it is to the original, scene for scene, word for word. Animations look beautiful and it's nostalgic. I'm glad they remade even though nobody asked for it. I felt like a kid again watching this movie. I would give it a chance if you really love Pokémon movies especially the older ones. My only complaints is that they didn't get the original voice actors for ash, misty, and team rocket. Mewtwos voice actor was convincing and smart. Really enjoyed this movie.

Long story short, this is a CGI remake of the first Pokemon movie from late 90's (January 2000 here in Brazil). There is no improvement, in my opinion. The CGI does not impress.

Same old, same old. I'd rather stick to the fond memories the first movie brought me when I first saw it at the movies 20 years ago.

The first pokemon movie can be broken up into three different versions. The original japanese (known as "director's cut" in the U.S.), the 2D US version, and now this new 3D "Evolution" version. The original japanese version has the most developed story and mature moral. It includes a 10 minute prologue to develop Mewtwo's character and motivation. Through this Mewtwo's ending monologue about the 'circumstances of one's birth' has a much more profound meaning. The ported 2D U.S. version cut out the 10 minute prologue and tweaked the storyline to give it a paradoxical moral conclusion that 'fighting is bad'. Its one redeeming quality is that it added foreshadowing by including a legend of pokemon tears to make sense of the climactic finale. This latest 3D "Evolution" version plays off the 2D U.S. version and further degrades the story. The most jarring story change from the 2D U.S. version was the removal of the pokemon tears explanation. This version also adds 20 minutes to the runtime without adding any depth. The extra dialogue mainly comes from stating the obvious which the audience could already deduce and the other scenes added were just panning shots. It was interesting to see the movie in 3D, but it was also a bit odd as at times it felt like a claymation. The worst, though, was that a lot of the emotion and visual intensity that was put into the 2D version was lost in the 3D version. For example, when Ash was being hit by Mewtwo's pokeballs in defense of pikachu, I felt like I was watching rocks being thrown at a limp sandbag; dull and lifeless. In conclusion stick to the original japanese version or "director's cut". It has the most fulfilling story and feels the most heartfelt.