POKÉMON THE FIRST MOVIE: MEWTWO STRIKES BACK A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Honesty is always the best policy, so let me start with a confession. When it comes to Pokémon, I just don't get it. My fifth grade son and his friends of both sexes love it. The teenaged girl who sat next to me at our screening of POKÉMON THE FIRST MOVIE: MEWTWO STRIKES BACK acted like the teens did with the Beatles when I was young. She laughed and oohed and aahed like she was at a live concert of a superstar rock group.
So what is the fascination? This fad is much larger than previous ones like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers. What is it that draws kids to the Pokémon series like flies to honey?
In an age of amazing graphics from TOY STORY to THE PRINCE OF EGYPT to STAR WARS, why would kids be so mesmerized by flat two-dimensional images that barely move? Could it be that the story is so simple that it doesn't tax their minds, leaving them to be put into a trance by the repetitive images? (For the record, I'm not against Japanese anime. PRINCESS MONONOKE will appear high on my best of the year list this year.)
Before the feature film, Warner Brothers is showing a twenty-minute short, PIKACHU'S VACATION. The purpose of a warm-up act is to get the audience energized and ready for the main feature. If that was their purpose this time, they failed miserably, as this short was probably the worst film that I've seen this year. Like a cartoon for kids too young for Teletubbies, there was no discernable plot. The characters floated by in relatively random fashion with the effect being that of a cinematic aquarium. Even the Pokémon aficionados with me found this one terminally stupid. It will probably produce a sleep-inducing effect on most adults, if it doesn't produce a gagging one. After this, anything had to be better.
In the movie itself, the rare Pokémon named Mew is cloned into Mewtwo -- "a real Pokénstein." An evil scientist helps Mewtwo become invincible. Mewtwo then plans on purging the planet of humans and Pokémon alike.
Ash Ketchum (Veronica Taylor), the series hero, tries without much luck to send his Pokémon to battle Mewtwo. It gets even trickier when more Pokémon are cloned into powerful, evil helpers of Mewtwo.
At the end, a little message is thrown in as a way to suggest the movie has some larger purpose. "The circumstances of one's birth aren't relevant," a repentant Mewtwo decides. "It is what you do with your life that determines who you are."
Now for the bad news. "For Ash and his friends," the narrator tells us in the conclusion, "the journey has just begun." Yes, more Pokémon movies are on the way.
I'm going to make a recommendation that I've never made before. If your son or daughter wants to see the movie, try to see if they can go with a neighbor or a relative. You may not want to deny your children the pleasure of seeing it, but there's no reason whatsoever that you can't try to spare yourself from the ordeal.
POKÉMON THE FIRST MOVIE: MEWTWO STRIKES BACK runs 1:09. It is rated G and would be acceptable for all ages.
All of the kids with me complained about how bad the twenty minute short was. The movie was another story entirely with all of them liking it, especially the graphics. My son Jeffrey, age 10, gave the movie *** 1/2, saying the movie was cool. His friend John, age 11, gave it *** 1/2, liking particularly the story and the action. His twin Steven gave the picture *** but complained that the sounds didn't seem right somehow and made him feel stressed.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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