A Brilliant Conflict

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

As you can guess, this movie was my childhood, in fact every Pokemon movie up until Lucario, was mine and my siblings childhood, these Pokemon movies were just so engaging, endearing and awesome, despite being corny ( come on its Pokemon), i always felt i would never be the same without these films. I love this movie and all the others so much, my siblings and i always try to watch them at least once year. But enough about my childhood, lets get on to the review. So this movie takes place in a city called altomare which is basically Venice in Pokemon world, but just as gorgeous, you could tell the animators took their time designing the city. There is a story, that legendary Pokemon called latios and latias, would protect the city from evil people with evil Pokemon, and that they had to flood the entire city, drowning the evil Pokemon ( yeah dark right), and there were only 2 survivors, a brother ( latios) and sister ( latias); from the get go this movie establishes some very interesting lore, and i only wish there was more of it. The movie starts off with ash and misty in a water Pokemon chariot race, with the master quest song playing ( This song and this moment is so awesome and memorable, i got into wake boarding just to try to replicate it), through the race you notice that latios and latias have the power of invisibility and watch over the city, latias is revealed to be able to look like a human girl. Ash and his friends then explore the city and visit the museum which has the fossils of the evil Pokemon, and a weapon that was used to protect the city using the soul of a latios ( very rich lore). Meanwhile we follow 2 sexy cat burglars who work for team rockets boss Giovanni, these 2 women are named Annie and Oakley; let me just say that these 2 became some of my favorite Pokemon villains, just their intro is awesome ( its a spy car that can turn into a jet!) their spy like style is very cool, they even have cool Pokemon; a espion and ariados who also become antagonists. Annie and Oakley's goal is to capture both legendary Pokemon, find the crystallized soul of a latios, and use the city's weapon for their own agenda. The 2 end up being very intimidating as they ruthlessly pursue latias through the city, ( they can even see through the Pokemon's invincibility, using spy glasses). The movie is very short, and cuts right to the final climax very quickly, Annie and Oakley use the weapon to control the city and resurrect the evil Pokemon, making ( gasp) ZOMBIE Pokemon!!! So... as always ash is the only one who can stop them, and there is a very impressive chase scene involving ash, latias and the zombie Pokemon. And just when you think the day is won, the weapon actually causes a tidal wave to occur, as it comes closer to destroying the city, latios give up his life to stop it ( yes an actual death in pokemon!) This leads to a bittersweet ending involving latias saying goodbye to ash, which unsettling leads to a kiss from latias to ash ( in human form, Brock was really jealous), the movie then ends with ash seeing the ghosts of latias's family in the sky. Also it shows Annie and Oakley in prison looking at a book with a picture of the collector from Pokemon 2000, establishing continuity between these movies. The story is simple but engaging almost whimsical in fact, but the music is awe inspiring, it haunts me, the end credits sequence doesn't have 1 but 5 different songs that are all very good songs. The animation looked good but nothing special, there was a lot of CGI used in this ( that wasn't very good), but as your traveling through the CGI halls of altomare, there's this beauty and atmosphere about it, i think this sort of CGI worked really well with this movie. i love this movie, and despite it having its flaws like being too short, i couldn't imagine living without it! May it touch your soul as it has touched mine.

Pokémon films are the only Japanese films that I would always go for the English dub because I am used to it as it is the most common version available in stores near me. I also thought they wouldn't differ a lot from the original Japanese version since Pokémon is a renowned franchise but now after reviewing them in 2014? That thought have been proved completely wrong especially from this film.Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (2002) is beautiful, it sets in a refined city and it has great music. It feels romantic. It feels otherworldly at times. Unfortunately in the English dub, the entire backstory introduction has been removed and ultimately making the whole story altered. It is a wonder why the Pokémon company allows this or the production company decided to do this for the English version but it is evident that their "creativity" isn't fruitful.In the beginning, it appears to have an interesting storyline. It also seems that they have played more with camera movements and angles which are refreshing and fun to watch as the city is beautiful. In the end, the story and concept is not and it isn't satisfying. They could have been done so much better. I won't say there isn't story, there is but it isn't well developed. There are female villains that appears to be promising too, but well, the overall character and story development is just unfortunately terrible.Sad to mention, the last half of the movie seems like casual work. There are a lot of thoughts put into the visuals and music but certainly not the story. There are several scenes that are quite sudden too. For instance, what happened to all the other citizen? They just disappeared and even the Alto Mare city is facing doom, no one even comes out panic, ever. It seems like as if people from the entire world has vanished. I understand it is night time when that happened but it feels like as if the whole movie is about these several characters only. Honestly, the story could have been so much better if they put more effort into it, did not decide to alter it completely and remove the introduction segment from the original version. This animated feature could have been one of the best Pokémon films out there with its beautiful music and settings but it just didn't make it.Ending this post, if you are not bothered by the lack of depth and weak story, Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (2002) should be good. I love to watch Latios and Latias and all the other Pokémon coming to life through animation but I will be honest with you, it may disappoint if you're watching not solely for Pokémon.

This, the 5th Pokemon movie, is a step down from the previous entry in the series but is still better than a 5th movie ought to be. Ash, Misty, and Brock arrive in a Venice-type town called Altomare for a water Chariot race involving their Pokemon.The town is protected by legendary Pokemon siblings Latios and Latias, who can assume human forms. Meanwhile, Annie and Oakley, a couple of cat burglars from Team Rocket (this affiliation is only in the Western dub) attempt to steal a special jewel called the Soul Dew, which powers the city.It takes just a little too long to get going. Jesse, James, and Meowth are featured, but they don't really have much to do. However there are still some lovely moments, a bittersweet ending, and in the end they do add up to more than the sum of their parts. The animation and architecture of Altomare echoes the look and feel of Koriko from Kiki's Delivery Service. I just wish that Miramax didn't tamper with it before releasing it to Western audiences. There is about 5 minutes missing and its inclusion might have made the film a little bit stronger.

At 70 minutes (as timed at a press screening), POKÉMON HEROES is the shortest Pokémon movie yet. This may be a relief to parents and Pokémon-haters everywhere, but it leaves Pokémon's target audience hungering for more. The big action climax never quite delivers and the great triumphal note the earlier films ended on never quite comes. This is especially disappointing because the film's first half offered a most exciting build-up involving two spectacular new Water Pokémon and two clever and attractive new villains. Thanks to these elements, the film is still worth seeing but you may want to wait until the DVD release, when it will be accompanied by the Pikachu short that played with it when it ran in Japanese theaters last summer.The film does at least make its new Pokémon characters, Latios and Latias, a little more powerful and more layered than most Pokémon get the chance to be. Shaped somewhat like dinosaurs and able to both fly at high speeds and swim underwater, they're colorful, graceful creatures, a brother-and-sister team who are thoroughly devoted to each other. Aside from Ash's faithful Pikachu, they get the most screen time of any Pokémon in the film.Annie and Oakley are the new bad girls in town and they completely blow their colleagues, Team Rocket, out of the water (well, actually, INTO the water--a running gag throughout the film). They're fashionable, if somewhat snobby, teen villainesses with eye-catching outfits and hairdos who get ample opportunity to wrap the audience (at least the older male part) around their little fingers before their ill-fated (and somewhat rushed) attempt to take over Alto Mare, an island city that hosts the annual Water Pokémon Festival (the draw for our heroes, Ash, Misty and Brock). As master thieves, Annie and Oakley seem to be a lot more efficient than Team Rocket and should be given more to do in future Pokémon entries.The design of Alto Mare deserves note for being the most extensively detailed urban setting yet seen in the entire Pokémon series. Largely created by CGI, and modeled after Venice, Italy, it's quite visually stunning and deserves greater attention from anime fans than it's likely to get.The big mystery surrounding this film (and the previous one, POKÉMON 4EVER) is why Miramax has chosen to distribute it in theaters without the 23-minute Pikachu short that normally accompanies each Pokémon movie (and did so for the first three Pokémon movies when they were released by Warner Bros.). Certainly, given the short running time of this one, the addition of the delightful "Pika Pika Starlight Camp" (as it was called in Japan) would have gone a long way to giving fans their money's worth.