Pokémon Mewtwo contraataca: Evolución

Was this or the original a particularly good movie? Mediocre at best. But it is pure nostalgia.

The writing can be pretty awful at times and the pacing is so off. That being said, the animation in this, and even the original, is absolutely stunning and shows off what a Pokemon battle could and should look like. Being a remake, there is also that one particular moment that hits just as hard as an adult; if not harder. If you don't cry, I'm not sure you have a heart.

I remember renting this from my local video store, as a kid, for weeks on end and loving every second of the action but not fully understanding Mewtwo's anger. As an adult, I fully comprehend it but am left wondering if it could've been more fleshed out. Still, the actions scenes are stunning, the pocket monsters themselves are as lovable as ever, and it's pure nostalgia for nostalgia's sake.

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.

"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!

In 1998, for reasons that may be better left unknown, Gus van Sant released upon humanity his parvum opus "Psycho". One of the many questions pondered was "why?", as in why would you release a remake shot-to-shot, identical to the original?

The first Pokémon movie is far from being a landmark of cinema and the arts as a whole like Hitchcock's "Psycho", but it has its place among fans, and is still one of the most popular Japanese anime films outside Japan, if not the first. The Western release unfortunately was handled by 4Kids, infamous for their "americanization". This can be mild such as changing character and location names, understandable like removing substance use, questionable as in changing food, and infuriating when they decide to change the plot.

And oh boy, they changed the plot. The three most egregious are Mewtwo's characterization, Mew's motivations, and how human characters react to the copies vs originals fights. In the original, Mewtwo had a philosophical crisis about who he was, what was he purpose, and if his existance and life had the same meaning as natural beings. They changed him to this unidimensional villain bent on evil, because it would be simpler for young children to understand and, in contrast, sympathize with Ash. Mew is painted as this messianic savior, appearing out of the blue to fight against Mewtwo and saying that "real strength comes from the heart", while the original Japanese was pretty much "copies aren't deserve of living, and must be wiped out".

Both parties were to fight to the bitter end. The human characters realize this is pointless: they are all living beings, worthy of being here and all that. Then, 4Kids used "American Beam", and suddenly characters are shouting that fight is bad. Very contradictory with the whole Pokémon media being based on fights.

Lastly, I never understood as a kid why would a bunch of tears can revive someone. This was actually covered in a prologue released along the first film that covers Mewtwo "infancy". It also covers the scientists motivations behind the cloning, why Giovanni was involved, why Mewtwo decided to create his first clones as the final forms of the Kanto starters, and also explains that tears carry lifeforce. Granted, this prologue wasn't part of the original movie, but since is part of it and actually fills plot holes of the original, they could easily included it.

Plotwise, I would like to include that Mewtwo is said to be the "greatest trainer". But in a Venusaur mirror match, he commands his to use Leaf Storm. The greatest trainer is using a 4x resisted move, which also drops the Special Attack. And somehow, he wins. Guess his clones were that overleveled.

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.