In ages long forgotten, when Earth found itself on a collision course with a meteor, Legendary Pokémon Arceus used its power to avert the danger. However, this feat caused the 16 Plates surrounding it to scatter across the world. Without the Plates providing Arceus with life energy, it began to die. A human named Damon managed to find one of the Plates and returned it to the moribund Pokémon, helping it recover. As a reward, Arceus created the Jewel of Life and gave it to the people of Michina Town, stipulating that it must be returned, but the humans refused, hogging the Jewel to themselves. In the battle that ensued, Damon was killed and Arceus went into slumber, vowing to punish humanity upon its return.
Satoshi and his companions arrive in Michina Town where they come across Sheena, a descendant of Damon, who claims to be in possession of the Jewel of Life and intends on giving it back to Arceus when it awakens.
The situation takes an unexpected turn when Arceus, despite Sheena's best intentions, remains unsatisfied. Satoshi must now prevent the destruction of the entire human race, as Arceus' fury causes distortions in the fabric of the universe, enraging the Legendary trio—Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina—and disturbing the world's balance.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
I cannot help but feel a little disappointed. While this movie was another decent Pokémon film, it falls short when compared to the others. To understand some of the images and references in this movie, I suggest you watch the two previous Pokémon movies first: "The Rise of Darkrai" and "Giratina and the Sky Warrior". You will better understand where those other legendary Pokémon are coming from. As a rule, Pokémon movies aim to touch the audience and make them sympathize with the cause presented in the film. While I could understand Arceus' anguish, that was about it on an emotional level. This movie just didn't doanything for me.
They assumed too much, not bothering to work for it. Team Rocket was just tossed around for a few brief comical moments. Our heroes did nothing overly spectacular. The new characters remained empty and uninteresting. I'm not sure if I liked Arceus' voice, either (although that isn't relevant to the story, right?).
I guess after making 11 movies prior to this one made them a bit lazy and they didn't bother making this as sharp and dazzling as some of the other movies are. A shame, because there was potential in this. It was very nice to see Dialga and Giratina again, though.
Recommended
A great Pokemon movie, and one of the best. The storyline was very cool and interesting throughout. I particularly lean towards both the Pokemon movies with the biggest, most "epic" plots, and the more sci-fi esque ones, and this delivered on both fronts. Thus, I enjoyed the story a lot throughout, and it also helped that unlike some other movies, it got into it right from the beginning as opposed to padding it out. The fight scenes were great, especially the excellently done battle between the four Legendaries. There was also some cute/funny scenes with Pikachu, Piplup, and other Pokemon (especially Spiky-Eared Pichu, who was adorbz) whichprovided good comic relief.
And like most Pokemon movies, the animation and direction were excellent. Some of the painfully obvious CGI was a bit eye-rolling, but it was only a minor flaw, as the rest looked great and there was a lot of really nicely animated and cool scenes throughout the movie. And like usually, the climactic scenes were intense and exciting.
Overall, not quite the very best in the series, but definitely in the top half. Any fan of the franchise should like this a lot.
ChChaotic_beauty
April 12, 2015
Mixed Feelings
Arceus and the Jewel of Life is the closing part of the Diamond and Pearl trilogy. Centered around Dialga and Palkia, followed by Giratina and Shaymin, this film unveils Arceus, the Pokemon god. All the previously explored legendaries make an aprearence too. Except for Shaymin. Good riddance. Deciding to go the epic route, this film had some big shoes to fill because it's predecesor, The Rise of Darkrai, was the best film since Latios & Latias seven years ago. Opting to use the classic action epic mold with all the classic time travel tropes, they obviously emulated Darkrai's approach. Unforunately, Arceus's trilogy-closer fell short in theend - but not spectacularly, mind you. Being a fine watch, it offered nice action, occasional bad CGI and a timetravel story with questionable logic.
What stands out here is the ammount of mayhem and overt destruction the legendaries cause. For example, a mountain is split apart on-screen. In Darkrai's flick, the world was being peacefully eroded by pink ether. What a contrast! However, the threat in that movie was used as a plot mover while here it's just ecstatic violence for its own sake. And it works. There's a lot of it, but never enough to get boring.
The timetravel plot itself is servicable. I've found some joy in recognising all the classic time travel tropes. While the whole thing almost never feels as serious as it should be and there's quite a few nitpicks and plotholes I can point to, what is there never gets too dumb to watch.
There's not much else to say. The film is never stupid, just sometimes dull. The whole thing feels like a passable time waster that's hard to get upset about.
