Pokemon Movie 11: Giratina to Sora no Hanataba Sheimi

As a childhood pokemon fan I was actually excited for this movie, especially when I heard it was going to deal with platium but also be a sequeal to the rise of Darkrai. Well it actually wasn't that good and only mentioned it'd prequal once or twice. Sure the animation and characters were all good, but the story bored me even though it was creative. It had a sort of "Protect the earth" kind of vibe to it and even though I'm a green person I'm getting pretty sick of the message here. Now you might all hate me for saying this, but everyonehas their own opinion and mine is this is one of the worst pokemon movies yet.

This is the first pokemon movie to consider the events that happened in the previous release. Which makes it sort of a sequel to Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai. Lore from the games is used to make this movie but the story is still generic. Evil guy trying to capture strong pokemon and Ash stops him. A little bit of backstory is given to the evil guy and there is only one side character, who is also related to the evil guy, which is excellent and makes the story better than most of the generic evil guy pokemon movies. And also evil guys were missingfor a long time in pokemon movies so coming back to old strategies is not that bad. Art and sound have always been great in pokemon movies. A major problem is Shaymin's character. It is too bratty and annoying. I guess they made Shaymin like this because Manaphy wasn't that different from Mew, Jirachi, and Celebi. So, at least Shaymin is unique. Action scenes were not as strong as Deoxys vs Rayquaza but the choreography is good enough to make them memorable. And the scene where Regigigas enters with Mamoswines was cool.

Reverse World is by far one of the most fascinating things about the whole Pokémon world; the design, the rules, its Ying and Yang position with the real world... truly awesome. Giratina, one of the new legendary Pokémon who appear in this film, wasn't bad either, and getting a glimpse of Dialga, one of my favorites, didn't make the experience any worse (although there was a bit of a plot hole there in the end). Shaymin, however, was one of the most annoying characters by far in the history of Pokémon. Perhaps intentionally so, who knows... Sure, there was comedy there, especially between Shaymin and Ash, butthe Pokémon's behavior and attitude just didn't work. Other than that, another movie with a good plot, but there were holes here and there. It didn't run smoothly. The beginning seemed a bit too slow and confusing, but after that it was a rather enjoyable ride to the end. Newton Graceland didn't get nearly enough screen time or depth, or his relationship and life in Reverse World, and same has to be said about the "villain" Zero (who is one of the best villains in Pokémon so far, I think). They could have had a much bigger impact if we truly understood them and their history/motives. Not a bad movie, and well worth the watch. Standard Pokémon quality for sure.

One thing this film does really well is making us want to travel with Ash and Shaymin to the flower fields. Too bad the film doesn't let us. I've got two main gripes with this one. The far bigger one is Zero himself. The villain in this feature is an overly designed, white haired, badly tempered wunderkind. Impossible magical technology and fantastical flying CGI fortress included. Hastily screwed backstory and inane dialogue, too. Gripe number two is the lack of a character arc for Shaymin. The film essentially starts as a completely different beast than it ends up being. We're treated to a vulnerable pokemon crossing pathswith our heroes. It's Shaymin, the purifier of nature. He's being hunted by Giratina and in order to secure himself, he needs to meet up with other Shaymin at the fields high up in the mountains. Altruistic as always, our team decides to help and thus we've got an adventure. Shaymin is rude to them time and time again. Especially towards Ash. He's not really likeable, at least not all the time. Acting like a brat, you may think it's his way of coping with the feeling of powerlessness. Maybe it's a facade to hide his soul drenched in fear? Nope. By the end he's not learned anything - he's exactly the same as he was at the start. All the film makers had to do was rewrite ten lines and there'd be a weak arc in there somewhere. Instead, we get throwaway jokes aimed at small kids. This is a shame, because the film could have been a great character focused adventure, something pokemon have a knack for. Or would, if they ever focused on it. This leads me to my second point. Shaymin's neither terrible nor unbearlable, thus the film should have been a good adventure, even if a bit shallow. This is where my first gripe returns and strikes again. Half way throughout the film, as you enjoy the landscapes, Zero butts in. Proceeding to derail the film, Zero makes every scene he's in eye-rolling or boring. His plan makes no sense. His backstory is a hastily thrown out one-liner. His beliefs inane ramblings of a madman. Action he offers lasts too long and more often than not, borders on stupid. Due to bad direction, it's not particularly engaging, either. While there are a few neat moments, such as Regigigas appearing, the film ends up a very flawed character focused story and a bad villain-of-the-film flick. Reverse world was a fun location, even if somewhat underwhelming. A few locations looked gorgeous and Shaymin's interaction with other Pokemon were pretty fun. Giratina stole every scene it was in. In the end this film falls right in the middle. There are multiple good scenes here. The question is whether it's worth watching the whole thing. Since it's the middle part of a 'trilogy' (using the word very loosely), I recommend giving it a spin if you're watching the others. Otherwise, no.

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