In times like these, many people are going back and watching their favorite comfort movies and shows. Growing up, my older brother and I constantly watched the Pokemon anime, specifically, the Indigo League, which included the original Pokemon: The First Movie and Pokemon: The Movie 2000. While these movies are no Marvel Cinematic Universe, I always did love how the animation and voice actors fit so well with the stories of Ash’s adventures. 

Looking back, the films obviously weren’t cinematic masterpieces. But I usually found them enjoyable as a kid. After the success of the Detective Pikachu movie, I had pretty high hopes as to what The Pokemon Company could dream up. Unfortunately, this movie did not live up to my low set standards.  Here’s why Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution is not worth watching, even if you’re a big fan of the series.

 The story is too simple in my opinion. Just because it’s a children’s movie, the writers aren’t forbidden from delivering a decently intricate storyline. An evil company clones Mew (a legendary Pokemon), the most powerful Pokemon on the planet, forming what they refer to as Mewtwo. Mewtwo wants to destroy humanity and everything in its path and decides to clone every Pokemon and make them even stronger. Our favorite trainers Ash Ketchum and his friends, Misty and Brock, find Mewtwo try to stop his plan. 

Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s right, it’s the identical premise of the first feature Pokemon film back in 1998. It’s almost a shot-by-shot remake, but the animation has been updated to 3D.  I watched this film and wondered why it was even made. If you’re not very well-versed in the Pokemon world, this movie couldn’t have been made for fans, because it’s quite literally the same thing they put out in the past. It also can’t really be for newcomers, because it’s completely different from the new Pokemon series that children have been watching nowadays.

I am also not a big fan of the new 3D animation style for Pokemon. I may just be stubborn or influenced by nostalgia but I felt that the original series and movie’s best part was the animation style and how simplistic it was. Even the new animation series on TV today is not 3D and it seems a little strange that they would make a movie in a completely different art style. 

I feel like the studio was just looking to make a quick buck rather than giving fans or even newcomers a cool new story to enjoy. On a more positive note, while remaking this film, they did change a couple of elements that would’ve made the original better. The song choices can be questionable, but I felt like they added to the story and made it better than the original score. But the song choices can seem pointless if it’s just a shot-for-shot remake of the old movie. Why even bother changing it up at that point?

I appreciate that a lot of the voice talent for the movie was very similar to the original. It would always annoy me how Ash’s voice could drastically change through different regions, so at least the movie was able to copy one thing correctly from the original.

While I did have low expectations for this movie because I saw that the trailer looked like trash, the movie somehow dipped lower than those expectations and turned out to be awful. 3/10 — only watch if you need to keep a child busy. If you want to watch a real Pokemon movie, watch the original.