I just watched the new Pokémon movie tonight and had a few thoughts.

First, it was cool to see the Regi trio in action.  Regirock had the
coolest sounding "voice" of the three.  I did not know those guys were
going to be in the movie until they popped up as I had avoided watching
trailers and the like beforehand.

Second, I don't know if it was just my DVD or what, but the movie was
really grainy in several places for about a half second; it probably
happened something like ten times over the course of the entire movie,
and it was very distracting.  I might watch a few scenes on the copy I
bought for my nieces to see if it has the same problems in the same
places.

Third, it is annoying that these movies are released in fullscreen
format, because it was pretty obvious that this particular one was
supposed to be widescreen.  Several times throughout the movie, the
faces of characters are cut in half on the sides of the screen which
looked really odd.  I'm not sure why the people who release these
movies in the US feel like they must be fullscreen, because just about
every other kids' movie released is widescreen on the DVD these days
(or you're given a choice of which format to watch).

Fourth, the plot of this movie unfortunately did not grab my attention
at all.  I am not sure if it was because Mew has been used before.  I
am not sure if it was because the scope of the dilemma was just too
small overall.  I am not sure if it was because I did not find the new
characters introduced (including Lucario) particularly interesting.  I
think that part of the problem was that I like movies in which there
are clear protagonists versus clear antagonists, but there are not
really any clear antagonists to be overcome in this movie.  This is not
the first Pokémon movie like that, but that is just my personal
preference.

Fifth, two of the new characters were pre-evolutions of existing
characters while one of them was a post-evolution of an existing
characters.  I always find the new post-evolutions to be more
interesting, because they are more powerful and less cutesy.

Sixth, you know when you've watched/played way too much Pokémon when
you recognize nearly all of the attacks used even when the trainers do
not call out the attacks' names.

To summarize, as a Pokémon fan, the movie was worth watching, but I
thought it was just OK at best.  Young kids would probably like the
movie a lot more though.  Of course, it was a treat as always to see
some of the unique Pokémon get some screen time.

- Chad
who still needs to watch the second DVD that came in the set