Pokemon Movie 11: Giratina to Sora no Hanataba Sheimi

As the 11th movie to come out for Pokemon, I seriously think this one higher than recent ones (Manaphy's film coming to mind). I found that not only did it achieve what it was meant to (admittedly, to advertise Platinum) but gave a great story while doing so, though it had some pitfalls here and there.
To be clear, I find my enjoyment score biased on behalf of Giratina. ^^;

Story:
I found that the story itself was smooth, and the fact that is brought in some information from the 10th movie (Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai) was great, and showed continuation (unlike many of the movies, ... whose storylines stay fixated in their own space bubble). I did enjoy how Shaymin's journey to the Garden ended up leading Ash and co right into the Zero and Giratina conflict, instead of Ash and co immediately jumping into it - so there were ultimately two plots. As I'll explain in detail later, the villain in this movie was exceptionately good and well-crafted for this installment. He effectively posed a great threat to the world. And, as expected, there are plenty of instances of humor.

Art:
Though Pokemon artwork may not come close to some animes, I believe FOR Pokemon, the art was a "very good". I appreciated the Reverse World, to name something in particular. It certainly set the mood as a place fit for a Pokemon like Giratina (spooky and almost like a dangerous fun house). However, things like Zero's giant ship/machine was...out of place. It was a little too 3D for the 2D world it was thrown into. However, that's a matter of taste. It's the same effects of Pokemon 2000's catching sky-mecha.

Sound:
I always find that the sound effects in Pokemon movies are actually quite good, and that's no different here. For Giratina in particular, I think the sounds they had it emit fit it very well, very "other-worldly". As usual, background music fits. After that, I don't really pay attention to this area much.

Character:
And here's where it gets interesting. Ash and co are generally the same as they are in the show - kinda corny, good-hearted people who would help any Pokemon in need. (take that any way you please). That's to be expected. Now for the real characters, because to be completely honest, I felt the whole time Ash and co (as well as Team Rocket, for that matter) took a back seat and watched the new characters have the spotlight.
Shaymin and Giratina were the "stars" of this movie, and certainly played as so. I liked that Giratina was made out to be a villain the whole time and then at the end, it really wasn't, which made it seem like a guardian at his post - doesn't care about anything else but it's duties, even when people are trying to help. Shaymin, on the other hand, I didn't like so much. I know some people might get tired of it's stuck-up-ness after the first few times. It just gets irritating, especially in the dub. Bascially, it acts like a spoiled brat. Upon turning into Sky Form, it gets better, but it doesn't stay like that long enough to save the character. -.-
Zero, the true villain of the movie was great, and so pulls the whole score up to where it is. I did find him similar to the second movie's villain, in that he is trying very hard to capture a legendary Pokemon and has a large, souped up machine to aid him. However, his objective is completely different. In fact, his diabolical plans have nothing more to do with Giratina but take its powers (in the process, killing it, though it's not mentioned outright) and ruling the Reverse World. He is completely insane...and I love him. XD

Enjoyment:
Personally, I really did enjoy it, but in effect, I felt it short and then even lacking at parts. It starts off with a bang and ends beautifully and the climax is all there...it's just that rising action that wasn't very...action-y. There was some information to take in, but a lot of it was filled up with trips to the reverse world and fights against Zero's hoard of Magnemite. Hard to explain...all I can say is that if you loved movie 2, you'll like this one.

Overall, I give it an 8, biased as I might be.XD I think any Pokemon fan will like this one, whether its for one specific reason or not. I don't think it's possible to like everything about it, but it is entertaining for one reason or another.

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 everyone ... has their own opinion and mine is this is one of the worst pokemon movies yet.

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 paths ... with 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.

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, but ... the 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.

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 missing ... for 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.

Though a step down from the Darkrai movie, still a good movie overall.

The storyline was somewhat mixed. Though I found all the stuff with the Reverse World really cool (i'm a sucker for "another dimension" plots so I loved this), a lot of the time was spent on a generic "guy tries to capture Pokemon" premise, which I didn't really find very interesting. As well, though Shaymin was cute, I also found him very annoying.

However, it had plenty of other good aspects to compensate. The animation was good throughout. Though the CGI looked really bad (I don't get why they use CGI when the 2D ... animation looks so much better and doesn't mesh at all), the 2D animation looked very nice, and there was a lot of very well-done and lovely scenes. There was a lot of great and exciting action scenes throughout, and the ending scene was very emotional. And in the grand tradition of the series, the climax was excellently done.

Overall, though flawed, this was a good movie overall, and one i'd recommend to any fan of the franchise.