Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You (2017) Reviews

• Please Review Responsibly

  catholiccontriversy2017-11-07

  Let me start out by saying, as a fan of Pokémon since the beginning, I love this movie. It tells an original interpretation of the beginning of the Pokémon story, mainly Ash as he is just starting out. I found this to be a great interpretation of the source material with an original story and enough fan service for fans that have been there for 20 years without being too reliant to be open for younger viewers. I especially love how it touched on how magical the world of Pokémon is with the normal school dream. It's not perfect, but it's pretty awesome. Now with this, I've read multiple negative reviews across the web and I think people are going in with the wrong mindset and as a result are critiquing it based on things it wasn't trying to be in the first place. First, I'll address some "this isn't exactly like season 1" criticisms. The largest complaint I hear is "Misty and Brock only appear in the credits and not in the main movie" and "they replaced Misty and Brock with new companion characters." While I admit I would have liked to see them in their gym leader roles like Brock did in Origins, I think many people forget that we're currently in season 21, and Misty hasn't been a companion since season 5 and Brock hasn't been a companion since season 13. All the other characters you see in the credits are the other companions Ash has had. I don't blame them for having different companions. Another criticism I've seen is "Verity and Sorrel don't get enough development." Historically the companions haven't received a lot of development in the movies. Tell me, what did Misty do in Pokémon the first movie, what did Tracy do in Pokémon the Movie 2000, what did Brock do in Pokémon 3 the movie? I can only recall Misty getting some "shipping development" in 2000, that didn't last in the main series. They received some pretty good development if you ask me, considering it's a 2 hour movie. Another criticism I've seen is "Charmeleon/Charizard isn't a jerk to Ash." That's because Ash is far more competent in this movie. Charmeleon/Charizard didn't respect Ash in season 1, because he was pretty incompetent. In this movie Ash may not completely know what he's doing, but he learns and remembers. There are many similar complaints about how it's not a "shot for shot condensation of season 1," and to that I must ask "do you really want another Last Air Bender?" Then there's the other main criticism I've seen, the "it's as if this was written for children" criticisms. Things such as "the story is too simple," "things get solved too easily," and "they're really doing the chosen one story again?" To which I say "it's not Wolf Children, and it's not trying to be Wolf Children, it's a Pokémon movie." You need to remember who the target audience is. While there is a lot to love about Pokémon as an adult, and this movie does have a lot of fan service for the fans that have been there since the start, Pokémon is a franchise that primarily is targeted to children. Toy Story is a very simple movie that tells the story about 2 toys that got lost, have to escape a toy torturing child, to get back to their loving child before he moves. It's a simple story, because children won't be able to follow a super complex story (and is pretty complex considering the other movies). Of course things get resolved simply, kids like happy endings. You can do the Don Bluth "take children to difficult places, but you have to end on a happy note," with emphasis on "end on a happy note." Yes, Ash dies to come back to (which I saw coming with how they were setting everything up), but he had to come back because of the "end happy." Kids don't want to leave depressed. They're doing the chosen one again; yeah, that's what these movies do. Ash is the chosen one. It's like complaining that Star Wars is about Jedi. I'm not saying this movie is immune to criticisms. The Pikachu talking thing, while touching, was very out of place. The "Bye Bye Butterfree" arc didn't have the same weight as it did in the anime. Raikou's inclusion didn't have any other purpose than "we included the other 2 legendary dogs, we need to include the third." I rated it 8/10 for a reason. However, if you do review this movie, I humbly ask that you consider what it was trying to be, because it's not fair to rate a slasher film negatively because the teen couple that get killed in the first 10 minutes didn't get enough development.

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• A Mixed Bag...

  MasterOfLight2017-11-05

  Pokemon: I Choose You! is a little confused on what it wants to be. It desires to cater to nostalgia by retelling the original saga of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, but it falls flat in many respects. The film attempts to mush together a series of events from the first handful of episodes from the original Pokemon anime series, but here's the thing: despite the lower budget, each of those episodes revolved around a central idea and had a rounded plot. Here, each incident feels like a string of events with no central purpose - there's no compelling link that pulls each of these events together well. Ash and Pikachu running away from the spearows, butterfree finding a mate and leaving Ash, the abandoned Charmander who is left out in the rain...all the pieces from the original series are there, but without any of the heart that they originally had. Instead, they're brushed over in favor of the new elements a poorly constructed plot that centers around Ash Ketchum being a chosen one (UGH, yes that narrative again) and his search for Pokemon that are way beyond his range as a beginner trainer. Another misstep is the inclusion of the new characters, who were remarkably unmemorable. I'm not saying that Brock and Misty are academy-award winning characters in regards to complexity, but these two new kids have next to nothing going for them. Their personalities are boring, and their backstories are so barely hashed out to the viewer that they come across as entirely forgettable when compared to the original companions of the series. There are a few little cameos from other familiar characters, with team Rocket falling very flat, unfortunately. I had hoped in their (very few) appearances throughout the film they would pull out some real, old-fashioned 4th wall humor like they did in the original story, but instead all we got was some pretty 'meh' slapstick. Now, the plot is messy, Ash's character motivation is completely confused and non-defined, the chosen-one narrative is annoying, the new elements are weak at best and frustrating at worse, and the villain is dull and flat. So is there anything to like? Absolutely. The animation, as others have noted, is stunning. The pokemon fights, especially, are shown on a hugely impressive scale, and feel far more intense than anything ever shown in the early days of the show. The 3D elements are well-blended with the 2D, a rare phenomenon for animation. The music,a s well, is beautiful. The classic opening song is played in its entirely, and it's great. The ending song is freaking beautiful, and sounds like it came out of a far, far better movie than what we got. This movie's plot is at its best when it attempts to explore the unusually deep. There are a handful of brief, but powerful dream sequences which place Ash in the 'real' world, a place where there are no Pokemon, and the animation color is heavily subdued. Later in the film, Ash actually... **SPOILERS*** ...essentially dies protecting Pikachu, and it's a legitimately dark, moving moment. He's sent to the 'real' world upon death, but eventually returns back to life without much explanation once he remembers Pikachu. **SPOILERS END*** So here's the thing. I think I know what would have made this a great film. Granted, it would have been a gutsy film to make, but here's what I think the studio should have done: -Changed the film from an origin film, and instead make the film a version of Ash's last adventures with pikachu -Keep the idea of him trying to find the ultimate bird, but get rid of the chosen one narrative -Keep Brock and Misty as the sidekicks, and include other classic characters -KEPT the great idea of Ash going back and forth between 'reality' and the world of Pokemon: explore how horrible the idea of a world without Pokemon would be to a kid like Ash AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: *SPOILERS* After Pikachu speak to Ash, he 'dies', and is stuck in his sort of little purgatory, have the film END when Pikachu jumps into the little portal to where Ash is gone. Show them being happy together wherever they are, as the film does, and then cut to black, and cue the touching end song. *SPOILERS END* Too dark? Maybe. But something like that would push this movie, a well-meant but very flawed little romp through nostalgia, into something more on par with a Ghibly film in terms of deep messages being portrayed to children. Here's the thing: I don't hate this film. There's a lot of good things about it. But it hurts to see all of the potential it had and didn't use, especially seeing as certain ELEMENTS are amazing - the music and animation especially. Given that the budget was sizable, I wish more thought had gone into the basic structure of the story, and a little less time had been focused on animating Pokemon fights. In the end, the film could use a little more heart. "A heart so true, our courage will see us through. You'll teach me and I'll teach you. Pokemon!"

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• Nostalgia

  gustafgranlund2019-01-08

  This movie took me back to all the memories of this series and my childhood, it was not the plot but the feeling and the memories that got me into tears three times. Made me warm with that feeling only pokémon can.

• What a waste of time

  sionithomas2019-01-23

  I have not much to say about this pile of s...! Pointless remake. Terrible storyline. By far the worst thing I have ever watched. From being the worst thing to of been made in the franchise, who the hell thought a talking Pikachu was a great idea. It screams cheap. It was ok until just after charmander was introduced. Then it crashed hard! Waste of time

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• A complete mess..

  head19932019-01-13

  It's a shame I have to say this, but I absolutely hated this movie. I wanted it to be good, or at least wanted to like it, but it's all just one big mess. The original story has been butchered with new stuff forced in, which is of varying quality. Most new characters are predictable or uninteresting, plotpoints get resolved before the viewer has any interest and the story has loads of cringy stuff that absolutely did not have to be there. The animation is fantastic at times, the artstyle is pretty good, but some key moments are around 5fps, which makes it very hard to see whats going on (and it looks really cheap) Small spoiler here but the weirdest thing about the movie is the vibe between Ash and Pikachu. It wasn't like this in the original show, they were just really good friends, but these versions of the characters are a little too close I get why they had to update the story, as the world has become 10x as big as it used to be, but they only had one chance to do this right, and this is a spectacular failure

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