Tag: Remake

A Rare Candy? Pokémon Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution Review

This Pokémon Movie has been on Netflix for a good while now and while I originally planned to review all the Pokemon movies leading up to it, I have felt the call call of nostalgia. Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution is the CGI remake of the first Pokemon movie. It’s weird animation style caught the eye.. and the critique of many. So is this movie truly an evolution or did I wish the original had it’s everstone equipped? 

Update: I found out I can’t make Netflix Screencaps! So while I actually had an impressive selection of cool screenshots.. we will have to do with stock google images.

How does it Look?

I think it is best to address the elephant in the room first and that is this movies looks. It uses a fairly strange CGI look that has gotten a lot of fans scratching their heads. Ash looks like a young boy! Also everything looks almost as if we are watching a weird claymation cgi hybrid. Models can feel a bit oily and this doesn’t really match with any pokémon style we have seen so far. After seeing the entire movie twice now though I must say, I am not opposed to this , I am not in love with it but I think it has some big advantages over the old style on the one hand and comes with a few downsides on the other. A mixed bag of negatives and positives.

Let’s start with the negatives as most people out there come in with a negative mindset about this movie, rather than scaring you off by proving your are wrong right away, I will side a bit with the haters first. While modern animation is increasingly moving towards fluidity in motion and stripping things of non essential elements to increase focus on what is important, this is not what can be seen in Evolution. There is a level of clunk to the motions, the models seem to polished and glossy and Ash his redesign seems odd. Brock feels a lot more dishevelled, team rocket seems a bit overly moe and way less “mean spirited” and there are some odd choices  when it comes to certain pokémon. As a result this definitely is a style we need to get used to. It doesn’t feel right and that feeling is indeed hard to turn off. Due to the clunkiness in some motions but the focus on detail it’s flaws really stand out as well.

Yet to me there is a charm to this clunk. A lot of the clunkier attack animations really reminded me of playing Pokémon Stadium again or the later Coliseum games.  There is a level of mechanicalness that conveys something computer game esque.. and for a series that started out as a video game, I actually kinda see a lot of charm in that. I would love to see a pokémon game in this graphic style someday, and while Ash design is weird, for the first time I believed he was 10.  Misty and Brock are visibly older than Ash which validates his demeanour a lot more. While I watched the original run I often find myself annoyed at Ash. Stupid choice!.. Now I see him much more as a naive kid and I feel much more in tune with his mindset. 

The action also feels a lot nicer in this 3d style. While the animations to fire off an attack can feel clunky, these models have more weight to them.. smoke animations feel more simulated, dust clouds more calculated. If Charizard is dropped in the sand.. it feels like someone just threw a heavy creature in the sand. Fire has more “heat” to it, water actually feels wet..instead of being a spirally  blue beam. Pokémon eyes feel more alive, where watering eyes in normal anime style are usually a cycle of frames there is more motion to them. While this does not apply to all pokémon and less to the humans this version had a sense of gravitas in some of it’s graphic design. Which I think is very important in things like these.

I can see people hate this and would not think they are wrong but I can also see people really liking it. It has that Jump Force feel to it and that isn’t for everybody but I do think it makes battles more exciting.. and that’s an important part of pokémon. Now regardless if you like the style or not this movie has some stunning cinematography.  Shots are really beautifully framed. Camera angles are so much more carefully chosen. It feels a lot more cinematic in the big moments. The moment Ash rises from the clone laboratories followed by all the other pokémon nearly dropped my jaw. The end framing and the secret ending again..both beautiful shots! Regardless if you like the style or not, the shot choice was among the greatest in pokémon history.

How does it sound?

Now that you all think I am nuts for being positive on the looks let’s throw my credibility further in the trash by talking about how much I loved the sound design. The weird star trek and star wars stock sounds that were everywhere in the first movie have been replaced by long standing sounds in the pokémon anime. When Mewtwo activates stadium lights we no longer hear the first tones of a lightsaber and when Mew is waking up under water we don’t hear star trek effects from his shield. Explosions sound like proper explosions now and feel like they are canon to the pokémon series but done really well.  It seems all the voices have been re-recorded as well to match the new animation flow a lot better than using the old tracks would…unfortunately that doesn’t always pan out. 

Not all the voice work in this movie is great. Mew firstly feels a bit less cutesy than it did in the original..which was a source of great joy for me. The original mew sounded a lot more dreamy, while this one sounds a bit more kiddy. It isn’t bad just not as great as the original..I kinda cringed while it laughed once. It’s giggle is pretty bad.  Speaking about bad. Jessie and James have been voiced really poorly in this movie. I could not decide who was worse. James voice lines really feel phoned in.. but match the character while Jessie tries harder but really REALLY feels off brand to me. Her normal tones of arrogance and disdain are gone. While the new voice does line up with the cuter model more.. I can’t help to constantly think these are not Jessie and James. It somehow makes them have even less impact on the movie than before. Misty and some of the other trainers are a bit meh as well.The ace trainers who use their Blastoise Shellshocker and a Venussaur called Brute-Root I really had trouble understanding. At least when they called out their pokémons nickname.
Misty was okay but at times she was a bit flat.

Ash and Mewtwo are quite okay and Brock has his highlights but the real star is the voice actor of Pikachu. You can sense Pikachu’s emotions so well from the Pika Pika’s. During the chase by Mewtwo’s pokeballs we really can hear the fatigue in it’s cries, but the best moment is absolutely following Ash’s death/petrification. The anguished cries of Pikachu felt so real.. there was so much pain inside just the word Pikachu being repeated, it was crazy. Never EVER have I felt so much for Pikachu. I could tell exactly how distraught it felt and it’s tears weren’t even show! Instead of constantly focussing on Pikachu.. that cinematography cuts away .. allowing us just to hear its voice as we can hear it’s little spirit break.  Some great sound design in that scene and some incredible voice acting.

The music and the sound design are amazing in general. Gone is “Brother my Brother” that melodramatic song from the first version that I absolutely hated. Instead they choose for much more neutral background music that sound like they could be in a Final Fantasy game.
Which again enforced that video game movie feeling for me. Where the vocal song had issues keeping up with the story beats and felt poorly timed and thus melodramatic this version goes for a different approach. Silence, during a few scenes this movie decides to fade away the sounds only leaving some impact sounds  or for a brief period even nothing at all. It works so well as you see the seen as Ash sees it.. something terrible. The Final Fantasy esque music oddly really fits the setting of Mewtwo’s castle as well and keeps for a much more neutral accompaniment of the story. It boosts the story and scenes rather than trying to explain it on it’s own and overall I’d say this movie does it waaay better than the original.

How did it change?

I am not going over the movies story again because I think this story is so famous it would be redundant and I already embellished way too much again on looks and sound. Are there any significant changes to the story? Yes and no again honestly. The story is mostly a one on one translation of the original. However this time we get the extended cut.. not the Pikachu’s vacation stuff that was placed there to hide the dark and twisted beginnings of the original! This time…. ..it’s darkest part is still skipped. We get a set up for Mewtwo.. but the story about Fuiji’s cloned daughter dying in front of Mewtwo is completely emitted from the story again, so if you want to see that you will still have to watch the first movie, in Japanese.

Missing this however causes a slew of narrative problems that the first dubbed version also had. In the sub version we see a young mewtwo growing up in the tank. Sharing a collective dream with the three starter pokémon and a young girl.  They are happy together and monster 150 learns about friendship. Something goes wrong and all the clones end up destabilizing/disintegrating including the little girl which taught Mewtwo about humanity. Her disappearing is accompanied with him crying.. the girl tells the ultimate pocket monster that he should not cry as she has to go and it can not be helped. However when a Pokémon sheds true heartfelt tears it is claimed to have some healing powers. We then see Mewtwo being picked up by Team Rocket and strapped to another machine.. alone.. his humanity fading away. While the second part is included as we start with Giovanni finding Mewtwo.. we see the evil part.. however the good part.. and the big reason why he has his change of heart are omitted and it is a worse movie because of it. 

However this movie knows it had to censor that important scene so they make their fair attempts to rectify this.  While Mewtwo is the 2 dimensional version of himself they use Mew’s dialogue as a reason to snap him awake more. Mew,although somewhat uncharacteristically , tells Mewtwo that true strength doesn’t come from the advanced techniques his clones have.. it comes from the heart.  This prompts Mewtwo to make his clones attack without using techniques or their special ability he will just win with their presence. This explains why the pokemon suddenly just try to slap each other and why they get so tired and hurt with it.. they don’t have the heart for it. It lifts up one of the weaker scenes in the original and it gives Mewtwo a makeshift redemption arc in the fact that due to seeing Pokémon truly care.. and their heart is more in stopping the fight and everyone siding with Ash that he can acknowledge their strength and stops thinking of himself as a superior. It isn’t as strong as feeling his heart again but at least it’s something.

Other than those changes not a lot has been altered, some lines are a bit different here and there. For some reason Jessie and James don’t show up as vikings anymore.. but now dress like sailors on a paddle boat, which was random.  The best joke from the movie is a alteration when Brock tries to seduce a girl with his “famous Jelly Filled Donuts” hinting at that dubismn and there have been some changes to the layout of the arena. Which makes much more sense the way it is now.  It’s all fairly minimal but I would say that this version has a lot more consistent world building. 

Did it Evolve? 

So is this movie a true evolution? Honestly?! Maybe… It fixed almost all the issues I had with the initial version but replaced them with some others. Storywise it’s a step up from the  dub, sound wise three steps up from the dub and visual.. well that depends on the person. So if I had to say if it is an evolution I’d say yes. However it isn’t a particularly useful evolution. It’s like your typical normal or bug type evolution. It helps your Pokédex out but you don’t really gain that much more from it otherwise.  It’s a more contemporary , cohesive and impactful version of the story. It looks weirder now and packs a bit more punch, but in the end it has the same moveset and really doesn’t add anything to your team. It’s nice that it’s there but the memories you made with the pokemon come from when it was unevolved. Back then it mattered.. right now..only for completing.

Since it is on Netflix I do feel it is the perfect medium to see such a movie, so I do recommend you take a peek at it. I really hope they will do something else with this visual style.. preferably a coliseum like game for the switch or so. For this movie it’s fine, I did not waste time watching it but I also gained little experience. It’s like using an old rod to get a Magikarp in order to train your level 60 Zapdos.  Sure it can be fun to blow the fish away and it offers even some experience, but if we put it in perspective it hardly seems to matter. It’s good with my favorite moment being the “death” scene by the great voice acting. Yet it is also very inconsequential.

XO
Pinkie

Mana Potion or Money Sink? Pinkie’s take on Remakes

When it comes to video game remakes people love to tear it apart. It’s nothing like the classic or it is an easy cash grab move made by greedy people are amongst the most heard complaints. Yet a remake can be so much more. It’s all dependent on what lens we are looking trough. Since we all should stay inside there is no need to put on those pitch black sunglasses. Let’s put on some rose tinted to goggles to give your house and your games a fresh new look shall we?

Evil Corporations

Nowadays we treat Capcom or Square Enix  or anyone reissuing anything, as the evil corporations once only depicted in games. The legendary RPG maker is giving us two games  (maybe more) instead of one… They want to empty our pockets three times over. They Remake the third resident evil game in the same style als RE2… thats so easy.. it’s just because they want money.  While to an extent that might be true it also is not. Gaming has evolved, development is easier and done on a much larger scales. Companies don’t have to pay 6 employees they have to pay 100.

Back in the days not a single developer was like “we don’t care about money.. all we want to do is create good games.. let’s wait a few years and then release the one because it feels right. No! Teams were small, the same squad working on  Chrono Trigger would have to be put on the next game as well. That’s why releases where few and far apart. They aren’t more money hungry now, earning money is what they exist for, that would be like calling an alarm clock evil for waking you up every morning!

As it stands there is a lot more money to be made in the industry and would you own the company you would do the same, we all pretend to be better but if we ran a company we would want to get as much profit as possible as well. If we would not we would fail. In fact it is because they gain so much money games have developed so fast. It brought us in the amazing world we are in today. Back in 1996, if I did  not like the newest Final Fantasy I’d have to wait for years.. hoping one MIGHT come again.

Nowadays, Final Fantasy XV comes out and it’s not for me..but I know that I will get a game I like in some shape way or form. Few years later I got treated to Final Fantasy VII Remake! I am thirty three years old and I am well into my “been there done that years”, new games do not feel new to me anymore yet thanks to remakes, I can still enjoy modern gaming without it feeling to samesie..because somehow Nostalgia cancels that. That doesn’t sound evil to me that sounds smart.

Magic

I believe each and everyone of us has a saturation point. Bob can play twenty demon based first person shooters before beginning to notice the twenty first really looks like Doom, the first one he played. The twenty second is..surprisingly similar to Hexen. Johny might be a bit more of a sourpuss and will notice Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley after just two games.I believe people reach a saturation point for new IP’s or franchises at one point. The better the originals in a genre the faster it happens.

Take for example the Party Racer (Karting Genre. Mario Kart made such a strong base that only a handful could stand up to them. Crash Team Racing, Diddy King Racing and maybe those Sony and Sega Super star racing games are in general the only ones people think can stand up to the big one.  No one really likes Little Big Planet Kart or that Shrek karting game.

I have reached that Mario Kart level, with many genres, I experienced games I found so good, that the new stuff doesn’t impress me as much. This isn’t even because I am cynical, this is because I gamed for over 25 years. Just like people remember their first kiss more  fondly than their 37th. While new games and franchises can still be great, they can’t be magical to me anymore.

The remake of Toad’s Turnpike wasn’t as good! But there was magic.. and blue shells!

Remakes however still contain that magic, because that magic was never in the game itself.. it is within ourselves, within our minds. We only have so much magical memory to give away, our sense of wonder unfortunately is a finite resource and a good remake or even a half decent one at that can bring back that magic a bit. Within limits, but more on that later. I am happy with a new Pokémon Game because it brings back the memories  and that magic, but even though I love my Snom and Falanks encountering them.. never feels like seeing Pikachu pop up in the grass for the first time.

Now as much as I like Red and Blue, Gold was the game I was much more aware of playing. Less overwhelmed more armed for the task. To this day I think Pokémon Heart Gold is the best pokémon game ever.. and with me many people agree. A good remake can not only bring back that magic but amplify it. They keep what work and make it better and maybe.. just maybe they can allow you to gain a bit of magic back to give..it will never be as much as you put into that game.. but by seeing what they did to make our beloved things better, we might appreciate that same more modern mechanic in things we did not believe were magic before. 

Best Remake, Best Pokemon Game, Best Boy Cyndaquil!

Bob and Sally

Now not all remakes invoke this sense of nostalgia. A lot of the Final Fantasy games for mobile do not work for me, the new Pokémon rescue squad is cute.. but I kinda prefer the original GBA version.  This applies to sequels even more. Vice City was the best GTA game in my book and while I still enjoyed San Andreas a bit and Chinatown wars, GTA IV and V did not do it for me anymore. Sequels carry over less magic than remakes, when I see Sobble, Scorbunny and Grookey I am like.. let’s pick the little crybaby thing it’s cute. When I played Heartgold and I saw Cyndaquil in it’s pokéball again I was like “It’s my BOY!”

Like meeting new people at a con is great, but meeting an old time friend you haven’t seen in five years is so much better. Remakes are harder to do right however. While we do not mind a new friend asking a bit of an odd question to us here and there.. with a friend of old we are much less lenient. We are easy to blame them or scold the, for doing something wrong. So how do you make a solid remake?! Well it’s time for another  analogy.

Gotta get some anime girl from these hits in somehow!

I could explain what exactly we want to see in a remake going in depth in the power of nostalgia. However I do not care for that and instead have opted for another route! We are going to imagine that first kiss again.. or your first crush I mean we are geeks, so no harm no foul if you have never been kissed. Imagine you are 15 or 16 and have your first real romance with a woman named Sally or guy named Bob. You share a magical moment together.. but as time is cruel, you move away.. or  maybe they do. Now 20 years later sit in a bistro or walk across the street when suddenly you see a familiar face. Now there are about three to four ways this situation can unfold.

I did not know this was a thing I just googled the names and this was all that showed up! ALL of it.

Option A: They are exactly the same!

Oh my Arceus! It’s Sally/Bob! They have aged but you can still recognise them and you proceed to talk with them. Things are just like 20 years ago.. a little to similar. While Sally obviously looks like a 35 year old and wears clothes of the time instead of those colourful nighties neon jumpsuits she still only talks about My Little Pony.. and I am not talking about the Friendship is Magic show from 2010 here! She keeps yapping about the 1986 one and refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.  She also thinks cellphones are a bit to modern so she gives you her home address and home phone number so you can call there within a set time. Bob still has the exact same newspaper route and hangs out with the exact same people as he did in middle school. While it is nice to catch up again, you can’t help but feel they are a little bit sad and wished they would at least get with the time already.

This image makes sense if you watched HIMYM

Option B: They are completely unrecognisable?!

Remember Sally?! Well he is called Sander now, that my Little Pony thing they used to talk so much about has completely vanished, they did that to conform to their gender role back in the time, right now they are into dark and edgy stuff.  Sander is a Roadie to My Chemical Romance and a blacksmith in real life. While Sander might be a great person, he is in no way that person you kissed twenty years ago. Bob is DECKED out! He used to be a fat kid, who would shyly write you a little poem about your hair being winter fire, January embers, where his heart burns too.  Now twenty years later he is a buff billionaire, scrumptious to all the sheeple! He is people magazine’s most eligible bachelor of the year, everyone wants Bob now.. but it is not Bob… sure you might like to sink your teeth into the beefcake regardless.. but it’s not Ben anymore… I mean Bob! That magic isn’t there you just want to jump the bandwagon.

So After typing my chemical romance typing m behind it was enough for google to auto suggest this!

Option C: They Added to Much

Sally looks great, she got a facelift, she has plenty of new things to talk about, like a career fitting ot the times. However She now comes with sixteen cats. To be able to “play” with Sally you are going to have to make sure the cats are fed and satisfied.  The woman also developed an allergy to bought stuff, particularly that of a rubber persuasion. So to be able to enter the further stages of romance you will have to visit an Native American Shaman in order to craft the items you need to proceed. It really doesn’t fit Sandy to be like that.. I mean it’s not like she crafted all her my little pony stuff back in the day…but now since DIY is hip she suddenly is really into it..and you have to be too. Bob has a bunch of kids, one of each ethnicity and sexual orientation of course. In order to win Bob’s heart you are going to have to go bowling with one kid and treat the other to Taco Bell, the youngest needs you to play hide and seek with them. This is not what you signed up for! More stuff to do is not always better! Even if it’s modern and popular!

Do tedious things before you can play! Objective: Play with Kids

Option D: Bob and Sally Improved.

Sally is a lawyer now, Bob is a well paid male nurse. Both have clearly gotten a facelift, and some Botox. She is wearing a sexy dress that is in fashion and he has opted to go for a more classic look the fiber count in his suit is much better than they used to make it.. making it still feel contemporary. Sally still loves My Little Pony but she went with the time and talks about the actual Friendship is Magic show.  Rather than being called on their home phone you can now use modern technology to call them more easily or even send out a casual text message. While some locations you would use to visit when courting them went out of business you will just plan around it and make due with what you got. You might not be able to take them to the Drive In, like in those memories of old.. the new option of Netflix and Chill is pretty solid as well.

Okay Bob and Sally’s age is incosistent I know! But at least the movie title is relevant!

 Thief

In all cases I described above there is a case of subjectivity though. There is no universal measure for too much of something. There are plenty of people who want a remake to barely change anything, but if it’s to different for them they can still play the original. The remake still will invoke that desire to play that game. If you play the old one or the new one the remake can still trigger horus of fun, even if it is just by proxy bringing back relevance to that forgotten title. Some want to see something significantly different, if they can not get what they want either a new franchise will rise up to give these people what they want  (How Temtem caters to a specific demographic of disappointed pokemon fans for example) or someone in the comments will point you towards a game you might like who is similar but still different enough, allowing you to discover things that went under the radar. 

Remakes will always off something! At worst conversation! At best hours of joy!

Regardless if a remake is good or bad it brings activity to the fandom.It makes your favorite game either celebrated or talked about again.  Perhaps a new generation can discover your gem.. even if it has kinda lost is shine to you. While RE3 remake may be to short and to much like RE2 remake it will allow you to talk about Nemesis again. It opens discussion again if Claire or Jill is better. Just by existing regardless of quality. New games don’t do that!
Besides, maybe someone has not played RE2 before so this remake meant less to them than this RE3 remake did! When someone tells you about their first kiss with Sandy you don’t tell them.. Oh it’s Sander now.. you let them reminisce and enjoy. Who cares that you have to pay a few full games to get FF VII’s full story, each part has a lot more content and bang for your buck than many other games. You still have the option to play that story in one game anyway.  Some people are thrilled because now they get that magic they got all those years ago.. not once.. but multiple times! Do not hate on remakes for the sake of them being that.. because while it might just be a cash grab to you.. it is magic to some. While if you dislike it you can play the original.. or join a debate instead.. and you get robbed of something that could have been, by being a jerk and joining on reddit to prevent this sort of content in the future.. you might be robbing someone else of magic. I’d say that magic is a much more valuable good.

Ruin other people’s magic and Nemesis will come for you!

XO
Pinkie!