Plot: A boy named Sam adventures through a forest and comes across the legendary Pokemon named Celebi. When a Pokemon hunter tries to capture it, Sam tries to rescue Celebi and in the process, Celebi decides to save both it and Sam by traveling through time. Cut to 40 years later which is apparently present time, as Ash and his friends travel to the same woods and find and befriend Sam and Celebi. But a member of Team Rocket called the Iron Masked Marauder captures Celebi with a Dark Ball which makes it turn evil and he uses it to destroy the forest. Thus it's up to Ash and Sam to find a way to rescue Celebi and save the forest.
While not the worst thing I have ever seen, this is so far the weakest of the Pokémon films. The setting was interesting enough, but it's story and characters are not as intriguing as the past films.
The main problem with the film is the legendary Pokemon that it focuses on, Celebi. Unlike with Mewtwo, Lugia and Entei, Celebi doesn't talk; its characteristics are displayed visually...which would be okay if it was likeable. As it is, most of what Celebi does throughout the film is just fly and squeak. I'll admit that it kind of looked intimidating when it turned evil, but even then I didn't really care. Its importance and likability (if any) came from how other characters reacted to Celebi and not Celebi itself. While it flies around and squeaks, practically every living thing that isn't the Iron Masker Marauder or Team Rocket would either talk about what an adorable, loving angel Celebi is and that's it.
But Celebi is not the only problem with this film. Apart from Brock using his Onyx during the climax, both he and Misty are pretty much dead weight in this movie. They are mostly there just for occasionally commenting what is going on and/or to see Brock hit on a girl for the thousandth time. Also, after giving it more thought after watching the film, I realized that the Iron Masked Marauder was more bland then Lawrence III. I kind of liked his outfit and the idea of using a Poke ball that turns Pokemon evil is neat, but his goal and personality were as one-dimensional as you can get- right down to having an evil laugh and planning to take over the world.
Finally, the story is not only uninteresting, but one video reviewer on youtube named Il Neige made a good point that it's almost the same as Princess Mononoke. Both have a creature/spirit that's important to the forest, both have a villain who wants to use it for his/her own means - there's probably a couple of other connections that I haven't realized since it's been a couple of years since I've last seen Mononoke, but you get the idea. And the ending tried to do something sad that may work with younger viewers but you can otherwise tell that it's going to end happy.
So is there anything good about this movie? Eh, a couple of things. I do sort of like the friendship between Ash and Sam. In fact, their friendship leads to a twist that I did see a mile away, but at the same time I give it a pass because A) it was foreshadowed in a way that made the story more solid, and B) I appreciate what the twist turned out to be. I probably would have liked it a lot more if I saw this movie around the time it came out, but I like it well enough as an adult. I also liked the action between Brock's Onyx and the Iron Masked Marauder's Pokemon. And while I probably would've like this so much more as a kid, I still thought Sam's steampunk Poke ball was cool.
And that's my review for Pokemon Forever. I like some aspects like Ash and Sam's relationship and the twist that comes with it, but the story wasn't that great, the villain was one-dimensional, Brock and Misty were dead weight and Celebi is the least interesting legendary Pokemon I've seen so far. I don't think I disliked it as much as I think I'm making it sound, but it's currently the weakest one I've looked at. Now Pokemon Heroes on the other hand, I'll get to praising in the next review.
Rating: 35%
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