Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (2009)

Plot: Ash and his friends arrive at Michina Town where they witness the resolve of the feud between Giratina and Dialga with the help of a guardian named Sheena. Shortly afterwords, Sheena informs them that the legendary Pokemon named Arceus, who is said to have created the who universe, as arisen from its slumber and intends to destroy mankind for betraying it and keeping it from retrieving the Jewel of Life. Giratina, Dialga and Palkia fight to stop Arceus, but they are no match for it so Dialga sends Ash, Dawn, Brock and Sheena back in time as a hope to stop the catastrophe that has caused Arceus to attack the humans.  

So now we come to the last chapter of the supposed Diamond and Pearl trilogy. And as the final installment of this so-called trilogy, it had a story that was it more interesting than its predecessor, but still had a large amount of flaws.

I'll start with the good stuff. First off the general story is more intriguing then Giritina and the Sky Warrior. I liked how the backstory became less and less simple as the movie progressed. I also like how the characters are going back in time again except this time they're traveling to an age where Pokemon aren't even called Pokemon; they're called magical creatures. This like that add more of the mythos behind the franchise is starting to become one of the main reason why I'm glad that I'm going through these movies. The relationship between Sheena and Damos is in some respect well developed and leads to a fitting climax, and on top of that, the climax itself was exciting.

So how is the film heavily flawed? Well for one thing, it goes way too far with delivering exposition. There is at least three if not four different times where they say the exact same story of Damos and Arceus. The last time in particular only needed to show it some sections of the story instead of literally showing us the entire event. I get how there's more to the story the more times they tell it, but the way that they do that comes out pretty redundant. Also, this movie didn't have a good sense of knowing how time travel works. Now unfortunately, I can't go into a whole lot of detail into that because a lot of it is spoiler related. But if you're familiar with the concept of time travel from something like Doctor Who or Back to the Future, you're likely to watch this movie and find yourself saying "I don't think that's actually how that works." at least a couple of times.

I normally don't make a thing about the voice acting choices for movies or TV, but the voice for the voice of Arceus does not work. I'm sure the voice actor is doing his best, but his performance doesn't fit into the idea of being a being that is caring but vengeful, powerful being. Every time he's yelling sounds like a big whiny brute in a way that's similar to Zero in Giratina and the Sky Warrior. Also, we come across what is easily the worst villain in any Pokemon movie. I won't give it away because this is also in spoiler territory, but the character that plays the villain is so one noted that he makes the Iron Masked Marauder look interesting. The Marauder at least had a design that made him look a little cool and a device that made him dangerous. This character on the other hand is so bland that you can tell from his appearance that he's the villain and can figure out his gimmick super fast.

Also as much as I hate to agree with Il Neige, the concept of this movie being the third installment of a trilogy does not work. It did start off that way when all of the other legendary Pokemon are fighting Arceus, but kind of like with Giratina and the Sky Warrior, the connections to the previous films are almost non-existent. Maybe if you are a big fan of both the game and the anime of Diamond and Pearl, this would feel more like a big epic trilogy, but the only way that these films connect are the legendary Pokemon that appear, and even that doesn't count for much.

Finally, let's address the big elephant in a room; the concept that Arceus is basically a Pokemon version of God. Il Neige made a point that the film does get the sense that this movie should have taken a turn that represents the concept of how the relationship between God and man has fallen apart. I think that's kind of true for reasons that I can't explain because it's spoiler related, but I also think it would be a little much to dive into a concept of a god who created everything in this world. I know he supposedly created everything in this universe and that he can adapt to all the different types of Pokemon. But to me, the movie makes it clear that even though he's a Pokemon that created this entire world, he is still a Pokemon. He lives, he can run out of energy and die, and a Pokemon trainer can capture him just like any of these mythical creatures. So for my money, I think they were right to keep ideas of Arceus out of concepts like that and stick to the fact that's he's still just a legendary pocket monster.

And that's my review for Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life. I like the story better then the one from the previous film and both the climax and the relationship between Sheena and Damos was done fairly well. But the story is also very flawed just with the time travel aspect alone, the voice for Arceus does not fit, and the villain is by far the worst one in these Pokemon films. It's not as bad as Giratina and the Sky Warrior, but it's still bad.

Rating: 35%