So I got back from the movies a few hours ago and wanted to do my own little recap of what happened.
I'll cover the Genosect movie first because that's the one that most of you care about. But don't worry! I'll do a write-up for the Eevee short later tonight.
So anyway, I really liked the movie for what it was. A lot of people hate the whole Myuutwo thing (I personally don't think it's that big a deal but understand why some fans are upset) and I think a lot of them are going into this movie just looking for things to hate about it, and that's a shame. It's a pretty decent movie and it's really sad to see so many people let the whole Myutwo thing overshadow everything. The film's all about the Genosect and their problems, and while Myuutwo does play a pivotal role at several points, that pokemon is not the focus. Don't let that ruin the movie for you.
The artwork is kind of hit and miss. New Tork City looks absolutely gorgeous and the fight scenes between the Red Genosect and Myuutwo look great, but, like in the previous movie, Iris is off-model for a large portion of the movie. The Rocket-Dan have moments where they're drawn kind of funky as well. The background music is pretty cool and does a decent job of emphasizing what's going on on-screen, whether it's a peaceful moment in the park or a high-stakes battle above a high-tech city.
The plot is very close to the manga version, so read my summaries of that first. There are some differences (which I'll get into in a later update), but for the most part the movie played out exactly as it did in the manga.
The producers of the movie played around with the format a bit. Usually it's Pikachu the Movie logo → World of Pokemon segment → cold opening → Pocket Monsters logo → Movie logo → Satoshi and his friends → opening theme, but this time they rearranged that. In this year's movie, it goes Pikachu the Movie logo → cold opening → Movie logo → World of Pokemon segment → Satoshi and his friends → opening theme. It was...kind of weird.
Myuutwo can transform into its Awakened form at any time, right from the beginning. Which contradicts what was in the manga, but, like I said, I'll get to that later. We're never given any explanation about why it can transform, when it was first able to do this, or anything. It just transforms because it can.
At the beginning, Myuutwo decides to fly up as high as it can to overcome its limits, probably to foreshadow the end of the film where it kind of does the same thing with the Red Genosect. It gets high enough for frost to start appearing on its body before it reverts back to its regular form and then heads back toward the earth.
The Plasma-Dan is never actually mentioned by name; all we see are a few grunts and the door with the Plasma-Dan logo on it during a flashback sequence early in the movie.
When Satoshi and his friends arrive at Pokemon Hills, Dent talks about how lucky (ラッキー) they are that they get to see this facility before it's opened to the public. Satoshi gets excited and thinks Dent's saying that there's a Lucky (also ラッキー) in the area, prompting Iris to chastise him for being ridiculous. And then, as if to make Iris look stupid, an actual Lucky walks by! The same pun is repeated again with the Rocket-Dan later in the movie.
The opening theme to the movie is Natsu-meku Sakamichi, same as in the TV series. During this time, everyone lets out their pokemon and lets them get the only screentime a lot of them will have. Satoshi's team is Pikachu, Mijumaru, Tsutarja, Charbu, Hahakomori, and Lizardon. Also, a bunch of Ishizumai find Dent's Iwapalace and start to fanboy / fangirl over it, presumably because Iwapalace is this cool evolved pokemon. They then start to follow Iwapalace around the park.
There's this really funny scene where Satoshi is asking Genosect if it's lost. He says the word for lost child - maigo (迷子) - but it seems like Genosect doesn't understand what that means. So, after thinking for a minute, he stands up and shouts ""Mo~m!? Mo~m!? Where are you?" - Y'know, someone like that."
It was a really funny moment that only Satoshi can give us.
I've seen people describe Myuutwo as being able to slow down time, but I think those people are misinterpreting things. The way I see it, those slow motion scenes are just bullet time - that is, slowing everything else down to show how much faster Myuutwo is than everything around it. I think the idea here is that Myuutwo is moving around so fast that we can't actually see it unless things are slowed down for us.
Satoshi does not indicate that he doesn't know what a Myuutwo is; he simply says omae wa... (おまえは．．．), which is most likely supposed to be "You're..." Now this can be interpreted as "Who are you?," but even if you did go that route you could easily explain that away by saying that Satoshi recognizes that this isn't the same Myuutwo from the first movie and is therefore asking who this Myuutwo is.
The Rocket trio is in this movie, and they're actually in-character, which is nice. And, despite what it says in the end credits, their Sonansu does not appear in the main movie. I guess whoever typed those up was thinking about the Pikachu short at the time? Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fixed for the DVD / Blu-ray.
So, Myuutwo's origin! There are reports that Myuutwo kills the scientists who created it, which means the writer of this movie is blatantly ripping off the first movie, and is contradicting the prologue (which would be weird since both this movie and the prologue were written by the same guy) but their death is never 100% confirmed. We see Myuutwo's eyes glow, an explosion, and then we see one of the glasses the scientists were wearing lying on the floor while flames are reflected in the glass.
It actually reminds me a lot of Hunter J's final scene in Diamond & Pearl, for what that's worth. The thing is, in both these cases, this isn't definitive proof that the owner of the glasses are dead, and it's still completely plausible that they escaped with their lives and later hired Dunk to go after Myuutwo. It's also possible that they actually did die, though, and that Mr. Honoda is a really shitty writer. It could go either way.
The little girl and boy who own the Yoshioka Kiyoe Eevee are Yukino (ユキノ) and Natsuki (ナツキ).
So, about Yamirami...it is the one who tells Satoshi and his friends about the Genosect taking over Pokemon Hills, and it helps create the cushion of water that helps break Myuutwo's and the Red Genosect's fall at the end of the movie, but other than that it just spends the entire movie looking cute.
Contrary to reports online, there are no scenes in the movie reminiscent of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on 9/11. There's a single shot of the entire city on fire (Eric's explaining what could happen if the Genosect are allowed to continue running rampant), but that's it. A 9/11 reference would be two twin towers on fire (not the entire city), or a flying object crashing into a skyscraper and causing it to fall down in a very specific way, or a flying object crashing into a pentagon-shaped building...but this movie doesn't have any of those. Just a single shot of a city with smoke coming out of it.
The Tokui Kenta Ishitsubute barely appears in the movie. Eric, on the other hand, has tons of lines and actually contributes to the plot. I think it's obvious which member of Heisei Nobushi Kobushi is the most popular.
The Genosect end up making their home in a valley somewhere where the Ortus Flowers still bloom, not in New Tork City. You can see the RV that Eric drove everyone in in the background, and the area is surrounded by canyons, not skyscrapers like it would be if they were still in the city.
The BW rivals, N, and the BW Gym Leaders (including the B2W2 ones) all appear in the movie's end credits.
Like I said before, I liked the movie. I have issues with the lack of any sort of explanation about what Myuutwo's even doing in the New Tork City area in the first place, or anything about its awakened form, or why the Red Genosect can just control the other Genosect the way it does, or why the Red Genosect can go from "DESTROY ALL ENEMIES" to "EVERYONE'S MY FRIEND" in the space of five minutes, but you know what? I was still entertained. The Genosect got a nice and touching story and the producers did a really good job of making us want the pokemon to find a home. The movie also managed to have a really nice pace - it didn't drag on too long but nothing really felt rushed either - ensuring that we were entertained during the entire runtime.
So please, go into this movie with an open mind. Who knows? You might actually like what you see.
