Pokemon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions.

Plot: On the way to a Pokemon sports game, Ash, Pikachu, Dawn and Brock rescue a Zorua from a group of wild Vigoroth. Zorua informs them that he needs to go to Crown City to find its mother, Zoroark. Unknown to Ash and his friends however, an evil businessman named Kodai has captured Zoroark and is taking it to Crown City in order to find a secret portal that he can use to recharge his ability to see the future.


This is another mixed bag Pokemon film. As the last film that takes place in the Sinnoh region, this film has some fairly interesting ideas, but still has some negative aspects that keep it from anything that lead to the type of quality of Pokemon Heroes or Pokemon 2000 for me personally.

I'll start with was most interesting yet twisted part of this movie; the villain, Kodai. This is probably the most fascinating yet confusing villain that I've seen so far in a Pokemon film. He's a rich businessman who can see the future and it is desperate to keep his powers. He doesn't want to take over the world or destroy it or anything. But heck after characters like Zero I'm all for it. Kodai's evil plan however is a little convoluted. If you really think about it, some parts of his plan weren't very necessary in accomplishing his goal. On top of that, some of his actions may be a little too dark. Main example would come from the climax where he is is choking a Celebi. I'm all for dark deeds from the villain, but I can see people finding moments like that to be a little too dark - especially given that this is a Pokemon movie.

Zorua was nothing new as a character aside from being cocky and sinister, but at the same time he was more interesting than Shaymin... at least to the point that I care about him enough that I wanted to see in reunite with his mother. The idea that he uses telepathy to talk is a little forced, but it helps give him little more character, and it makes him more bearable then Zoroark. Now granted, I'm sure the voice actor for Zoroark is doing his best. But most of the voice acting is Zoroark roaring which sounds more like he's trying to clear his throat. Also, I would have liked the more development with the relationship between Zorua and Zoroark, especially since in the beginning the film implies that they may actually not be biologically related. Kodai states that Zoura is not Zoroark's child and it left me wondering if there's a sad backstory behind that. Unfortunately that particular line of dialogue is all we get, and given that their relationship seems so close anyway you can ignore it and just stay they're mother and son plain and simple. Celebi also stars in this movie and he's being cutsy for the sake of being cutesy still, but at the same time he had more of a purpose given his history with the town. Dawn and Brock don't stand out that much which is no different with the last few films but it's still a shame with Dawn in particular. From what little I do know about her from some fanfiction and a few YouTube videos, she seems like a relatively cool character with a fun platonic relationship with Ash. And yet apart from all the moments where she's  she's teaming up with him, I didn't really learn anything about her after watching these past four movies. Guess I got lucky with May and Max.

The climax for the most part was rather clever. I won't give too much away give that a lot of what makes it good are some spoilers, but it has some twists and turns that tricked me pretty well. I think the only real flaw it has is how it gives us another sad moment where you think the ending is going to be bittersweet like in Pokemon Heroes and Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, even though you know it's going to end happy.

And that's my review for Pokemon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions. The villain was interesting if not maybe a little too dark, and the climax delivered with good twists and turns. But while I did care for Zorua and Zoroark on some level, I wasn't into their story in the same way I was into other legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo or Latios and Latias and so on. It's not the worst, but it's another mixed bag to me.

Rating: 50%