Review M12: Arceus: To a Conquering Spacetime

[Dogasu]

The third Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl movie comes out today in Japan, so let's talk about it, shall we?

I know that a lot of the major points have already been spoiled by fans who were lucky enough to catch a special advanced screening of the movie, but there's bound to be a few things left to spoil about the movie. And hey, reading opinions from a variety of people is always good, right?

Here's a general, non-spoilery synopsis I posted on my website. It's basically a loose translation of the synopsis that appears on the official site:

Satoshi and his friends have come to a beautiful town by the river named Michiina. The town has a shrine built thousands of years before at the top of a giant mountain, and Satoshi-tachi decide to visit it. When they reach the summit, they find that the shrine is built by a beautiful lake! Suddenly, waves appear in the water before a fierce whirlpool comes and carries our heroes away! As Satoshi and his friends are blown away, the voice of the young girl who protects the shrine, Sheena, can be heard saying "Please, Dialga...!" At that moment, Dialga appears through a rift in space!

Sheena invites our heroes to the shrine to take refuge and then explains all about Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. She also tells them about an old legend in Michiina that states that a legendary pokemon named Arceus created life as we know it by stopping a meteor from crashing into the planet. This brought Arceus to the brink of death and caused it, as if by reflex, to release sixteen pieces of itself into the world. A man named Damos finds these sixteen pieces and returns them to Arceus, saving the pokemon's life and earning its gratitude. To show its thanks, Arceus merges five of the returned pieces - Water, Grass, Ground, Thunder, and Dragon (Splash, Meadow, Earth, Zap, and Draco) - to create an item called "The Jewel of Life" (命の宝玉). It gave this item to Damos to use to turn Michiina, which was a barren wasteland at the time, into a beautful place filled with life. Arceus tells Damos to return the jewel "by the next day when the sun disappears" and leaves. Damos uses the jewel to turn Michiina into a beautiful paradise and, before long, the day of the solar eclipse comes.

However, Damos refuses to return the jewel to Arceus and instead orders a group of pokemon to attack it! After being betrayed by Damos, Arceus falls into a deep sleep for thousands of years. When it awakens, it declares that the time for judgment has come! It starts to attack the Michiina of Satoshi-tachi's time, so Sheena, being Damos' ancestor, presents the "Jewel of Life" to it! However, it appears that the jewel that Sheena has is a fake! Arceus has had enough of humans' deceitful ways and launches an attack toward Sheena, but it is intercepted by Dialga and Palkia at the last second! The stakes have been raised as a battle among the god pokemon commences!

 

[V Faction]

When it awakens, it declares that the time for judgment has come!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/

Any word on the Movie 13 spoiler, Dogasu?

 

[Piplup]

But why would we care, the movies are FILLER!

...seriously now, the trailers in Filb were really nice
NEPichu is cuuuuuute!!$#% and it was funny they showed Shoko voicing it XD imagine standing there screaming PICHU PI CHU PI CHUPI PICHU PICHU for a whole hour, she probably felt like her whole life are a filler at this time...
Seems like the violence at Arceus was pretty much exactly as it was in the manga which is good... because, it's... like, serious stuff! in my filler on the big screen!

Next movie will be in Johto especially to make Scott happy

 

[Hassel]

NEPichu is cuuuuuute!!$#% and it was funny they showed Shoko voicing it XD imagine standing there screaming PICHU PI CHU PI CHUPI PICHU PICHU for a whole hour, she probably felt like her whole life are a filler at this time...

Imagine listening it for 90 minutes.

 

[ii kanji]

Giza-fucking-mimi Pichu. Please tell me it's only onscreen for 5 minutes. I'm so tired of hearing it and Shouko Nakagawa after only the "Pokemon de giza-genki! PICHU PICHUUU!" that precedes every ep.

 

[Piplup]

Giza-fucking-mimi Pichu. Please tell me it's only onscreen for 5 minutes. I'm so tired of hearing it and Shouko Nakagawa after only the "Pokemon de giza-genki! PICHU PICHUUU!" that precedes every ep.

NEPichu is in the games
Obviously, that means all the eps with the "GIZAGENKI PICHUUUU" at the beginning are not fillers
Ok, I'll go to sleep for real now, sorry XD

To be on topic, was anyone a little disappointed we apparently didn't get Lucas in the intro? I'd like to see Emerald-Brendan and Platinum-Lucas

 

[Ampharos King]

Giza-fucking-mimi Pichu. Please tell me it's only onscreen for 5 minutes. I'm so tired of hearing it and Shouko Nakagawa after only the "Pokemon de giza-genki! PICHU PICHUUU!" that precedes every ep.

You just have to be a prick; I also want the ending (and prologue in the beginning) to change, but don't talk trash about Gizamimi.
I love Gizamimi Pichu solely because it's cute.

 

[Musashi]

I think it has more to do with Shouko Nakagawa than the Pokemon herself. ii kanji just doesn't like her.

I do find it funny that after all the hype it doesn't seem to be very involved with the plot. Wasn't it supposed to be the big key in all of this?

 

[Legacy]

I haven't seen the movie, but I wonder how Arceus was forced into a deep sleep by worldly Pokemon attacking it? Isn't Arceus like the supreme being? So how would the Pokemon defeat it?

 

[Chatsy]

I haven't seen the movie, but I wonder how Arceus was forced into a deep sleep by worldly Pokemon attacking it? Isn't Arceus like the supreme being? So how would the Pokemon defeat it?

Because Arceus lacked five of its plates to create that orb, making it vulnerable to attacks of a certain elemental type?

 

[Ho-oh]

Because Arceus lacked five of its plates to create that orb, making it vulnerable to attacks of a certain elemental type?

Here's a plot hole: why can't the three dragons attack simultaneously, so Arceus will be vulnerable to at least two?

He would be crushed. A human could kill him if the original one (note the omission of capitalization) got can get owned by a couple of Pokémon.

Well I guess they did make good use of suspension of disbelief.

 

[Legacy]

Because Arceus lacked five of its plates to create that orb, making it vulnerable to attacks of a certain elemental type?

Oh, I'm dumb! lol I actually remember reading that exactly before on the translated synopsis. Thanks Chatsy! I just forgot. XD

Anyways, carry on.

 

[Dogasu]

So I saw the movie today.

I guess I should preface this by saying that the movie wasn't as good as it could have been and that it's entirely my fault. You see, I wrote up those summaries of the manga adaptation for my website a while back. Those summaries were really quite detailed - I basically went word balloon by word balloon on that thing - so that when all was said and done, I ended up knowing the story like the back of my hand.

The problem is that the manga is really, really close to the source material. Yeah, there are a few notable changes / additions here and there, but for the most part, it's all the same. This is both good and bad. It's good because I had already been introduced to the movie's key words / phrases and knew enough of the story that I didn't have to waste any time trying to figure anything out. The bad part is that I got through a good 3/4 of the movie before I got to anything "new." I purposely avoided reading Water Pokemon Master's summary of the movie because I wanted to have *some* surprises, but it was apparently already too late. I just watched the movie, watching events unfold in the exact order that I knew they would.

So while I can say that it was a decent movie, I can't really rave about it because I feel like I seriously went into the theater with a major disadvantage.

Regardless, here are some notes I jotted down during the movie.

- The little announcement at the beginning features Nyasu holding a DS Lite. Shouldn't that be a DSi, Nintendo?

- Wow...that shot of Lugia swimming toward the surface of the water is so obviously CGI.

- The stadium where Shirona and Kurotsugu are fighting has what appears to be some weird alien language displayed on the ground. Like...it almost looks like the Futurama alien language. Weird.

- Oh...recycled DP Movie 01 music. And footage.

- The pre-title screen stuff goes by pretty quickly. This movie's not wasting any time.

- ...And we get a nice instrumental of Kokoro no Antena.

- I'm LOL at Takeshi and Usokki stretching before Takeshi jumps into the water. Does Usokki just want to fit in?

- So Takeshi is standing at the edge of the water while Usokki and Moukazaru stand by him on dry land. When Satoshi and Hikari are splashing water on each other, they also send some water Takeshi's way, which causes the pokemon behind him to get these "Oh SHIT!" look on their faces as they back the hell away from the water.

- LOL at Pachirisu running around in circles during the opening battle. Like...what the hell are you doing?

- During the battle, Potchama gets launched into the air and starts flapping its wings furiously for a good 20 seconds in a futile attempt to fly. When will you learn, baby penguin?

- Pikachu and Potchama, as well as Satoshi and Hikari, give each other high fives at the end of the opening theme. Talk about cheesy.

- So they have this elaborate tag battle to see who will get to eat the watermelons (which actually are called by their proper name, Geodude), yet everyone just ends up sharing them anyway?

- Those two trainers (Kanta and Kako) guide Satoshi and his friends to Michiina because it has a "great view" and then just...leave? And then don't show up again until the very end of the movie?

- It looks like Sheena refers to Satoshi as a majuu tsukai ("users of magical beasts," which is the same term Damos and Gishin use in the past) even though she lives in modern times.

- Giratina appears! Complete with recycled DP Movie 02 music!

- I guess Takeshi's role in this movie is to remind everyone that the last two movies actually happened.

- So Satoshi manages to calm Giratina's rage with the power of a flashback of him riding on its head, yet Sheena feels it necessary to do her little prayer thing to calm it down *anyway*?

- I love how Dialga is just flying around in circles while everyone is delivering expositional dialogue. The poor thing doesn't have anything to do up there.

- The kids in the theater I was at were laughing when Takeshi started to flirt with Sheena before getting jabbed by Gureggru.

- Kevin pushes Hikari out of the way of a falling tree! I guess he has some purpose in this movie after all!

- So Dialga and Palkia just up and leave after they stop a second round of twisters from attacking our heroes? Alright.

- The flashbacks to Sheena and Kevin witnessing the events of the past two movies are funny to me because they're both wearing these old-fashioned pea coats the whole time.

- The legend of Arceus in the temple doesn't look like it's written with any script; it looks like someone just carved a bunch of tally marks into the stone.

- The (first) flashback to Damos saving Arceus is really neat. The whole thing is projected on a series of screens, except the screens are sheets of water flowing down. Really inventive stuff here.

- One thing I noticed when Arceus finally appears is that the town of Michiina doesn't seem to have any people in it. Because when Arceus starts using Judgment to destroy the place, we only see things like bridges and empty buildings get destroyed; we don't see any shots of people running for their lives like we saw during Darkrai's rampage in the first DP movie.

- When Satoshi-tachi arrive in the distant past, Pikachu and Potchama are confiscated (since they're the only pokemon who are out of their Monster Balls), are chucked into a burlap sack, and then thrown into a jail cell from a grate in the floor. Ouch.

- At the dinner, Gishin brings up the "silver water." Nice foreshadowing there.

- Headran climbs the walls (and later, the ceiling) like some kind of gecko.

- So Chicorita is stuck cutting a giant radish while Hinoarashi is using a flame attack to power a stove. And they both have on special armor.

- The Notched-Eared Pichu and use Iron Tail?

- The Rocket-Dan find a bunch of old junk (pots, the ends of the soldiers' staff things, etc) and mistake them for stuff like crowns and tiaras. And then they spend the rest of the movie running around with these rusted out kitchen utensils on their heads. Hilarious.

- In the flashback of Damos helping Arceus, the legendary pokemon is surrounded, curiously enough, by Kanto pokemon and Kanto pokemon only.

- It's looking like Damos only retrieved one of the plates; once he does that, the other 15 plates start to fly toward Arceus' body automatically.

- So it's explained how Arceus chose which five plates to use to create the Jewel of Life; the Water, Grass, and Ground plates were chosen because they represent the basics of nature. The Thunder plate was used to sort of keep the three together, and the Dragon plate was used to increase the overall power of the other four plates.

- There's something that bugs me about this movie; Gishin takes the Jewel of Life out of its staff, leaving it empty. Sheena then drops the empty staff into the water after she pisses off Arceus. So why is the jewel back in the staff when Musashi-tachi find it in the present day?

- The old man (Tapp) who's guarding the Satoshi's jail cell is hilarious because he JUST DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT. Like...after they free themselves, he just kind of looks at them and is like "whatever."

- Hey! Takeshi + Usokki save Sheena's and Damos' life! Good for him!

- WTF is up with this random group of Koratta?

- Satoshi catches the falling jewel with his feet. O...K...

- At the end of the movie, the pokemon's mind-control body armor things just fall off their bodies. And then we get...a shot of Gishin's crown sitting on the floor? And then in the shot of him working for Damos during the end credits, he's not wearing it?

- And a happy Arceus means a happy everyone, I guess.

- The moral of this movie seems to be that accomplishing something with your own sweat and tears is better than having an outside force magically do it for you. Which is a nice message and all, except for the fact that the movie really doesn't really give us any reason to think that Damos using the Jewel of Life to turn Michiina into a prosperous place is a bad thing.

- WTH!? Tapp's voice actor is the first non-regular cast member to get a credit listed?!?

- The Mother of Rohta shows up near a cafe during the ending credits.

- The teaser for next year's movie lasts approximately 14 seconds, with a good portion of that being a black screen with the show's logo and text saying that a new movie is coming out next year.

 

[Ho-oh]

So I was right in saying this had an anticlimax.

A summary I've seen elsewhere stated that they calmed Arceus down after he was trapped in metal. He was happy, they went "back to the future", and everything became good again.

 

[Ltrainer]

Great summary Dogasu...Stupid question here but do you know what the Logo for the next movie says? I know it's not going to give us any spoilers. And what about the clip of Lugia and Ho-oh flying towards one another? Is that just one of those "what is Pokemon" clip they play before every movie? Can't wait for December when the movie comes out in DVD and we get the first teaser trailer for the next movie. ^^

 

[dman_dustin]

I'm trying to avoid much of the plot of the movie, so a simple yes or no answer will suffice, I don't really need elaborate details.

Do we see any of Ash's Pokemon battle (excluding Pikachu) or do they possibly show up in some important detail other than the Trailer's Watermelon scene with all the Pokemon. And Ash showing Monferno to Damos as to what "Pokemon" are?

And by some important detail I mean like in the 11th movie when Ash used Chimchar's and Turtwig's attacks?

Or would it be better to ask if we see any of their attacks (again, excluding Pikachu)?

Again a simple yes or no answer will suffice.

 

[Dogasu]

So I was right in saying this had an anticlimax.

Not really. The movie didn't set up for any disappointment; everything pretty much happened the way it was supposed to.

The movie would have only been "anticlimatic" if you went in there with ridiculously unrealistic expectations. Which I did not.

Stupid question here but do you know what the Logo for the next movie says?

A new logo wasn't shown. The regular movie series logo ("Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl Platinum") was shown with text below it saying that a new movie's coming out next year.

It's the same kind of teaser we get every single year.

And what about the clip of Lugia and Ho-oh flying towards one another?

It's...just...a clip of Lugia and Hou'ou flying toward each other. Nothing more, nothing less.

Do we see any of Ash's Pokemon battle (excluding Pikachu) or do they possibly show up in some important detail other than the Trailer's Watermelon scene with all the Pokemon. And Ash showing Monferno to Damos as to what "Pokemon" are?

Not really.

 

[Ltrainer]

Thanks for clearing that up...How the heck did everyone get "OMGz!!! Lugia and Ho-oh are stars in the next movie" from that description. -__-;;

I hope they make small cameos and the real star is a 5th gen legendary. Seriously, we're due for one now.

 

[Legacy]

Yes, nice summary indeed! I'm still excited to see this movie.

 

[Hassel]

Thanks for the summary, Dogasu. Hopefully Rocket-dan will do more in next year's movie