Pokemon Movie 07: Rekkuu no Houmonsha Deoxys

This film, no, masterpiece deserves more than just a round of applause my friends; for it is one of the greatest movies in this long line of epic tales.
The story begins when Ash, May, Max and Brock journey to LaRousse.
This magical city is really cool! There are numerous flying robots that patrol and regulate the city and they are super kawaii desu~
The story continues when Ash stumbles upon a pokemon contest, now this is where the movie really shines; the battle scenes!
The sound, the animation and the pokemon truly come together to put on magnificent shows of flashy fight scenes, the choreography is amazing and ... animation top notch!
Later, as Deoxys is born, the story becomes more intrigueing as the city is overrun and taken over by said Pokemon.
Suddenly munchlax evolves, and they all lived happily ever after.

One of the best Pokémon movies I've seen so far.

The plot is pretty good, although sometimes not executed in sharpest possible detail (in movies/tv shows directed to kids, they usually jump around a bit to skip anything that might lose the viewer's focus). Altogether, the story was good and touching just the right way, and not hurried for the sake of progress.

This is one of the rare times when the new side-characters in the movie weren't disappointing; they were well made and introduced, and you actually cared about what happened to them. They became something other than meaningless faces tagging along for the action; they ... were part of the team.

Team Rocket made their mandatory appearance, but I don't think they contributed too much to the plot in general. And I don't think they were supposed to, either; they were just familiar faces you could recognize in the flow of the movie.

There was also a Pokémon Munchlax that had a small role to play, and it was quite cleverly introduced to the movie. You don't need to do much to gain a certain level of affection.

A good, enjoyable movie although it started to get a little dull near the end. No matter. An entertaining movie for all Pokémon fans.

Continuing in the footsteps of the previous Pokemon Advance film, Destiny Deoxys is an ambitious work that falls flat in many ways. Still, compared to Jirachi, Deoxys achieves much more.

Destiny Deoxys flaunts an interesting futuristic city, as expected for a film set in the Battle Frontier. The city is filled to brim with CGI elements and I'm happy to say that they don't seem out of place. Rather, they enhance the setting. The film is heavy on plot, thus it can't cash in on the atmosphere completely. Nice to the eyes, art style and animation remain the highlights of the film. There are a few ... unfortunate moments in which Rayquaza isn't to scale, though. It distracts from the action when a superstar looks two to three times smaller than he really is.

Plotwise, the film is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the film is driven by the Deoxys hunting squad. On the other hand, film is not really about the plot, but the character of Tory. While the two are combined in a satisfactory manner, neither of the two get fulfilled in a completely satisfying way.

On the upside, the character development of Tory was natural and believable. The film establishes his character twice. First time in the opening sequence and the second time after he meets Ash. The film uses visual language of Tory's white hair, eyes and clothes to signal viewers his personality - namely, he's a socialy inept nobody. The problem with the opening sequence is that his personality and design are based on what he becomes after the opening sequence. Thus, the kid ruins the opening sequence by looking badly out of place. The Lion King ripoff scene with a deviant art looking character isn't a good first impression. The Rayquaza and Deoxys battle the opening concludes with looked fine, even if a bit unambitious. Since this same battle, only with Ash reintroduces the same elements almost flawlessly, I'd advise film makers to cut the redundant opening sequence out.

Even though character development was done well, it doesn't mean the work should have given it as much time to it as it did. The character development happened in a few mostly subtle scenes. Film shouldn't have revolved around around Tory as much afterwards. There were multiple scenes forcing the plot to a halt so we can talk about the dangers of the situation, but these scenes weren't really about creating suspense. Rather, they were here to force Tory in a room with Pokemon which he fears. As a result we don't feel the urgency and danger we should and the whole film suffers.

This isn't to say it's all bad. Basic structure of the plot is fine and Deoxys is given lots of menacing things to do. The problem lies in the fact that the things Deoxys does are cool, but too removed from film's focus. Often time you'll get a feeling that the scenes are happening out of time and space, since Deoxys is doing nothing and appears only after a character scene is wrapped up.

Tory is not a very complex character and chemistry between the show's cast and film only cast isn't very good. This often leads to boredom until the plot picks up. Some of the scenes are saved by fun Pokemon interactions. Munchlax is notable for having his own miniplot that was well interwoven into the film.

Rayquaza and Deoxys have a servicable clash near the end of the film and while Rayquaza was misused during most of the film, he ends up being a fine addition to the cast at the end. We're also treated to one of the best action scenes involving humans in a Pokemon film - Ash practicing parkour over the city's haywire defence systems. My only complaint is that it took less than 3 minutes in total. Still, brevity is a virtue. Better leave us wanting more than overstaying your welcome.

So, what's the verdict? A neat premise, great art, some interesting character moments and a memorable (albeit short) action scene. Film drags on, misses plot oportunities and is often unengaging and boring. It narrowly falls flat, but it's worth a watch if you like Pokemon films. 4.5/10