Forum - View topicREVIEW: Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
bluesheep02
Posts: 78 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
|
|||
Please allow me to clarify. The western meaning and understanding of nostalgia and the Japanese are nuanced differently. I literally had to study this for hours in University here dating back to the pre-meiji restoration days in my history classes. The concept of life, death, childhood, and fleeting moments have always been a concept tied into Japanese art and poetic representation. It’s something that is very much a part of the cultural sensibilities in a very different way then you would find in the West. Even the end credits with montages of the original three traveling through Kanto was meant to evoke a certain feeling of childhood and something adults who grew up with the series can share with their children. I was brought back to my 10 year old self going to see the movie in the theaters 5 times when it was released in 1999. As such this movie is reviewing far less hate here from my own experiences. I’m sorry but this review lost me on so many points and it just feels a bit too biased to be taken seriously. This was not a D+ experience for me. Had they changed everything from the first movie people would still complain. |
||||
|
||||
TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 3950 |
|
|||
That will never happen. EVER. |
||||
|
||||
|
Frog-kun
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 118 |
|
|||
Wait, when does the reviewer even say either of those things? Especially the bit about how it should have been live-action. You're putting words in his mouth. What he actually said is that the film should have committed to either a cartoon style or a realistic style instead of trying to have it both ways. |
||||
|
||||
|
TheCanipaEffect
Posts: 52 |
|
|||
Should probably clarify a couple things. Your assumption that I think Mewtwo wants to destroy everyone but the clones is likely based on the synopsis part. That synopsis is from the original film, with which this is a shot-for-shot remake. Of course, the Japanese version doesn't have this point and is less inclined to portray Mewtwo as a villain. That said, due to nostalgia, it's likely that the English dub of this film will more closely follow the plot of the English version, which is why I used English names and used the English synopsis available on the 1999 film's ANN page. I might be wrong! We'll see. Realism isn't the same as live-action. Realism is an artistic movement based on portraying things as they exist in the real world. For instance, Detective Pikachu redesigns Pokemon using elements from real creatures to create this idea that it's a real world. Full CG films like the works of Square Enix similarly employ realism to make its fantasy into a reality. But EVOLUTION tries to have it both ways. Sometimes that can work for stylistic effect, but it's odd. Nurse Joy's dress flows realistically but Ash's jeans maintain the same crinkles, Onix is a combination of a series of smooth polygons, but the texture implies that they're realistic rock formations, Rapidash is a cartoon unicorn, but the fire effect looks like it's literally on fire, opposed to all other depictions where the fire is non-photorealistic. I wanted to see EVOLUTION commit to a single idea. If they're meant to be realistic, then we need to see more sides of that from texturing, to design, to animation. But if they wanted to make it look like a better version of the games' 3D work, then there needed to be a more stylised approach to some of the realistic elements here. Basically, it needed direction, but I believe there were too many vested interests from exterior parties. |
||||
|
||||
Commander Cluck
 Posts: 123 |
|
|||
Even if it was officially released here, I'm sure there would be plenty of legal stipulations like using the localized names and terms as well as also not releasing any of the episodes banned in America in order to keep the family friendly image of the franchise intact. But never say never. Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh saw some subtitled releases here. All it took was those franchises to effectively be dead in the west for it to happen. Sadly I don't see Pokemon dying here anytime soon so we'll be waiting a while. |
||||
|
||||
Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4824 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
|
|||
|
Seeing this at Anime Expo was a real treat since it was already something I vowed not to spend money on seeing in theaters. It was...well it was something alright. Honestly, the Pokemon stopped bothering me like 5 minutes in. It's very easy to adapt and accept them as 3D models. But the TRAINERS. Man I spent the whole movie trying not to laugh over how bad they looked.
There were definitely a few things this film did better. For example, I noticed at one point the railings for the sea dock had Lapras shaped into them, and other nice details that couldn't have happened in the original. The Lapras pedal boat CRACKED ME UP though I'll forever miss the "Vikings are from Minnesota" joke. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is going to be too blinded by nostalgia glasses to enjoy it. And even then...if you can get past those awful trainer models like power to you honestly. Otherwise, I'd say just go watch the original. The only thing that made the AX panel truly worthwhile was hearing Rica Matsumoto sing the Pokemon Theme Song at the end 
|
||||
|
||||
steelmirror
 Posts: 342 |
|
|||
Nostalgia, appropriately, isn't anything new. |
||||
|
||||
|
Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4824 |
|
|||
|
Also it's not really news that Japanese audiences love these movies regardless of their quality. They've been making them every year for over 20 years now so they obviously have an audience there. I fully expect this to make tons of yen at the Japanese box office.
Last edited by Cardcaptor Takato on Tue Jul 16, 2019 1:48 pm; edited 3 times in total |
||||
|
||||
|
Marimo0
Posts: 186 |
|
|||
|
B, B-, and two C-'s, and yet the overall grade is a D+?
|
||||
|
||||
FireballDragon
 Posts: 683 |
|
|||
|
Would the word "bastardization" be a little too loaded to describe this movie?
It just seems like adding the word "Evolution" in the name of an anime re-boot movie is a sign it'll suck out loud. |
||||
|
||||
|
BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5920 |
|
|||
Doesn't Pikachu fight a Donphan in the opening credits and do the exact same thing? |
||||
|
||||
|
Silktree
Posts: 2 |
|
|||
Yeah, that should be at least a C. Something tells me that the movie lost points for being a remake, which doesn't make sense to me. Here's a more balanced review by Dogasu. It hardly showers the movie with praise, but it does go to show that some of the flaws aren't necessarily a big deal. Last edited by Silktree on Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
Marimo0
Posts: 186 |
|
|||
No, Bulbasaur was the one who fought Donphan, while Pikachu fought a trio of Pokemon at once including a Golem originally. |
||||
|
||||
|
TheCanipaEffect
Posts: 52 |
|
|||
Films are not just a sum of their parts (and certainly shouldn't just be averaged together). Whilst most individual parts of the film are fine, the overall final product is somewhat pointless. It's not just about it being a remake, but about it actively being an exact and worse experience than the original. If you had two fish and chip shops near your home, but the second one is exactly the same as the first but noticeably worse, would you ever go there? |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group