Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
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 I don't wanna be the very best.
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Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, known in Japan as Pokémon the Movie XY: The Archdjinni of the Rings: Hoopa (ポケモン・ザ・ムービーXY の超魔神 フーパ, Pokemon Za Mūbī Ekkusu Wai Ringu no chōmajin Fūpa) is a 2015 Japanese anime adventure film, it is the sequel to Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, is the second/penultimate film in the Pokémon XY: The Series film trilogy and is overall the 18th in the Pokémon film series created by Satoshi Tajiri. It was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, written by Atsuhiro Tomioka and produced by OLM. The film stars the voices of Rica Matsumoto, Ikue Ōtani, Mayuki Makiguchi, Yūki Kaji, Mariya Ise, Megumi Hayashibara, Shin-ichiro Miki, Inuko Inuyama, Rie Kugimiya, Kōichi Yamadera, and Shoko Nakagawa.
Plot
In the film, Hoopa, a Pokémon able to summon people and other Pokémon, splits into two forms: the real Hoopa, and a shadow created after Hoopa's powers were sealed for 100 years. Hoopa's shadow attempts to control the form of the real Hoopa.
Bad Qualities
- Very paper-thin plot that steals from previous Pokémon movies.
- Hoopa Confined is a very annoying character. It always talks in third person, continued to talk like an idiot in as Hoopa Unbound, and even though it's a 100-year-old Pokémon, smart enough to even talk, it's still an idiot, and its voice will make your ears bleed.
- It's pretty boring most of the time.
- Most of the legendary Pokémon were also shoehorned in, just to get people to watch the movie.
- Stays very unfaithful to the source material, for example, Groudon and Kyogre are on the same side when both of them are rivals.
- Plot hole: If Hoopa is just one Pokémon, then how did its Unbound form break free?
- No real antagonist/villain, the only one that could be considered the villain would be Hoopa Unbound.
- Very repetitive lines, such as Hoopa saying, "Did you like it?" or "Ally Hoopa Ring!".
- Despite them talking in previous movies, Lugia, Arceus, Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem don't talk, though this could be understandable because they might be different versions of them.
- False advertising: One of the posters claims that every Legendary Pokémon is in the movie, when some of them like Mewtwo, Ho-Oh, Cresselia, the trios, and Heatran don't appear.
- Team Rocket, like in most Pokémon movies, were clearly shoehorned in. Remove them and the movie will still be the same.
- Ash, Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie, despite them being likable, are rather bland in this movie. They lost most of their traits that made them great in X&Y and dumbed them down.
- Because of the multiple explosions and boring plot, it feels more like a Michael Bay movie than a Pokémon movie.
- The big climax at the end was rather boring.
- The whole movie felt like an ad for the games, and a way to show off the new Mega Evolutions.
- For some reason, Rayquaza is shiny in this movie. The movie never explained why it's shiny.
Good Qualities
- Ash, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie are still likable characters despite being bland. Team Rocket is also likable, despite them being shoehorned in.
- The concept of a battle featuring every legendary Pokémon is a really cool idea, too bad it was poorly executed.
- The soundtrack is really good and sounds like it came from an old Arabian movie.
- The animation is still nice.
- The voices apart from Hoopa Confined are still great.
- Baraz's backstory is pretty dark.
- Some funny moments, such as the scene where Hoopa summons dozens of Pikachu.
- There is a nice reference to Pokémon Heroes at the beginning.
- Good ending: Everyone lends Hoopa their strength so it can break through the ring, and Hoopa successfully breaks through it. Everyone then notices Arceus looking at them, and Hoopa wishes Ash good luck.
Reception
The movie was given mixed reviews. It has a rating of 5.9/10 on IMDb and a score of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie grossed ¥2,610,000,000 in Japan. It is the one of the lowest-grossing movies of all the Pokémon movies, performing slightly better than lowest-grossing film, Pokémon Heroes.