La Película Pokémon: Genesect y el despertar de una leyenda

The Pokemon movies can get pretty formulaic, but I still like to see them because the animation gets a humongous upgrade from the anime series (although that rift diminished in the spectacular XY anime series). This movie sees Ash and co. exploring a Central Park-esque Pokemon Hills. Trouble looms, however, as a group of Genesect are set on making Pokemon Hills their new home, disrupting the Pokemon ecosystem and potentially the power plant beneath it that runs the city. It's up to Ash, Cilan, Iris, the Pokemon Hills director Eric and Mewtwo to put a stop to it.

The Genesect's motivation at the beginning of the film is clearly established; they've been fossils for 300 million years and have been woken up by Team Plasma and weaponized. This is clear enough, but having the Team Plasma scientists play a bigger role could have greatly enhanced what is a middling entry in the series.

Mewtwo's appearance in this film is understandable given that they wanted to advertise its mega form. What was unnecessary, however, was erasing the relationship Ash and Mewtwo built up through two movies plus several other appearances.

The way Mewtwo and Genesect's conflicts were resolved were also very unclear. Overall, this is a passable film and one I'd put around the middle of the Pokemon pack. It didn't take full advantage of its unique setting, but it did shed some light on Genesect, a Pokemon that even in the games is very mysterious.

After the cultural landslide that was the cinematic release of Pokémon: The First Movie (hands up if you've still got a Burger King tie-in toy!), all subsequent Pokémon movies have struggled for relevance. Lacking in the first film's energy and urgency from being released in the thick of the rampant zeitgeist, the later straight-to-DVD offerings have largely slumped somewhat – still lots of fun for allegiant fans, but increasingly obligatory, and, arguably not unlike the games, inextricably knotted in a formula too restrictive for much innovation. Despite the franchise's motto, few would dispute that if you've seen one, you've effectively caught 'em all.

Genesect and the Legend Awakened, sixteenth(!!) film in the series, does not jostle this formula, but does its best to breathe some life and gumption into it. Unlike the customary expansive, globe-trotting Pokémon movie narrative, Genesect marks a rare exception where lowering the scope from "the fate of the world is at stake!" is actually beneficial. We still get the familiar 'thrilling but vaguely defined mythology' (the origins of the titular Genesect – fossil Pokémon who have been weaponized by humans…? – are glossed over in an infuriatingly quick aside), naturally. But, after an impressively gripping airborne mountain skirmish, the action is confined to a Pokémon natural reserve, and the bustling metropolitan city surrounding it, lending some interesting consequential collateral damage to the inevitably destructive Pokémon showdowns, and making the action all the more claustrophobically exciting. Naturally, there's little motivating the plot or conflict, but the trappings make it worthwhile. The animation demonstrates a marked increase in quality, and is gorgeously engaging in its fluidity, integrating more seamlessly with CGI to bring rich texture to the backgrounds.

As always, half the fun is playing your own game of 'Who's that Pokémon?' with all the cameoing creatures flitting by in the background – a shout out to a particularly valiant Feraligatr thrust into central hero status here. Similarly, the Genesect make for engagingly off-kilter enemies – uniquely eerie and alien in their fusion of robotic and insectoid tics, aided by some creatively skittering sound editing choices, even if their respective personalities, defined in the broadest of possible strokes, verge on irritatingly bland. Inevitably, the fun lies not in the moralizing melodrama, but in their fighting, with their myriad of abilities making for some furiously energetic and entertaining battles, changing shape like Transformers, ripping through the air, and letting rip with concussive energy blasts all the while. And at the other end of the ring: back by popular demand, the iconic Mewtwo (now, seemingly with added Poké-sex change, and mega-evolution to boot…) – a more than suitably thrilling and mobile sparring partner. Whether spitting cynical diatribes about creation and denial of humanity or blasting one another, the film sparks to life when the two titans clash.

It's a shame that the human characters fail to engage even more than usual. Diluting boy-hero Ash of his initial whiney exuberance may be an attempt at having the character slowly grow up, but recasting him as a perennial Mother Theresa type patron saint of all Pokémon is a far less interesting lead to connect with. This, in tandem with the lack of the show's goofy cutaway humour (the movies are SERIOUS BUSINESS, you know), an extraneously shoehorned in Team Rocket, and interplay with the particularly drab 'Gen V' Misty and Brock surrogates Iris and Cilan makes the filler character building scenes bridging the action drag far more than usual. As with most anime dialogue, kids will infuse the script's hyperbolically proclamative one-liners with their own inspirational profundity ("it's time…to push it…to the limit!"), but it's unlikely that even the most naïve or forgiving of audiences will fail to sneer at the film's climax and its aggressively trite moral about the importance of friendship, complete with a 'profound worldview' pilfered from Superman Returns of all things (bleh).

Such in-depth concerns may be a moot point, as Genesect and the Legend Awakened comes with a pretty infallible built-in audience. For kids or adult fans of the series, there's lots of fun to be had here, and the vivacity of the battles and exhilaration of the return of Mewtwo should help diffuse the over-familiarity of story. To those three under-a-Crustle dwellers who have yet to either yay or nay at the world of Pocket Monsters: this is unlikely to convert you as Poké-fans (or make even a mote of sense), but if the formulaic but fun action and heart on display appeals, you, like the Genesect, may finally have found a home.

-6.5/10

This Pokemon movie is pretty good. It had a good plot, good themes and good animations. There were many kinds of Pokemon from older generations. Kids are sure to enjoy Ash's adventures and Pikachu's heroics. However, I hated Mewtwo's voice, personality and character design. It's definitely not the same Mewtwo from the Pokemon movies back in my day. They would've been better off leaving Mewtwo out of the movie. Also, I wish Cilan had gotten more screen time. Cilan is my favorite character. He is funny and has a great personality, but they made him run off somewhere for 1/3 of the movie. The movie was too serious.

Not sure exactly what bug bit Nintendo's Pokémon studio but their string of features during the Unova region just hasn't hit the mark in entertainment. As mentioned in the previous entry, it seems like things are just on auto-pilot. The stories tend to feel repetitive despite trying to appeal to their current fan base while expanding on the foundation when the anime began. There's even been callbacks to certain things but it just hasn't been enough to feel like anything new is really being done. Unfortunately, this entry is very much the same again with only slight variations in different places. It's possible the production crew thought this story would get more viewers' attention because it involves a familiar face other than Ash, but that would be the only familiarity.

Once again handled by the Yuyama and Sonoda duo, this film finds Ash, Cilan and Iris headed to another city looking a lot like central park of New York City. Inside the park is a sanctuary where Pokémon of several regions live together. Meanwhile far away a group of 300-million-year-old telepathic Pokémon called Genesect are searching for their home. Thinking the area Ash and company are in reminds them of it, they begin attacking everyone so they can claim it for themselves. At the same time, Mewtwo who can relate to Genesect's feelings gets involved in the situation too. Really it's not that good of a story for several reasons. For one, it's just not engaging. Genesect was apparently resurrected by scientists and no longer trusts humans. See how Mewtwo understands? But even after all that Mewtwo has from its previous experience, it too doesn't trust or like humans. So no one's learned anything then.

Let's also not forget Mewtwo began the whole concept of telepathic English speaking Pokémon (other than Meowth). Genesect is just another copy of those usual things to be expected. Aside from finding their home as its repeatedly mentioned, there isn't much else to really get behind for these new Pokémon. Making things even worse is how botched Mewtwo is as a character. Upon meeting Ash again, Mewtwo recalls nothing of what it went through with Ash from the first movie or when it crossed paths with Ash after that. Unless this is a new Mewtwo, which makes no sense. Where's the continuity? So much for Ash promising they wouldn't forget what they experienced together several movies back. Making things even more confusing is whether this is actually the same Mewtwo from before. Reason being the voice is totally different and Mewtwo can now transform into another form. When did this come about?

There really are more questions now than from before. Miriam Pultro who now voices Mewtwo is okay in her delivery, but because the original performance was different it is very jarring. This also seems to be Pultro's only voice acting credit to date. The same could be said for Samia Mounts who voices the Genesect who befriends Ash and company. However, voicing the lead Genesect is Scott Rayow who does have experience doing anime dubs before and even in Pokémon. Then there's Eric who is Ash and friend's tour guide through the park voiced by Jake Paque. The character is useless as he tries to fix the tech being destroyed by the fighting Pokémon. Somehow he's the only one working among all other park employees. It's almost pointless to have this character.

Voice acting in general is fine though as usual. Even Team Rocket gets lines this time, which is cool. Animation was also an equally good looking component. Featuring bright colors and fluid movements there isn't much that needs correcting either. Cinematography was credited to Tatsumi Yukiwaki in their first Pokémon project although, like everyone before them, no idea what it's used for. Finally, the music composed by Shinji Miyazaki believe it or not felt a little more noticeable this time. The tracks heard in this feature feel a little more heartfelt despite the connections not fully being there. But like always there was no domestic release so the album is again unattainable locally. One day, maybe one day they'll get a rerelease. That's all there is to it though.

Regular components like the animation and voice acting are kept the same. Music even picks up some but the story in general is still bland. Continuity is also very confusing with the changes made to Mewtwo.

This was a fairly decent Pokémon movie. This is hardly up there with the best ones, but it's at least a vast improvement over the fiasco that was "Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice."

I thought the premise was kind of interesting. I liked the dynamic with the Genesect having been created the same way that Mewtwo was. Not a bad way of using the cliché of machines created by humans turning into monsters.

The animation and GCI are top-notch, and the scenery is really nice in a setting that is based off Manhattan. The action scenes were also pretty good, and it was nice to see Ash's Charizard again.

However, there are lots of flaws. Of course, I didn't think there was any need for another movie involving Mewtwo, and I have no idea why Mew has a female voice in this film. It was kind of strange how Mewtwo just suddenly started caring about humans during the climax of the film.

The baby Genesect was kind of annoying with it constantly repeating "I want to go home" over and over. The script has its weak spots and some scenes are kind of strange. Also, there's Iris and Cilan.

While not everything in this one measures up, this is still a mostly satisfying addition to the series. Not really a must-see, but still worth a look for Pokémon fans.

RATING: B-