In light of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the first Pokemon movie I've decided to review the first three movies since I am a lifelong Poke-fan myself. How do these three stand up today? Which one is the stand out? Let's find out! Small disclaimer, I won't be reviewing the preceding shorts before the movies.
Pokemon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back
This one was of course smashes by the majority of mainstream critics (only because they came into it completely unprepared and it shows in their reviews) and now by many fans. Wonder why? It starts off well with plenty of potential as we get acquainted with Mewtwo, a Pokemon created by man, unfortunately by none other than Team Rocket itself for world domination. Once Mewtwo discovers this he goes on a rampage, destroying the lab. The boss Giovanni attempts to harness his power even further with armor, but after a while Mewtwo questions his role with humans and breaks out, extending his rampage to misanthropic proportions. Once the title card is seen this is where a great start gets completely undermined in a mess of bad dialogue, boring battles, plot holes, dubbing errors, causes without effects, and effects without causes. Such a shame. Even the pointless moral at the end undermines everything including what the franchise is all about. Overall, this one is best seen only once, Mewtwo is the only redeeming value to this piece. Don't let nostalgia blind you.
Strengths: Mewtwo himself
Weaknesses: Almost everything else
Grade: D-
Pokemon 2000: The Power of One
After the disappointment of the first movie this one feels like an improvement and while not stellar this one's more worth a fan's time. Every Pokemon movie tells a different story, and in this case a different villain. The foe, Lawrence III is not as effective as Mewtwo, but at least he has his moments of suave sinisterness and his fortress is a CGI beauty to behold surprisingly. The plot is easier to grasp but only for true fans. Lawrence III upsets the balance of nature by capturing legendary birds which causes the world to devolve into chaos and only Ash and his friends and their Pokemon can stop him and restore the balance. Among the process is collecting three crystal orbs and placing them on an altar followed by having someone play a mystical song. A little monotonous, but at least it does the job. New Pokemon are introduced as well including one called Lugia who's not only cool to look at but flys and swims at the same time. Only negative for him is the voice acting for him is too flat to give him his grandiose. Other than those quibbles this one at least does the job as a Pokemon movie.
Strengths: Easier to grasp concept, plenty of exciting adventures, beautiful CGI, lovely music
Weaknesses: monotonous storyline, bad voice acting for Lugia, and some things don't make sense
Grade: C
Pokemon 3: Spell of the Unown
Now this is a movie! Slow improvement, but this one pulls out all the stops and is my personal favorite of the trilogy. The storyline is dark, the action is exciting, the characters are sympathetic, and the messages are great. Even better, you don't have to be a fan to enjoy this one! It's really that good other than a few minor quibbles which I'll explain in a bit. The premise, a little girl Molly is feeling lonely after her father goes missing while researching the Unown, and very fitting since we don't know a whole lot and are surprisingly chilling despite their cutsey appearances. Molly plays with some artifacts that her father left behind, and unwittingly summons them encasing her mansion in ice-like crystal and replacing her father with a Pokemon version of him called Entei (a dog/lion like creature), but the crystal is slowly consuming Greenfield and it's only a matter of time before Greenfield is completely enveloped. There you have it a great start and it gets more complicated when Ash and friends arrive to see the disturbance. Things get more complicated when Ash's mother arrives as well to investigate, but when Molly asks for a mother, Entei abducts her to the crystal palace, causing Ash and friends to charge in head first and not only rescue Ash's mother, but free Molly from the Unown's grasp. Ash's friends get to use their Pokemon too for breaking in and of course battling. The real hero however is a fearsome fire-breather Ash left behind (if you watched the show) that makes a surprise return to stop both Entei and the Unown. Will Ash, friends, and the fire-breather rescue Delia and stop the Unown? The animation is spot on in this one, great CGI too. The battles are exhilarating and unlike the first movie, doesn't give you pointless morals but good ones about be careful what you wish for, real vs fake reality, appreciating the parent you have, and giving it your all. The story works better since its on a personal note rather than a world one. If I were to complain its the Unown themselves while an effective villain we don't know much about. Other than that this one is the best of the three.
Strengths: Well written storyline, solid performances, exciting battles, great messages, beautiful animation and CGI
Weaknesses: The Unown could do with more developing
Grade: B+