Alright, let us see how my first review of MAL goes. I have only recently become a member, though I have been an anime fan much longer. Lets get started. The Power of Us is no sequel to I Choose You, it is its own story. Going into this movie, my expectations had to walk a fine line between my inner Pokemon fan, and my subjective view to critique it. I give this movie credit for having the bravery to juggle at least 6 main characters, and not lose its way. For a majority of the time, it is consistent with the world it sets up. Thestory caught my attention, although nothing groundbreaking. The shift away from story revolving around Ash's actions alone provides a unique angle that the series often does not explore. The pacing was above average, especially when comparing this film to I Choose You, which had the first 10 minutes with Ash and Pikachu going over the events of the first episode. There was no rush or glaring issues with the story flow, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story shares beats with past arcs in Pokemon, though there is clear direction being shown. Zeraora was well integrated for having little to do with Lugia, and felt like a believable addition to the cast. Fula City is one of, if not the most fleshed out settings the franchise has to offer. Realistic for the fantasy setting, and believable figures, such as the mayor, who's actions are anything but "Let the 10 year old kid handle it by himself". As for the artwork, I cannot say anything less than outstanding. Backgrounds and wide shots were something out Studio Ghibi, while character designs were vibrant, representative of their respective character, and unique to say the least. Every battle that takes place is a joy to watch, WIT Studios outdid themselves with fluid and clear animation, barely surpassing I Choose You in terms of quality. Redesigns are well done for Ash and Team Rocket, in particular. Music of the film was fitting for the most part, and served some scenes more justice than others. The english Dub kept a majority of tracks the same as Japanese. Moving on to characters. Ash, Lisa, Harriet, Callahan, Torren, and Margot. The Power of Us giving 6 central characters their own focus gave me worry on how the shared screen time would translate to development. My fears were put to rest upon first viewing, as each was handled and given a necessary amount of screen time. Part of this film's charm is to see the interaction between these people whom would have never met otherwise. The Power of Us derives its strength in simplicity, and earns endearment in the most unlikely places. Doing my best not to spoil, one of Callahan's scenes was particularly touching and deserves a place of mention. Risa's simple story I found relatable, being a former athlete, and her scene with Ash was charming. My overall enjoyment was outstanding for this film. It is reassuring when a franchise can still give good quality after 20 whole movies. In short, I recommend watching Pokemon: The Power of Us, as a well produced, entertaining, and endearing addition to the series as a whole.

It’s hard to say why exactly this is a bad movie, because, at the end of the day, I’m not really sure what this is supposed to be. At first glance, it looks like it’s a remake (of sorts) of The Power of One, the second Pokemon movie. The title “The Power of Us” is a great mirror of that and it stars Lugia as the centerpiece. Except it’s not. This movie isn’t about Lugia, it’s about Zeraora. So if you think this new Electric-type fursona looks super cool, then this movie’s gonna be up your alley 10/10. So let’s throw all immediate comparisons out the window.That’s fair, I don’t mind at all. But I’m still completely unsure as to what this is supposed to be. It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with I Choose You, that movie isn’t even referenced in this. Forget that really cool potential development Verity might’ve had with her Mom--not important or anything it’s just the fucking Champion of Sinnoh--she’s out of the picture forever, I guess. But they’re still continuing this theme of Ash and Pikachu’s journey starting from scratch, considering Ash is wearing the same cap from ICU. Whatever, maybe they were afraid people wouldn’t keep up with the movies enough, so they didn’t wanna make a whole new storyline with them, fine. So this movie isn’t a sequel to I Choose You, nor is it a remake of The Power of Us. Alright. I still don’t know what this movie is. I guess they decided to remove the ‘adventure’ part of Pokemon to make a drama instead, since the only settings in this film are a boring town and a boring . . . mountain. Cool. It’s not necessarily terribly written--most things make the proper amount of sense with most of the causes and effects lining up, but it’s just so . . . boring. Two seconds with all of the characters will tell you everything about them and the arc they will eventually follow. The uncle guy lies to his niece to impress her. Even a Slowpoke could predict that he’d be found out halfway through the movie, become hated, and become part of the heroic plot later to redeem himself. Amazing. Look, I get it. It’s Pokemon. I’m not expecting an Academy-level plot here. But . . . I also enjoy the Pokemon anime most of the time, because it’s not so thoroughly bland and uninspired?? The Sun&Moon characters have tons of quirks, tons of personality, and they’re tons of fun to watch even though literally nothing happens in that series. Power of Bum feels equally pointless but pretends that something interesting is happening the entire time. This movie just has too many pieces. It ultimately spreads out into a three-pronged conflict where its bloated cast is scattered all over the place. As a result, tons of things need to happen and need to be explained, causing many of these pieces to have extremely minor uses. Two Pokemon Hunters appear in the beginning of the movie for a couple seconds, obviously scheming something, and then they show up about halfway through to start shit, and then they disappear off-screen forever. The gyaru-looking chick has a brother just so that he can magically guide her through the forest for one scene later in the movie. And there’s the incredibly dumb “plot twist” about how Zeraora was condemned by a past generation, only for the leader of the current generation to know the truth all along, but keep that a secret from everyone for absolutely no reason when he could’ve settled that dispute years ago, but that’d pre-emptively erase half the conflict of the movie. Also, can we talk about the fact that, of all things, the “forest guardian” in this movie is an Electric-type . . . thing? What is this? What is “forest-like” about this creature? Have they just completely given up on symbolism with their legendaries? Marshadow is one of the coolest Pokemon ever, how did we go from that to this in a single generation? Its only defining trait is that it’s fast so that they can play the same scene of a thing falling on top of a guy, only for Zeraora to swoop in and catch the falling thing at the last second. Every. Single. Time. . . . Wait, hang on. Pokemon Hunters . . . forest guardian . . . this is actually a remake of Pokemon 4Ever. What the fuck. Those LIARS!!! Even as a general Pokemon story, it doesn’t really capitalize on anything about Pokemon. The biggest opposing threat in this movie is an oh-so-ominous gas cloud. No, I’m not talking about Gengar, it’s just some poison gas that Ikoma from Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress made. Sure, it’s Effect Spore, sure it’s an actual Pokemon thing and they use Lum Berries to cure it; I like practical applications of small Pokemon bits like this. But that’s all they are. Small bits. Who the fuck wants to watch a Pokemon movie about Ash and Pikachu fighting against toxins. Pokemon should always be about THE Pokemon as much as possible, and these mechanical elements should take a backseat and serve as tools instead of being the plot themselves. So, again, what IS this movie? What is the point of it? That Pokemon and people should work together? You know . . . the theme of EVERY FUCKING POKEMON STORY IN EXISTENCE??? It doesn’t even scratch the itch one might have of seeing animated Pokemon battles in the big screen--you get some, for sure, and for what it's worth the Pokemon Catching contest was pretty fun--but the movie’s more of a problem-solving thing than anything. I guess. But, beyond that, it’s just a bunch of really boring characters involved with a plot that has too many things going on. And then Lugia appears for like five seconds. I just can’t recommend this. If you’re a Pokemon superfan who just likes watching Pokemon then you’ll probably just shit on me for posting this and go watch the movie anyway and have a great time. Whatever, I don’t look down on that. But I’m not that kind of person. I’m giving this a 2 because it feels so pointless and boring and did absolutely nothing for me. It didn’t do anything to insult my intelligence, necessarily, which is why it won’t go lower, but it feels like a waste of money and a waste of time more than anything. Maybe “The Power of Us” refers to the people who made the movie and their power of siphoning my wallet. Can’t wait for Smogon to ban that shit.

If “I Choose You” was Star Wars Episode 7 (a incoherent mess of a nostalgia trip) then “The Power of Us” is absolutely Star Wars Episode 8 (a bold new direction)...if episode 8 was actually good. Pokemon Movie 21 "The Power of Us" had no right being as great as it turned out to be. My impressions of the 20th film “I Choose You” almost made me write off Pokemon for good. Its attempt at trying to capitalize on the first generation while also fitting in another B plot into one film (as well at retconing a lot of what happened in the first TV series)was atrocious to say the least. However for the case of “The Power of Us”, I am utterly shocked how much I enjoyed this film. It still is Pokemon for babies (which I fear is all we are going to get seeing how Pokemon Go and Pokemon: Let's Go turned out) but this film had muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch more creative juices flowing. “The Power of Us” starts out with Ash embarking on a new journey. This time, he finds himself in Fula City; a city that flourishes due to the wind granted by Lugia. Each year the town holds a festival to honor Lugia's commitment to providing the city with wind. Ash eventually runs into many other characters such as my new favorite Pokemon bae Risa, the convulsive liar Callahan, the old shrew Harriet, and a whole slew of other characters. This is all a good thing...annnnd a bad thing. This huge influx of characters means you need to give them a reason to exist. This film does tackle this providing B-plots for all of them. What this ends up creating though is the issue that...80% of the film is just all these B-plots going on. There is an overarching plot line that drives the film but you are not made fully aware of it until at least half way through the film. Also there is a total lack of a antagonist in this film. So essentially if you do not buy into the character development going on, the film will be a horrid experience for you. Now I really cannot talk about any of the characters in depth because what goes on with them is like the entire reason the film exists. So lets talk about other things such as the gorgeousssssssss character designs by artist Shizue Kaneko. They are simply phenomenal. Each character in this film looks perfect. The right amount of cuteness, the perfect outfit, everything. This aspect is nailed so fucking hard that I'd venture to say that these are the best character designs in Pokemon to date (and that's saying something comparing it to X&Y as well as Sun & Moon). The world design is also pretty great. The town looks super interesting. The pier area where all the festival stuff occurs is also really cool design wise. I will say that the CG flying scenes where Pokemon are going through the city looks pretty generic. Like, in background shots the city looks great but as soon as those super camera panning CG shots happen, things turn pretty generic. The camera movement and directing in general though are really spot on in this film. There is this scene where one of the character is about to get attacked by another group of people. However, it is stopped at the very last second by Pikachu using Iron Tail. As this person looks up, you see a 3rd person view of a slow motion Pikachu repealing the attack with its tail. However, it's how the shot is framed, lit, and paced that make it such a stand out moment. And this isn't the only shot you can take under a microscope and enjoy; the film is filled with them. The sound design (especially of a particular Pokemon) is really well done. Everything in this film feels like it has weight because of this aspect. Though this isn't really anything new since most Pokemon related stuff has great sound design. Music was...there. I didn't notice any standout pieces but it fit the mood well enough. The English voice acting was...pretty ok. I did think that Risa and Callahan were really well acted. The marriage of their visual performance and the voice actors was really spot on. And honestly all the comedy bits in this film was pulled off really well because of this. The old hag character Harriet had a plethora amount of funny moments because of this. (I recently re-watched this in Japanese; way better in my opinion. Really well acted cast.) So when looking back at the film as a whole...I am a little conflicted. The first 70% of the film is essentially like a TV episode where you meet characters that go through arcs. Then all of the sudden the film realizes it needs to get the real plot moving so there are exposition scenes out the wazzu, deus ex machina moments, and plot holes that never get filled. From a pacing standpoint, the film is actually quite horrid. However, I did end up enjoying all these B-plots so for me, I really ended up enjoying the film as a whole. If this is what I can assume the future films of this timeline will employ, then count me in. Like I said in the beginning, the film is still tailored for the younger generation; however it was still impactful. Enjoyment: 8/10 Overall: 7.3/10 Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page! Sincerely, Awesome Drummer

Man, this was a pretty solid pokemon movie. Animation and setting were great, battles were fun, and the narrative style of this movie was a welcome change. Stylistically it revolved around internal conflicts rather than an existential threat posed by one single villain/entity. The only real "sin" was that since it focused on ~6 different characters' conflicts it needed screen-time to develop these characters. Pacing wasn't a problem per se, but man this movie had to keep it moving in order to accomplish that feat. As a result, Ash became more of a supporting character who seemed to "steal the spotlight" in critical moments so-to-speak.Really fun movie all around though--my friend and I had a blast seeing it in theaters.

REVIEW NO SPOILER: Pokemon minna no monogatari is by far the best movie of Pokemon Story: 8 The movie start show you to Rina who has travel to another city for capturer a pokemon for her Brother, although the approach of the film is like other pokemon movies the job of Aya Takaha the writer of the ancient magus bride leaves the story more polished and detailed making this very good Characters: 8 Minna no Monogatari is a history about persons, real persons with different problems, Ash who is already established as a character and if he has not changed does not fall as heavy asbefore,the group of central characters of the story need to overcome themselves, overcome their past or accept, without going into detail the characters are very well done around the whole movie they show you small details of them as well as their personalities making them not fall into be unidirectional and justifying their actions. Art: 9 Drawing and animation is exceptional as expected from the collaboration of WIT Studio and OLM, the film has very few battles but still the animation feels exceptional and very fluid giving organic movement and great expressiveness to both characters and pokemon, his only fault would be the use of CGI in several parts. Music: 7 Music is good but it does not feel very present in the story and is missing in key parts of the film Overall: 8 pokemon minna no monogatari is a movie with a great story about personal overcoming, it does not focus on battles but on pokemon as the basis of the conflict, it is fun but leaves the necessary space for the drama and tries to justify and make interesting the characters so that the story is much more personal, you do not feel a history of niche but a story for everyone who wants to leave you a beauty message and have a great time with your friends.

This movie truly was the greatest Pokémon movie ever! They have definitely changed things up in a great way! This is a great example of a GOOD reboot Pokemon movie. The previous Pokémon movie was boring, predictable, and had horribly unlikable and uninteresting characters (aside from the rival Cross) and the worst part was the 3rd act. I only liked the beginning and that’s it. However I can’t say the same for this amazing movie. I guess I do enjoy character driven stories which is probably why I liked this movie. In my opinion, this movie is in EVERY way better than the previous Pokémonmovie (I Choose You!) which like I said, wasn’t good. Story: I loved where everything was going, but the story wasn’t perfect by any means but it still kept me watching. I liked how they actually went with something different for this movie and didn’t copy the 2nd Pokémon movie, and actually went with something unique. And it turned out to be a way more interesting story than the lame 2nd Pokémon movie “The Power of One.” Rating: 7/10 Art: The art looked really beautiful and so did the colors. It all looks way better than the current running SM anime imo. I love how Ash is designed in this movie, he looks great and this is probably one of my favorite versions of him (right beside his XY Design). Wish I could say the same for SM. And the animation was great too. Wit Studio and OLM did awesome animating this movie. They were smart for hiring Wit Studio. Rating: 10/10 Sound: For the first time since the 16th Pokémon movie in 2013, they finally decided to keep all the Japanese music intact in the English dub (save for the ending credits theme). They didn’t replace any of Shinji Miyazaki’s tracks and that made the English dub a much better experience for me than last years. This is why I’m pissed I couldn’t see this in theaters. So I will gladly buy the blu-ray of this when it comes out. This movie easily has some of the best music composed imo. And I’m glad they did not use Ed Goldfart’s trash again. But I will admit this, “The Power of Us” ending credits theme was a good song and it fit the movie well. Rating: 10/10 Character: All the characters were very interesting and all got a fair amount of screen time and all had interesting personalities, with my two favorite characters being Risa and Margo. Which imo are the best characters in the movies. And everyone else I liked too. They’re much more likable characters than the classmates from the actual running SM anime series, which are boring characters btw. Rating: 9/10 Enjoyment: Yes! Of course I enjoyed this. This is the best Pokémon movie right beside Movie 3, Movie 12, and Movie 19. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a Pokémon movie this much in a long time. I hope next years “Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution” movie will be good too as well as the Gen 8 anime movies. Geez I can’t wait for SM to end this year. Rating: 10/10 Overall: I give this movie a solid 9.5/10. The dubbing was actually really good and if the director of this movie, Tetsuo Yajima, is smart enough to see that then clearly others will too. Still, if you see anyone hating on the dub of this movie, just ignore them. Anyway, this may not be a Pokémon for everyone as it has more action in it than in the SM anime but I personally think this is a Pokémon movie MANY others will like. Go ahead, give it a watch.

I think this movies biggest problem is too many characters, including Ash, I always like movies,books, etc that have separate character stories all converge into one by the climax. That being said this movie had too many useless characters, ones of them as I said before was Ash, even the least developed of the new characters did more than Ash in this movie. It would have been a much better movie if it decided to focus on 3 maybe 4 of the other characters stories and personalities. You could have easily cut the mayors daughter, the old lady and Ash and let the other charactershave a chance to develop. Also the electric cat pokemon was lame and stupid and was just pokemon doesn't like humans because X and had a name that doesn't roll of the tongue very easily nor is very pleasant to listen to and they say it A LOT. Overall I feel like it was wasted potential but I still thought it was a fun watch, last act is disappointing but still worth a viewing. I could also go on about the plot conveniences and the cliches, but come on it's a pokemon movie, i'm not going to bash it for doing what we all knew it would do.

As a whole, the movie was decent. It took way too long to get going, however. Most of the first half was fillerish, even if a few parts were pretty funny, and i'd definitely cut a lot of it out. However, it picked up nicely in the second half, and remained entertaining through the end. Though the plot wasn’t the best it had some aspects to compensate well. The fight scenes were the usual high quality that the movies offered, especially the excellent climax scene. There was some very funny bits, too. I especially liked the parts with Sudowoodo. The professor’s Chansey was great too. And theanimation and direction was great too, as is the standard for the movies, though I wasn’t particularly a fan of the extremely obvious CGI in spots, which looked like we took a trip into Wii Sports Resort. In particular, the shockingly dark scene with Zeraora's nightmare stood out well. Overall, an okay movie. Any fan of the series should like it.

Pokemon: Everyone's Story feels like a movie set in the Pokemon universe rather than another tired sequel. This is shocking. Throughout the years we've been served almost two dozen Pokemon movie sequels. Some of them were good and felt distinct, but after the fifth movie quality quickly started dipping. After the tenth movie the best that could be hoped for was a passable flick. Passing the insane number of twenty, things changed; by the time of the fabled twentieth sequel even the producers were getting worried. To reinvigorate the series they decided to serve us a reboot. And it was a boring, albeit quickly forgottenreboot. Having reviewed all the Pokemon movies, a feat which had me sacrifice much of my time throughout the years to trivial bullshit, hardly anyone can be more surprised than I at what The Power of Us is. And while this movie wasn't that great, it gave me immense joy by dodging almost all trappings another yearly Pokemon release was bound to fall into. Seeing how the next movie will be a CGI remake of the first Pokemon movie, I get the impression that this one is the swan song for Pokemon movies as they were for over twenty years. So consider this review that; a last enjoyment of the now-bygone days. The most notable difference between the olden movies and this one is the structure. The Power of Us has no antagonist, no helpless princesses to save, no comic relief sidekicks. It's a story of mischief and trouble the varied Pokemon and the vast human cast face. Almost a subversion, Pokemon needed this shakeup it to give a refreshing experience. It keeps the audience on their toes guessing what'll happen next. As for what it does to long time watchers, it's a special kind of amazement and excitement; just for this alone it's worth seeing. The big cast is used exceptionally well. Around ten characters all get to have a small character arc. Each gets their own social circle, all of which interact in unpredictable and often creative ways. A character will forget something; a character will steal something; a character will help a stranger - it'll all come back around to impact other people they didn't interact with at all. Dozens of details of this kind are sprinkled throughout the whole movie. Sometimes it feels like poetry in motion. The script was definitely thought out. It may be the best one a Pokemon movie ever got. Even some of the best movies - Darkrai, Latias, Entei - had worse scripts and often less than impressive dialogue. With all the praise for the script, the characters and the movie structure, The Power of Us almost reaches for the stars. It's an unfortunate fact that for all the smiles characters get out of us, they stay funny stick figures. They're nice stick figures, but nobody we can actually like or connect with. Making it clear there are no consequences for anything in this movie, the ride is too feel-goody for the viewer. Because of it there is almost no actual investment into the character stories. While the characters often fell flat in old sequels, the story was usually about something scary and new. For example, the terrible Genesect movie was about genocide on some level. This one has the most generic pro-nature and renewable energy message possible. Even if we ignore that wind turbines are the least ecologically friendly renewable energy type with huge negative ramifications for the environment, The Power of Us still fails to impress. While the buildup to the finale is great, it goes out with a whimper, not a bang. It's a comfortable whimper, though. All things considered, The Power of Us should be considered a middling movie until we factor in the animation. It's great. Not Pokemon movie stellar, it's actually great. The battle with Eevee is one of the best fights in the movie series and the electric Lucario is a treat for the eyes. Yet, this is all fluff. Nice fluff, but fluff nontheless. It's been a long road, topping Diancine movie from five years ago and reaching levels of Zoroark from nine years ago. The Pokemon movie team is obviously experimenting with new approaches to the movies. The old movie era ended with the Volcanion movie (nineteenth sequel!). Now we're getting reboots and 3D remakes are being announced. That make me feel alienated. I'm happy this single unexpected gem was made. But the question remains - will be ever get a real Pokemon movie again? We'll be closer to the answer in a year's time.

This movie was a surprisingly entertaining Pokemon film. I only have a few major complaints, but otherwise it was probably one of the most well-rounded films to date. First of all, This film could have done with a bit of a rewrite. There were little bits and pieces that felt awkward or didn't make sense, (ie The Smeargle Shoes) and some pieces of dialogue could have been cut all together. I love how this film chose to focus on an interesting and well developed (For Pokemon Standards) cast. But this cast could have done with a slight bit more time and development for each. Andthis could have been all done with a simple change. ... Tell Pokemon... To stop shoving pointless Mythical Pokemon down our throats. If you remove the largely pointless Zeraora, more time could have been dedicated to fleshing out the side cast. There was enough of a conflict without him, and much of the film would have benefited from being more focused on a smaller set of issues, rather than spreading out all over the place. While I liked the side cast, Ash was still incredibly boring, and could have probably done with some development of his own. While we are on the topic of Ash, that brings up a whole other set of questions. When and Where does this film take place? Since Lugia is in it, does this imply that its in Johto? Also, Ash is wearing his "I Choose You" hat, so does this take place after "I Choose You?" If that's the case, where are his other Pokemon? In general, this film felt like it could have truly benefited from one last rewrite to smooth the edges and trim some of the fat. I love the idea that there are normal school and normal sports within the Pokemon world (while that still brings up the question of how the education system works). And for one last final point, while the film wasn't ugly by any means, it wasn't exactly as well animated as the teaser made it look. It could have possibly worked well if it had the Sun/Moon style of animation with a bit more of an emphasis on character acting, as there were barely any major Pokemon battles within the film. While it looked rather boring, it definitely sounded good as it appears that it had the original soundtrack instead of a dull American one like "I Choose You" had. This film was much better structured than many of the previous ones, but honestly, I was more entertained by both "I Choose You" and the Pokemon Generations Short before the movie. A good step forward for the Pokemon film franchise, but maybe also a reinforcement for the Pokemon Company to stop coming up with pointless Mythical Pokemon

Turns out this is actually kind of good. Well, it's not completely surprising given, that I also enjoyed the previous film, but whereas Movie 20 recycled some of the better parts of the original Pokemon season, this one actually attempts to do so on it's own terms and succeeds quite decently. Don't get me wrong, it's not a brilliant story. It's a kid film alright, it promotes a set of what most of us would perceive as good values like togetherness, solidarity, keeping the environment clean or non-conflicting relationships with Pokemon - who in the franchise, often serve as a stand-in for animals. The film also isn'tcompletely free of falling for some hack-writing traps and cliches in terms of plot progression. With all that said, you can probably already guess what you'll get out of this. But regardless of how (un)original the plot is, the movie still does a good job by presenting us with a colourful cast of characters, that have their flaws, but also room for personal growth within the story. Well, Ash is still bland and only there as an element of familiarity, but I did enjoy the movie original characters quite a bit. Aesthetically the movie was good. Art was colourful and appealing, the action was well animated and enticing and the soundtrack was whimsical, but also not annoying, as is usual with Pokemon. Plot: ☆ Characters: ☆ Art: ☆☆ Soundtrack: ☆☆ Overall Score: 6/10

Not nearly as good as last year's _I Choose You!_. As someone who is not really into the series enough to call himself a fan, I did see the rebooted movie from last year and went to see this with some good excitement. Last year's movie had absolutely gorgeous artwork and great animation. There was an antagonist who was befriended in the end, Ash had a goal of meeting and battling Ho-Oh, and the battles throughout the film were fun and interesting spectacles to see. This movie has none of that. Yes, the artwork is good and so is the animation, but there aren't any breathtaking sceneslike in the first movie. No gorgeous artwork or background shots. Just standard shots without anything specifically noticeable unlike _I Choose You!_ where we saw a butterfree fly off with a flock of others or the beautiful vistas of the forest and nature. But what sets this film apart and makes it so boring is that there is no central antagonist to it. The main conflict of the movie is two disasters concerning the environment and the town itself. The second half of the movie is Ash and a group of relative strangers the movie gave focus to trying to stop the disasters (non-natural, of course) from destroying the town and hurting people and Pokemon. Because there is no central antagonist, we don't have the interest of seeing his or her evil ways put to an end. There is no motivation to see justice served. There also aren't really any Pokemon battles. Yes, there are a few tiny skirmishes that involve capturing Pokemon, but nothing like last year's reboot. The battles in this film are very short, basic, and nothing spectacular. They are not a focus in this movie like they were in last year's because the point is the story. But there again is the problem. The story is just characters reacting to some disasters that hurt people and Pokemon. There isn't a fight or big climactic battle like Ash & Pikachu vs Ho-Oh or the mean guy who only wanted powerful Pokemon. Thus we get a film about five or so random characters and how they interact with a festival going on in the town the movie takes place in (I forget the name). There is a contest going on, but naturally it's interrupted early on in the film. Team Rocket makes an appearance and causes the disaster to happen, but they don't do much else besides that. They don't get punished in the end or anything. They are more of a plot device to cause a conflict than any real villain. They are a tool in this movie to move the plot forward. All in all, I was disappointed. I wanted plenty of awesome battles. I wanted an antagonist who had to be beaten and maybe befriended. I wanted Ash to have a real goal besides "help save the town." I wanted the characters to do something besides saving a town via methods that don't really involve fighting other Pokemon. Hopefully next year's movie is better.

"Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us" carries winds of fresh air into a long series of movies that fans assumed would only dwindle in quality. "The Power of Us" shows versatility in plot and in appealing to a younger Ash-crazed fan-base, by starting out the movie without even showing Ash at all; in fact, we only see Ash briefly for most of the movie's beginning. Pokemon took quite a risk by deviating from the original formula they use, such as starting the movie with a battle or starting by showing a legendary Pokemon right from the beginning. The risk was well-payedoff and the movie is enjoyable by all ages. The story is great for a Pokemon movie and more crafted along than I would have expected. There is a deceptive past to the town in the movie, which beings a darker light to the mayor and humanity in general. The story is smooth, with threaded transitions between characters - one of my favorite aspects of the movie. Most importantly, the final "we need to save the world" moment is not dragged out like it has been in several recent Pokemon movies; the climax still did involve several moments of awe and excitement from each character. I would say there are some things that young children would not pick up in the film, but they do not need to know every tidbit to enjoy it. My only complaint towards the story in the movie is its slight repetition and some poorly explained points of interest regarding Risa. The theme of Pokemon and Pokemon working together is pushed a bit too much, though credit is due to the creators for always putting the theme in a new light, making a new character say it, etc. Ash acts a motivator and conduit for all of the characters, but instead of the characters idolizing his quote so much, maybe one of them could have instead thought about his actions instead of his words (i.e. I saw the way Ash worked with his Pikachu....). There are also some parts of the plot that were either not explained well, or I just somehow missed, that I would like to address. Risa has a friend in the hospital who tells her to go get an eevee, but the reason she goes to Fula city to find one is something I missed out on as it is not her hometown. If her friend is being hospitalized in Fula city, which would make much more sense to the plot, then it would make sense that she visit her friend at some other point in the movie and not just at the beginning. Another concerning point of interest is the fact that Risa's friend says he has been tracking her, and I surely hope I just missed the reason, but I believe this was left unanswered and just joked off in the movie. There is a wide array of characters that most people can relate to (my favorite were the uncle and the scientist). Since this is the highlight of the movie, I will refrain from going too much into detail. Each character contains a unique personality, some purposefully more basic than others, and each character has some kind of timeline. The timeline of each character makes the story much more enthralling. The art is great. Facial expressions of characters like Team Rocket are hilarious. Fula city always looks great. The art is nothing revolutionary, but it is definitely well done with a wide array of colors used for most scenes. The music is good, but I would not call it memorable. The dialogue did well at holding up this move, which compensates for the lack of gnarly Pokemon tunes. While the "Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us" does great at reigniting a promising future of Pokemon movies, there were some aspects from the older movies that I would have liked to see. A opening cut scene showing people and Pokemon working together or even just Pokemon roaming around nature would have fit the movie well, despite the fact that it is done in several other movies. Some cool battle music or an opening battle somewhere early in the movie would have also been cool, but it is understandable that this movie was supposed to take a new spin on the franchise. I do give Pokemon credit for the Eevee an Pikachu playing in a field which served as a reference to the new games, "Pokemon Let's Go, Eevee!" and "Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu!" Pokemon has been known to sneak in references in the past, and it is always fun to spot them. Overall, the movie was great and enjoyed by me and my little cousins as I watched it for my first time and they watched it for their second. I would definitely watch it again with no hesitance of any sort. With "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" expected in 2019, we will likely see many of the battles and rad music that this movie purposefully excluded. Based on "The Power of Us" and "I Choose You," one can only expect great things to come in the next movies and those that follow!

There's a special place in Hell for the person who decided that the new Pokemon movies would start being an alternate continuity and then made Ash also the protagonist of the new continuity. The tenacity with which Ash has remained the anime protagonist has bothered me for more than a decade, but it's especially a problem here. The Ash in these movies is not allowed to have an arc because he might diverge from the cast-in-amber version of Ash from the TV show. I'm not saying the anime version of the character is completely static in every single story, because that's definitely not true, butlessons he learns will quickly fade into the morass that is a thousand previous episodes. In this movie, Ash is just always right. He is the model for a bond with Pokemon (or "Pokemon Power" 9_9) that all of the other characters have to learn. It's barely even a moral. Like, where the fuck is Ruby? Ruby's design is so cool, and he could be anything they wanted him to be. He could be allowed to make mistakes and learn novel lessons because they could create his character from scratch, perhaps in a new movie continuity. Yet he hasn't ever been a main character in a Pokemon anime. Pokemon is still huge, maybe bigger than ever because the fans who were indoctrinated as children have grown up and indoctrinated their children. The Pokemon Company can do literally anything it wants and people will buy it or otherwise see it. This should be a golden age for Pokemon experimentation. But the things they release demonstrate an absurd conservatism and fear of backlash over anything different. Somehow, it's like they think the 30-year-olds complaining about the National Dex Controversy didn't turn right around and buy both copies of Pokemon Sword and Shield. Make weird Pokemon movies! Change up the formula! I'm halfway excited by the concept of the "Koko" movie because a person raised by Pokemon could be interesting. I hope it actually commits to doing something different. The animation looks nice. I also enjoyed the attempt at depicting a world in which Pokemon and humans really live together. It's better than a lot of the other Pokemon movies; that's for damn sure. But, in the end, it's still a mediocre kid's movie without a lot going for it.