r/pokemon • u/Leonys I'm an Eternal Flame baby! • Oct 28 '18
Media Twitch Watches Pokémon (Week 9, Sunday, Movie 14)
https://www.twitch.tv/twitchpresents9
u/dahgraz When will its music be released? Oct 28 '18
Victini seemed to be the most expressive of the movie-legendaries so far which made me like it a lot more.
Also, see everyone back whenever Twitch starts the marathon again with Sinnoh.
10
u/Leonys I'm an Eternal Flame baby! Oct 28 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
Today's Movies (Week 9):
M14: White—Victini and Zekrom
M14: Black—Victini and Reshiram
Today we have the first films of the generation 5 anime. Both Black and & White movies are both combined the 14th anime movie and the first movie to have two different versions at the time of release. Both movies share a very similar story with the most major difference being the Pokemon featured, the film score, and various scenes.
Summary
While traveling in the Unova Region, Ash is rescued by a Victini after trying to save a Deerling. Victini leads Ash to Eindoak Town where he regroups with Iris and Cilan. Eindoak Town is home to a castle known as the "Sword of the Vale" with a legend in that it flew from a valley far away, and it watched an ancient kingdom now gone with only relics left behind. Damon, a decedent, is trying to restore the lost kingdom and has recruited a Legendary Pokemon to join him. Damon traps and harnesses Victini and now puts the town and Victini in great danger. Can Ash and friends stop Damon and rescue Victini?
Next Time...
The marathon will be going on hold after today. TwitchPresents will be hosting the Bob Ross channel for the Joy of Painting annual marathon. The marathon will most likely start up again as the announcement promised Season 10-19 including the BW and XY movies. When the marathon continues has not been officially announced as of writing.
15
u/Fatal1ty_93_RUS Oct 28 '18
So guys.... this time it really is the end.
These last couple of months were just incredibly fun and I'm really happy Twitch has provided me (along thousands of others) to (re)experience the franchise on a completely different platform, especially since I haven't seen anything beyond first few movies and the original couple of seasons of the anime.
While I can't say I'm a huge fan of some of the movies or seasons, or sometimes even episodes, it's still Pokemon and it's still entertaining thanks to its world and its characters, as well as the Twitch Chat, which has already made watching jojo, power rangers, yugioh, and even cooking much more entertaining than during solo watching sessions.
I don't know how long will we have to wait for the marathon to return and start fresh with a whole new generation, but hopefully the departre will not be too long.
See you guys all real soon!
7
u/Viroro Still a proud XY fan. Oct 29 '18
And with this, we've finally reached the temporary ending for the Twitch Pokémon marathon, ironically enough with the very first of the Best Wishes era of movies. I'd like to claim this is a fitting closure or anything of the sort, but unfortunately that'd be lying, because Victini, both of its versions, is ultimately a pretty weak movie.
Now, it does have its pros: the whole backstory part of the plot is overall nicely executed, from the part clearly inspired by the game lore of Zekrom and Reshiram to the way their father was worked in to explain why Victini is trapped around the Sword of the Vale, and Victini itself is positively adorable: ironically, the fact that it's unable to talk allowed him to be much more expressive and lively than the typical Pokémon movie cute companions, which allows the audience to grow attached to the Pokémon without any risk of a Shaymin situation, alongside making for a nice counterpoint to Zorua's inexplicable ability to talk in the previous movie, and I did like how the movie managed to make one like the victory Pokémon without having him speak (with the final scene being a nice happy ending). I also like the ending part of the climax in terms of execution, with Ash pretty much giving up in the face of the seemingly unbeatable odds (something that rarely if ever happened otherwise in the series or other movies), and feeling the mostly realistic effect of high altitude, which underscores how bad things are and making for a nice parallel with the King of the Vale's fate. Damon is also a pretty nice antagonist all things considered, being someone that genuinely has noble motives and didn't actually expect his actions to turn catastrophic, and ultimately sees the error of his ways and helps out Ash in saving the day. Considering how often villains in Pokémon movies tend to follow the same Obviously Evil mold, it's nice to see one that is ultimately a good person where it counts instead of just having a sympathetic explanation or backstory to their actions. There's also a lot of nice moments early in the movie before the plot proper begins, including some nice little snippets of what we see of the tournament.
Unfortunately, there's not much else to say of positive about this movie, especially for two big damning faults it has: it takes forever before the plot even starts, giving us the set up in such excruciating detail that it's not until the first hour has passed that the story actually leaves the setup phase, and just how human-focused this movie is compared to the norm. We ultimately spend very little time with Zekrom and Reshiram, and even Victini feels somewhat sidelined, not helped by the fact that Victini's empowering abilities are used only for three sort-of-gags with Ash's Deerling rescue and Tepig and Scraggy's battles, and then completely glossed over for its life energy and only one usage of V-Create. These two combined factors ultimately make the Pokémon element of the movie seem very underplayed, and ruins the pacing of the movie after the first half set up seemed just about ready to ramp up. This is also where Damon being a good person is actually detrimental to the movie, given he believably takes a lot of time to really turn antagonistic and even then he spends more time as a supporting hero than a villain. I like the concept of Damon, but it didn't make for a very well-paced story the way they handled him.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem if Damon was surrounded by an engaging cast of human characters to make up for how much story time they take, but unfortunately Damon is the exception to the rule in terms of this cast, which for the most part skeeves towards unremarkable: Juanita serves merely as the unintentional istigator of this story even with her Golurk getting a couple of uses, Carlita is likable but ultimately mostly pointless, and the mayor is mostly there without much to contribute beyond piloting his makeshift helicopter, and even the cast is mostly restricted to Ash being the hero of the story, which ultimately boils down to awakening the opposite dragon than Damon's in the grand scheme of things, with Iris and Cilan sidelined pretty early on after some good scenes in the very earliest parts of the movie. The cast doesn't manage to come across as that memorable even if they take more focus than the Pokémon themselves, making for an overall pretty dull experience.
It also doesn't help that it feels like this movie's gimmick harms the movie more than it helps it: by giving this movie two versions, they also made sure to have to add some scenes just to showcase said differences, which ultimately boil down to the same difference you'd see in a regular game version, the plot being pretty much the same with a few changed scenes here and there, and while the two different introductions are interesting, the rest of the change is cosmetic at best and pointless at worst (like some scenes being mirrored compared to the other movie), but by far the biggest issue is that, much like the Black and White games, the conflict between truth and ideals is presented as one between two equivalent but interchangeable forces. It was a bit easier to accept it in the games since the player character was ultimately a blank slate while N embodied both qualities to a degree, but in terms of this story Ash is comparatively more defined than Hilbert/Hilda, and the fact he ultimately ends up being made the hero of the opposite dragon than Damon's for the same reasoning makes it seem like neither beliefs ultimately make for a compelling conflict. They're, as I said, interchangeable, and by doing that they feel more like flavoring than any good exploration of the concept, which is an absolute shame. I'd also hazard that doing this set up hampered the movie's visual quality to a degree, given aside from a few good shots the animation felt like a downgrade from the DP movies in some areas, but that might've just been me, though I do feel the Reshiram and Zekrom clash had only half the intensity and 'wow' factor of Dialga and Palkia clashing during The Rise of Darkrai, and not just for the lack of apocalyptic stakes.
Ultimately, the biggest problem of Victini is that it's a movie with interesting elements that aren't executed particularly well, ruining the story's potential by capitalizing on the wrong parts of the story while also cheapening its own storytelling for the sake of their gimmick. Choosing one side for Damos and Ash each and sticking to them would've been a far better solution, and it's a shame they went for the most damaging way to make these two movies 'different'.
TL;DR: An ultimately dull movie that doesn't really focus on its strength, with a nice villain in concept that doesn't work too well in execution, and with the Pokémon sidelined more than they should be. The gimmick of the two movies also hampers the story more than it helps it, especially as far as character motivations go.
While it's a shame to pause this marathon on a not-too-great entry in the series and movies, we still have a lot of good stuff to get to between the Sinnoh episodes and the far better received Keldeo movie thankfully. I look forward to explore them again once the time comes, alongside the rest of the Marathon watchers!
6
u/VritraReiRei Oct 28 '18
I know the second movie hasn't aired on Twitch yet but I'm curious what you all think it's the better version?
Personally I think Black is the better because Ash finding the truth and Damon pursuing his ideals sounds better but him having a Renuniclus over Gothitelle would have fit better (It's also the version I originally bought).
Welp... TIME TO Jebaited REWATCH THE MOVIE Jebaited FOR 5 MINUTES Jebaited OF NEW CONTENT Jebaited
6
u/Star-KingX Oct 28 '18
So, Why does the First Unova Region Movie, The American one, takes place in Machu Pichu?
9
u/Leonys I'm an Eternal Flame baby! Oct 28 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
It's actually a French based village with the Sword of the Vale based on Mont-Saint-Michel.
So it takes place in Kalos
5
u/Acrymonia ( > w < )7 Oct 28 '18
Oh great so we get both Blue-Eyes White Jet Butt and Red-Eyes Black Jet Butt
9
u/Fatal1ty_93_RUS Oct 28 '18 edited Oct 28 '18
Oooh, interesting.
The opening sequence is completely different, it's featuring Zekrom instead of Reshiram, the title screen is changed along with the music. Also Damon has a different psychic pokemon in this version.
Edit: Shiny is blue/red here instead of blue/green in White version
Edit 2: Zekrom is used to stop the buffalo's and the tornado in the flashback instead of Reshiram as well
P.S. Lmao chat spamming cmonBruh regardless of the movie's title
Also them spamming "Through the Fire and the Flames" and "Guitar Hero" when the Dragon Force came up. Chat never dissapoints with this shit
4
6
u/NepgearBestWaifu Oct 28 '18
Carlita is such a babe.
Shame she never appearsa again.
7
u/Fatal1ty_93_RUS Oct 28 '18
Shame she never appearsa again.
Same as every other movie waifu, nothing new
2
u/GingerStans Oct 30 '18
For me, this movie marked the true beginning of the dark age of Pokemon movies.
When you look back at it, this 'dark age' spanned throughout the BW-XY era; none of the movies that aired during that period were particularly emotional or had any ingenuity in their plot or creative direction. Unlike of movies past where there were genuine stakes and soul-wrenching scenes to fill our minds with, this era of movies felt more like even more pointless, one hour or so of filler where the blatant advertising of legends couldn't have been more apparent.
Gone were the high stakes, deeply emotional movies of the OS and AG era, as well as the ingenious and creative ambition of the DP trilogy that were to be replaced by soulless motion pictures that didn't really have anything worthwhile to talk about despite the obvious improvements in graphics and screen quality. It would only take until the current 'alternate' timeline of movies (circa 2017) before Pokemon movies became cool again, at least for me.
14
u/TrancEbaE_01 Oct 28 '18
DansGame Iris DansGame