Pokemon Movie 07: Rekkuu no Houmonsha Deoxys

This film, no, masterpiece deserves more than just a round of applause my friends; for it is one of the greatest movies in this long line of epic tales. The story begins when Ash, May, Max and Brock journey to LaRousse. This magical city is really cool! There are numerous flying robots that patrol and regulate the city and they are super kawaii desu~ The story continues when Ash stumbles upon a pokemon contest, now this is where the movie really shines; the battle scenes! The sound, the animation and the pokemon truly come together to put on magnificent shows of flashy fight scenes, the choreography is amazing and animation top notch! Later, as Deoxys is born, the story becomes more intrigueing as the city is overrun and taken over by said Pokemon. Suddenly munchlax evolves, and they all lived happily ever after.

One of the best Pokémon movies I've seen so far. The plot is pretty good, although sometimes not executed in sharpest possible detail (in movies/tv shows directed to kids, they usually jump around a bit to skip anything that might lose the viewer's focus). Altogether, the story was good and touching just the right way, and not hurried for the sake of progress. This is one of the rare times when the new side-characters in the movie weren't disappointing; they were well made and introduced, and you actually cared about what happened to them. They became something other than meaningless faces tagging along for the action; they were part of the team. Team Rocket made their mandatory appearance, but I don't think they contributed too much to the plot in general. And I don't think they were supposed to, either; they were just familiar faces you could recognize in the flow of the movie. There was also a Pokémon Munchlax that had a small role to play, and it was quite cleverly introduced to the movie. You don't need to do much to gain a certain level of affection. A good, enjoyable movie although it started to get a little dull near the end. No matter. An entertaining movie for all Pokémon fans.

Continuing in the footsteps of the previous Pokemon Advance film, Destiny Deoxys is an ambitious work that falls flat in many ways. Still, compared to Jirachi, Deoxys achieves much more. Destiny Deoxys flaunts an interesting futuristic city, as expected for a film set in the Battle Frontier. The city is filled to brim with CGI elements and I'm happy to say that they don't seem out of place. Rather, they enhance the setting. The film is heavy focused on plot, thus it can't cash in on the atmosphere completely. Nice to the eyes, art style and animation remain the highlights of the film. There are a few unfortunate moments in which Rayquaza isn't to scale, though. It distracts from the action when a superstar looks two to three times smaller than he should be. Plotwise, the film is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the film is driven by the Deoxys hunting squad. But on the other, it's really about the character of Tory. While the two are combined in a satisfactory manner, neither of the two plots gets resolved in a completely satisfying way. On the upside, the character development of Tory was natural and believable. The film establishes his character twice. First time in the opening sequence and the second time after he meets Ash. The film uses visual language of Tory's white hair, eyes and clothes to signal viewers his personality - namely, he's a socialy inept introvert. The problem with the opening sequence is that his personality and design are based on what he becomes after the opening sequence due to its consequences. Honestly, the kid ruins the opening sequence by looking badly out of place. It's not a good first impression. Even though Tory's character development was done well, the film takes too much time to establish him and then wastes time thematically rethreading his conflict again and again in the most inapropraite situations. There are multiple scenes forcing the plot to a halt so characters can talk about the dangers of the situation just to force Tory in a room with Pokemon he fears to create more drama. Yet his character development happens in a few loosely related subtle scenes. As a result the movie often undermines the feeling of urgency and danger it tries hard to establish for little gain. Tory is not a very complex character and chemistry between the show's cast and film-only cast isn't very good. This often leads to boredom until the plot picks up. Some of the scenes are saved by fun Pokemon interactions. Munchlax is notable for having his own miniplot that is well interwoven into the film. Basic structure of the plot is fine and Deoxys is given lots of menacing things to do. The problem lies in the fact that the things Deoxys does are cool, but too removed from the film's focus. Often time you'll get a feeling that the scenes are happening out of time and space, since Deoxys is doing nothing and appears only after a character scene is wrapped up. Rayquaza and Deoxys have a servicable clash near the end of the film and while Rayquaza was misused during most of the film, he ends up being a fine addition to the cast at the end. We're also treated to one of the best action scenes involving humans in a Pokemon film - Ash practicing parkour over the city's haywire defence systems. My only complaint is that it took less than 3 minutes in total. Still, brevity is a virtue. Better leave us wanting more than ruining it. So, what's the verdict? A neat premise, great art, some interesting character moments and a memorable (albeit short) action scene. Film drags on, misses plot oportunities and is often unengaging and boring. It narrowly avoids falling flat and can be worth a watch if you like Pokemon films.

Nostalgia can be a very powerful thing when consuming any form of media. Everyone more often than not loves to reminisce about when they were young and this is usually connected to an aspect of their childhood whether it be a game, movie, or tv program. Nostalgia more often than not implements A positive bias in us. This is definitely the case with this movie but I can't really give it a good score due to all of its problems. Destiny deoxys is a Pokemon movie that is connected to the advanced generation story which is basically gen 3. When looking at Pokemon movies in general you have to consider that they have no real effect on the plot and just serve as side stories for Pokemon fans to enjoy. The only different the generations are is the people ash is actually traveling with as well as setting. However like always ash is the main character. The story of destiny deoxys had massive potential. I felt that it had a very fascinating concept and I really wanted to know more about deoxys and why it's here, and what it's doing here. The expansion of these concepts are really only half done unfortunately. The story does fall apart as the movie goes on and many dull plot devices are used in conjunction with bullshit Pokemon logic that really makes absolutely no sense. The timeskip present destroyed the story's momentum before it can even get on the correct track. The characters are probably the most dissapointing part of this movie. Despite the relationship between tori and ash being very good, the characters themeselves weren't strong enough to make me care. The pseudo romance between Sid and May was also appreciated but once again Sid is such an insignificant character that the relationship only supplies some hollow laughs when it could have been so much more dynamic and interesting. If the characters who only appeared for this movie had some meaningful characterization I would have enjoyed them much more. The voice work and music actually weren't bad in this movie. The animation was pretty well done despite some rather ugly CG. I've seen both the English dub and the Japanese and both versions are fine as the seiyuus portrayed their characters fairly well it didn't really come across as poor or low quality. And THAT SING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOVIE THOUGH. In the end this movie is something I enjoy out of pure nostalgia. It's not that this was a particularly bad movie but nostalgia alone cannot save it. The issues with the story and characters were unfortunately just too big to ignore.

I think this might actually be the best Pokémon film so far. Reading the reviews I'm surprised they're not more positive, it's definitely better than those before it. This film scared me as a kid, Deoxys was genuinely weird and terrifying. The fact that it's an alien with weird tentacles and a cold, unemotional face was scary. The damage it causes and how it put a city into evacuation and shut down all the electronics, creates dark chase scenes that terrified me. Obviously I'm older now, but taking a step back and re-evaluating the film I still think it is the best and rather harrowing when compared to the previous films. The CGI is much better in this film, and while it is noticeable, it never distracts from the enjoyment or is bad like in the Jirachi movie. Obviously this is due to technological advancements, but it's still something to be appreciated. While the plot follows the formula set out by previous films (new city, new legendaries, new characters) it's a lot more believable than previous entries. This is because life and personality has been added into this futuristic city that sets apart from those before it. Things such as futuristic hot dog stands, bins, passports, and walkways add a charm to the city. The general architecture is rather nice and is a good contrast to the rather dull, boring areas we have explored previously. Pokémon live and breathe throughout this city, Plusle, Minun and Munchlax - while there to sell plushies - add much needed character that is lacking through Team Rocket. The trio of Pokémon are much more enjoyable to watch and makes much more sense than the producers trying to shoehorn in Team Rocket anyway they can. I'm surprised they haven't done something similar to this before. The thing that sets this film apart from the others is that Ash really isn't the main character. Yes he steps in and saves the day at the end, but this whole film is Tory's. A child suffering from PTSD after experiencing a near death experience of being crushed by Walrein's is an interesting concept. We hardly see people in the anime that have had bad experiences with Pokémon and Tory fills that gap. I like his development throughout this film, he understands the Walrein's didn't mean to scare him (and that they were only reacting that way due to Rayquaza and Deoxys fighting), but he can't look past his bad experiences in case something like that happens again. You can see how he wasn't always scared of them (as he finds a Spheal cute in the beginning), he was simply just in the wrong place at the wrong time at an impressionable age that has shaped his development. I also like how his "friend" was a Pokémon the whole time, he has been appreciative of Pokémon since his trauma, just in his own special way. If Pokémon were real, these things would cause fucking chaos, and we would have a lot of Tory's throughout our world. I'm glad we have a film were this is explored and his appreciation for Pokémon comes back after the events of the film. Obviously this film is much more enjoyable if you're a Pokémon fan (as Rayquaza is one of my favourites), but I'm convinced you could show this to a non-Pokémon fan and just maybe, they wouldn't think it was dogshit as I believe they would with the previous ones.

Time to take a look at one of my personal favorite Pokemon movies. This is also my first review of an Advanced Generation movie, a series that I'm not as familiar with as the original, but I'll give it my best shot. Personal biases aside, let me tell you why this is one of my favorite Pokemon movies. Story: While the story isn't as well told as something like Pokemon Heroes, it's still really well done. Something that really surprised me is that this movie doesn't focus on Ash as much as it focuses on Tory and Deoxys. While Ash is still our main protagonist and as such handles the more heroic side of things, the story likes to keep its focus on Tory's and Deoxys' stories, which I find really interesting since they're such a great characters. However, there is one element of the story that I don't quite understand, that being Rayquaza. Granted, I watched the American release of the film, so there's most likely deleted scenes that I'm not taking into account since there's really no reason to unless you're the type of person that researches every last little bit about an anime before actually watching it, which I'm not. My gripe with Rayquaza is that he serves little purpose in the movie. The only part in which he actually affects anything going on is in the beginning. After that, he's just kinda there except for the last 10-20, which I felt the film could do without. Art: I'll try to make this be the last comparison I make to another Pokemon movie, but, while the art is great, it's not quite up to scale with Pokemon Heroes. Granted, that's most likely just my own tastes in art speaking and not an actual problem with the film. So I'll at least say that the art is really creative, especially when animating thousands of little blocks all at once. There's also the beautiful scenes of inside this Greenhouse that shows off the talent of the artists behind the film. Sound: This is where I believe Destiny Deoxys shines the brightest. The soundtrack for the film is unbelievably good. Even though it doesn't have any form of remix of the show's theme, there's still a lot of songs that are sure to get stuck in your head. The other little sound clips I also really liked since it made the movie feel more like an alien movie with a lot of the little sounds that Deoxys makes along with several other subtle music tracks. Character: Besides the usual characters and background characters, most of what's left are Tory, Deoxys, and Rayquaza. Since I already talked about Rayquaza earlier (seriously why did it need to come back after 4 years? Deoxys didn't go back up into the ozone layer, so why is it still threatened?), I'll skip over him. As for Tory, he's actually a pretty cool character. He has a fear of Pokemon, but it's not some irrational fear of these things eating him, I mean most of the time that you see him afraid are around Plusle and Minun and those two wouldn't hurt a fly. His fear is perfectly explained early on and it's pretty reasonable. He's also not too afraid of them to actually help them out as shown several times throughout. So it's not like he's heartless or anything. Then there's Deoxys, who I just love. Most of the movie is spent trying to figure Deoxys out and exactly why it's here. Once it's figured out, Deoxys isn't really seen as a villain anymore. It's more like Pokemon 3 where there is no villain, but just a big misunderstanding, which I actually like more than just throwing in another member from whatever evil organization that the current season focuses on for the fourth time in a row. Enjoyment: As stated at the beginning, this is one of my favorite Pokemon films, right behind Heroes and Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. So of course I really enjoyed it, despite its minor flaws.

Don't call it a comeback! But this was the best movie since the third. The storyline took a while to get going and was mostly an excuse to do fun stuff in Vancouver. But when it did get going, it was excellent, more sci-fi than fantasy and all for the better. In particular, it reminded me a lot of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and given that I really liked that movie this made me happy. There was nice comic relief throughout and the action scenes, while not QUITE as good as some other movies, were great and intense. Above all though was the FANTASTIC animation. The backgrounds, and whole atmosphere of the city was extremely well done, not quite as good as Alto Mare but pre close. Pretty much every scene was lovely, and the direction was excellent. The first 10 minutes, in particular, were amazing, and like the beginning of the first movie didn't feel like Pokemon at all, but was better for it. From a pure animation perspective, it was only behind the first and fifth movies, and that says a lot. Once again, a great movie. Anyone who likes Pokemon and sci-fi should love this.

Did I let it slide? — Signed: Rayquaza. LOL. This movie is a really fun experience, especially for those who enjoy Legendary Pokémon and the rivalries that exist within this universe. It marks Rayquaza's first movie appearance and Deoxys's second, and honestly, it’s great to see the two of them clash. After all, this is a rivalry that strongly echoes the one between Groudon and Kyogre, two Pokémon that just can't seem to leave each other alone. LOL. The funniest part is that this fight spawned so many memes within the community; I personally find the jokes about them hilarious. Rayquaza clearly just won't let Deoxys live in peace. But, rivalry aside (though Rayquaza probably wouldn't let it go), the movie was a very enjoyable experience. The story delivers an interesting adventure, featuring action sequences, chase scenes, and a great use of Deoxys's powers. The setting is also different from what we usually see in Pokémon, featuring a high-tech city and a plot involving themes of science, friendship, and the fear of the unknown. That said, I felt the movie could have made much better use of Rayquaza's presence. The opening features a battle between him and Deoxys, setting up the expectation that this rivalry would be a major focus of the story. However, after that initial moment, the film shifts its focus primarily to Deoxys and the events involving the human characters. I don't necessarily consider this a problem, since the story works well this way, but I admit I was left wanting to see more clashes between the two Legendaries. It would have been fascinating to follow that conflict more closely and better understand the reason behind such intense hostility. Deoxys gets a lot of attention, particularly through his relationships with the characters and the way the film explores his nature. I liked this approach, as he isn't treated merely as a powerful Pokémon that shows up just to fight. There is an attempt to showcase other facets of the character, which helps make his presence more compelling. Still, for me, Rayquaza felt a bit underutilized, considering the potential his involvement held. As for the animation, I thought it was a step up from what we usually saw in the anime series at the time, though it didn't exactly blow me away. The battles are fun, the move effects work well, and the film delivers a solid visual experience. However, I wouldn't call the animation extraordinary. It does a great job of entertaining, but that wasn't the aspect that left the biggest impression on me. Now, regarding a hurdle I faced while trying to watch it: finding this movie in Portuguese was a real mission. Hahaha. I had to resort to unconventional means to download and watch it, but I finally found a version. I also found the change in Ash's voice quite jarring. It was a bit weird at first since I was used to the previous voice, but I eventually got used to it. Overall, Pokémon Movie 07: Destiny Deoxys is a fun film with an interesting story, good battles, and the presence of two Legendary Pokémon I really like. I just think the rivalry between Rayquaza and Deoxys could have been explored much more, especially during the second act and the finale. Even so, it was an experience I enjoyed and one that kept me entertained. Rating: 6/10. =================================================================================================================Versão em Português===================================== Por acaso eu deixei? — Assinado: Rayquaza. KKKKK Esse filme é uma experiência bem divertida, principalmente para quem gosta dos Pokémon lendários e das rivalidades que existem dentro desse universo. Aqui temos a primeira aparição do Rayquaza nos filmes e a segunda do Deoxys, e, sinceramente, é muito bom ver esses dois se enfrentando. Afinal, estamos falando de uma rivalidade que lembra bastante a de Groudon e Kyogre, com dois Pokémon que parecem não conseguir simplesmente ficar em paz. KKKKK. O mais engraçado é que essa briga acabou gerando diversos memes dentro da comunidade, e eu particularmente acho muito divertido ver as piadas envolvendo esses dois. O Rayquaza claramente não consegue deixar o Deoxys viver em paz. Mas, deixando a rivalidade de lado (por mais que o Rayquaza provavelmente não deixe), o filme foi uma experiência bem agradável. A história consegue entregar uma aventura interessante, com momentos de ação, perseguições e uma boa utilização dos poderes do Deoxys. Também temos uma ambientação diferente do que normalmente vemos em Pokémon, com uma cidade bastante tecnológica e uma trama que envolve questões relacionadas à ciência, à amizade e ao medo do desconhecido. Apesar disso, senti que o filme poderia ter aproveitado muito mais a presença do Rayquaza. O começo apresenta uma batalha entre ele e o Deoxys, criando a expectativa de que essa rivalidade seria um dos grandes focos da história. Porém, depois desse momento inicial, o filme passa a se concentrar principalmente no Deoxys e nos acontecimentos envolvendo os personagens humanos. Não considero isso necessariamente um problema, já que a história consegue funcionar dessa maneira, mas confesso que fiquei querendo ver mais confrontos entre os dois lendários. Seria muito interessante acompanhar melhor essa disputa e entender mais sobre o motivo de tamanha hostilidade. O Deoxys acaba recebendo bastante atenção, principalmente por meio de sua relação com os personagens e pela maneira como o filme explora sua natureza. Gostei dessa abordagem, pois ele não é tratado apenas como um Pokémon poderoso que aparece para lutar. Existe uma tentativa de mostrar outras características do personagem, o que ajuda a tornar sua presença mais interessante. Ainda assim, para mim, o Rayquaza acabou sendo um pouco desperdiçado, considerando o potencial que sua participação tinha. Sobre a animação, achei que está acima do que costumávamos encontrar no anime da época, embora não seja algo que tenha me deixado realmente impressionado. As batalhas são divertidas, os efeitos dos golpes funcionam bem e o filme consegue entregar uma boa experiência visual. Porém, não considero que seja uma animação extraordinária. Ela cumpre muito bem o papel de entreter, mas não foi esse o aspecto que mais me marcou. Agora, falando de uma dificuldade que tive para assistir: encontrar esse filme em português foi uma verdadeira missão. KKKKK. Tive que recorrer a meios não convencionais para conseguir baixar e assistir, mas finalmente encontrei uma versão. Também estranhei bastante a mudança na voz do Ash. No começo foi um pouco esquisito, porque já estava acostumado com a voz anterior, mas depois consegui me acostumar. No geral, Pokemon Movie 07: Rekkuu no Houmonsha Deoxys é um filme divertido, com uma história interessante, boas batalhas e a presença de dois Pokémon lendários que eu gosto bastante. Só acho que a rivalidade entre Rayquaza e Deoxys poderia ter sido muito mais explorada, principalmente no segundo ato e no final. Mesmo assim, foi uma experiência que apreciei e que conseguiu me entreter. Nota: 6/10.