Pokemon's ultimate goal is to hook you on the IDEA of the Pokemon journey as a creative blinder to the abstractions and limits of its actual products. The movies were the place where OLM could actually deliver a brief but very nice looking snapshot of what those places and adventures might look like. They were the one consistent "premium" (relatively speaking) element in the Pokemon machine. That those ending reel montages in the earlier moves leave you pining for that grand adventure for a reason. In fact, I'll do a few screengrabs.
>>54730671None in the grand scheme, but that goes without saying.
>>54730950 is a good rundown. If you just approach these as a pretty 80 minutes with Ash and friends seeing some sights, suddenly most of them are comfy to some degree.The two for which I cannot think of any movie-souring "buts" are Spell of the Unown (3rd Movie), and Power of Us, the second to last movie. I agree that the former works because once its conflict starts it is a continuing race to the end. An unusual amount of actual battling for these movies and an antagonist who simultaneously has to be saved from herself, but has Entei acting as an unstoppable symbol of her worst impulses who must be fought. Have cake, eat it too. Power of Us is an ensemble movie introducing us to several characters who in tandem with the self-contained nu-Ash of the last three movies save a town from disaster. (The impetus for said disaster is rather lame but sometimes you agree to ignore contrivance). Some say it feels like a different movie with Pokemon tacked on and I wouldn't fight them. Many of the rest usually have good ideas or sections, but fall off in some way.
