By Derek Fro
This is going to be the first segment of something I'm calling "On Second Thought". The gist is that I'll review something that I haven't seen in at least a few years, and see if it still holds up after time. The first thing up to bat is Pokemon: The First Movie, released in 1998. Also note that I won't be reviewing the Pikachu short attached to this movie.
The movie begins by showing us the origin of the Pokemom Mewtwo. Some researchers led by Doctor Fuji are exploring what I believe is meant to be "Faraway Island". They speak about the Pokemon known as Mew, supposedly the rarest of them all. Apparently, Fuji has discovered a fossil of Mew and plans to use it to clone the Pokemon for research. However, when Mewtwo awakens he immediately assumes that he isn't meant to be kept inside a lab, because of him having the genetic memory of being free like Mew. He destroys the lab, and soon after Giovanni finds him and proposes to be his partner. The film then shows us that Giovanni has given Mewtwo some kind of suit to enhance his psychic abilities, and is now being used in the Viridian City Gym. This partnership doesn't last very long however, as Giovanni explains that Mewtwo was only meant to be used a tool to fight with, causing Mewtwo to backlash, destroy the gym and flee back to the lab on New Island in order to plot revenge against people.
Now we skip forward a little (I assume at least a few years) and focus on Ash, Brock, and Misty enjoying a day of rest on a seaside cliff- that is, until some random jerk comes and asks Ash to battle him (Apparently Ash is famous now? I don't know, maybe he was at this point in the show). Anyways, like usual Ash wins despite only having his Pikachu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur- against this guys Machamp, Donphan, Venomoth, Pinsir, and I believe Graveler. Afterward, somebody (Read: obviously Mewtwo) tells his servant (Read: obviously Nurse joy) to get Ash to join his tournament. A Mail-Dragonite brings Ash a letter stating that he is to appear on New Island and challenge the "greatest Pokemon master" in a tournament. He accepts the invite and the Dragonite returns to New Island, not before being stopped by Team Rocket though, who hear about the tournament and decide to follow Ash.
Ash and crew head to a city in order to catch the boat to New Island, but arrive only to find that a terrible storm is preventing the boat from leaving. All the trainers gathered in the storm shelter are outraged, and three of them decide to leave anyways, using their Pokemon to surf across the sea. Officer Jenny threatens to arrest them... For something illegal, I'm sure. Ash and crew also head out, but like usual don't get the idea that hey, I don't know, maybe USING our Pokemon might help and simply stand there and complain about the storm. At this point some "Vikings" (Read: Team Rocket) come up to the dock and offer to take them across. They accept, because they're stupid, and get on the boat. During the cruise, Jessie makes one of the most inappropriate jokes in Pokemon history by saying "Stroke, stroke, stroke... I think I'm going to have one!" After that, a huge wave hits the ship and knocks everyone into the water, at which point they finally realize that hey, Misty is a WATER TYPE Gym Leader, maybe her Pokemon can help! They get on Staryu and Squirtle and head to New Island.
They get inside the castle on New Island and meet up with the other trainers, Fergus (A water type trainer based on the Youngster class), Corey (A "Nature" type trainer based on the Ace Trainer class), and Neesha (A "Sweet" type trainer (Think Whitney) based on a combination of Beauty and Lass classes), each of whom boasts a team infinitesimally better than Ash's, but hey, whats new? Mewtwo comes down and greets them, saying that he is the most powerful Pokemon master of them all, causing Fergus to call bullshit, saying that a Pokemon can't be a Pokemon master. This ends well, with Fergus being thrown across the room for what he said. Mewtwo now decides that he doesn't need his servant anymore, and releases her from her brainwashed state, revealing to everyone that she was in fact Nurse Joy.
It's at this point that we see Team Rocket exploring the undercroft of the castle, and winding up in the cloning chamber where Mewtwo has clones of Charizard, Venusaur, and Blastoise. Meowth ends up being captured by the cloning machine, and he gets a clone as well. THen, above ground, Mewtwo begins his tournament and calls the three clone starters, who each fight with their respective real versions (Corey's Venusaur, Neesha's Blastoise, and Ash's Charizard) and promptly win. Mewtwo states that the Pokemon owned by these trainers are only slaves, and uses his own Pokeballs to catch all of them as a prize for winning. I believe it's also around this point that he mentions how he's going to clone his own new Pokemon, kill the rest, and use the storm he called to wipe out everything on Earth. Anyways, villlainous plans aside, Ash's Pikachu gets caught, and Ash chases it down a shaft into the cloning chamber.
He manages to save his Pokemon, but not before they get cloned. At this stage, all the cloned Pokemon "hatch" and head upstairs toward the arena. We see them get there, and listen to Mewtwo gloat some more about how his Pokemon are perfect and all that nonsense, but then Ash somehow EXPLODES through the floor of the arena (He doesn't have anything that can learn explosion with him) and challenges Mewtwo to a fight, by simply doing what he does best and running towards him. He gets his ass kicked, and Mewtwo flings him into the tower of the castle. However, before he can hit the wall, Mew creates a bubble under him, and softly lands him on a rooftop ledge. Mew goes down to Mewtwo, who begins a fight between the Pokemon and their respective clones. Everything goes fine until the Pokemon start getting beat out from fighting.
And thats when the moral shows up.
This is where my problems with the movie begin. The moral that this movie tries to shill is that 'Fighting is wrong". You might see how this becomes an issue when the series and it's being shilled in is freaking POKEMON, the game where you make things fight for 40 hours so you can be named the best at fighting. Now, to the movies credit, my friend did point out to me that they say "Fighting this way is wrong" as in, fighting for what Mewtwo fights for isn't right. I get that, it makes sense, but it's still stupid to try and pick and choose what fights are right and wrong when the entire series is centered around fighting. How much worse is it to fight for the freedom of Pokemon than to fight for "ooooh shiny badges"?
Anyways, I digress. Ash tries to stop the fighting after making a speech about this and that being wrong or whatever, and gets hit with the cross fire of Mew and Mewtwo using what's probably Psybeam or something. Somehow, this not only doesn't kill the shit out of him, but turns him to stone. As if that wasn't strange enough, all the Pokemon begin to cry and for some reason unbeknownst to anyone the tears float over to Ash and magically fix everything. Now everyone knows that fighting is wrong, and everyone vows to never make Pokemon fight again! Hooray, everything is perfect now!
Then Mewtwo erases everyones memory and transports them back in time to the storm shelter.
Well. That was fucking stupid.
Seriously, what was the point of EVERYTHING THAT JUST HAPPENED? Now they can go fight again, and thusly eliminate the entire point the movie was making in the first place. Whatever, it leads to more Pokemon, so I guess I can't complain. It takes us back to the new New Island, which is just a grassy plateau now, and Meowth takes us out with a joke about catamarans.
Stay classy, Pokemon.
All in all, even though the last quarter of this movie is extremely upsetting, I can't really discount the whole thing over that. It's still a fairly enjoyable flick, and I can accept that the problems are mostly due to this being the first movie. Even though a grown person can see flaws in the moral, it's still a good thing to teach kids who watch this and don't understand what a plot hole is.
Overall, I give this movie a 7/10. It's pretty alright.
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