The Worst Film Ever

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I really like this one and it's another one I find to be underrated. This was the last Pokémon movie of the Hoenn region and the last great one before the quality of the TV show and the movies started to slip.The story is engaging with Phantom the pirate going after the Temple of the Sea to find the sea crown. I really liked Phantom as a villain. He was quite entertaining and suitably vile. Ranger Jack was a very interesting character, and I thought it was pretty cool for a Pokémon ranger to be a part of the adventure.I don't care what anybody says. I thought Manaphy was adorable. Her relationship with May was much more appealing than Max's relationship with Jirachi three movies ago. It was nice that May got her own movie.With the gang journeying to the Temple of the Sea, the film has a great sense of adventure. The scope of the film is epic and the sea temple was a wonder to behold. The animation is as good as ever, even if there is some really bad CGI here and there.The action in this film is also quite epic, especially the action taking place at the sea temple. The scene where Ash goes to put the crystal back was exciting and the music score used for that scene was simply perfect.This is another strong Pokémon movie. It's too sad that after the Hoenn region, things started to go bad with rehashes of old material and other stuff that just doesn't work. Recommended for fans of the series.RATING: B+

I really like this movie, when this movie first showed on TV in 2007 it was a little unexpected but fun. When I recorded this movie on my DVR the recording was messed up and it stopped recording halfway into it, so I had to go to best buy and buy this movie with my own money, but it was worth it, Plus the movie came with a Pokemon short and a Pikachu 10th anniversary video with 3 classic Pokemon episodes. I bought this movie when I was 10, I am now 13 and I still enjoy this movie. So buy if for your kids, watch it on TV if it is on, by all mean this is a good movie.Pros The first thing in noticed in this movie was that the graphics were a little better than the other movies, with the shadow effects and more detailed background. The storyline was pretty epic, it kept me to the end without a stopping. The voice acting was some of the best voice acting I have ever seen, and the character and scenery design was also good. And this movie was not all cheerful, I almost cried when May had to part was with Manaphy, but that is another sign of good acting in a movie.Cons There were some 3D animated scenes that could have been better than they were, but they were not bad. The water effects were kinda crappy, mainly because it looked like they didn't put much work into that. Sadly this is the last movie for a while that will feature May and Max as main characters. But all these are such a small interference with the movie you might not even notice it.

After a spectacular high with the previous movie, "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew," can the Pokémon crew pull off another one? Sadly, the newest effort, "Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea," falls far short of the high marks set by its predecessor as well as the sixth movie, "Jirachi Wish Maker"---a relationship I will elaborate on further in a moment.During the introduction to the story, we see a luminous egg float through the sea before being seized by a technologically-advanced pirate captain, Phantom. We are then introduced to the Pokémon Ranger of the title, Jack "Jackie" Walker, who has disguised himself as a member of Phantom's crew. Jackie seizes the egg from Phantom and escapes from the pirate captain's submersible headquarters.Meanwhile, the main cast of heroes are wandering through a desert wasteland, and when they run out of water, conveniently run into a traveling troupe of "water show" performers. At a local performance, the egg makes a reappearance, being tended to by an oddly familiar clown soon revealed to be Jackie, the Ranger. It is revealed that the egg contains a legendary Pokémon called Manaphy, and Jackie's mission is to safely hatch it and deliver it to a place called Samaya, the Sea Temple built by the ancestors of the performing troupe. He does not wish to allow Ash's group to be involved, but an attack by Phantom during their trip gets them into it irreversibly---especially after Manaphy hatches in May's arms and promptly begins to think she is its mother! Much of the immediate plot following this details the development of a bond between May and Manaphy, and the establishment that Phantom's goal is to capture the great treasure hidden inside Samaya, the Sea Crown. The plot drags for quite some time before we finally arrive at Samaya, where Phantom suddenly reappears and finds the Sea Crown---a pedestal filled with crystals. As he begins to remove them, the temple begins to sink, however Jackie manages to replace all but one before the flooding carries him, Phantom and the last crystal away.All the characters except Ash and May escape the temple before it totally sinks. They go back in with Manaphy and find the last crystal, but before they can replace it, Ash is forced to seal May, Pikachu and Manaphy inside a capsule Phantom left behind while he braves the nearly-flooded temple to replace the last crystal. He drowns in the Sea Crown chamber, but Manaphy's special powers allow May's prayer for his safety to revive him and give him the strength to place the crystal in the pedestal. When he does so, a green light appears and a tentacle of this light carries May's capsule to safety.With the Crown repaired, all the water drains out of Samaya and the temple surfaces---however, May believes Ash died, and Phantom suddenly makes a last-ditch effort to capture Manaphy, since it can lead him back to Samaya at any time. The secret of the light is revealed---inside the tentacle is none other than Ash, granted superpowers by completing the Sea Crown. He outmaneuvers Phantom and rescues Manaphy, only for Phantom to attack with his submarine and its sonic blast weapons. A special song Manaphy sings protects all the wild water Pokémon from Phantom's attack, and then it uses them to destroy Phantom's sub. He is finally defeated by the legendary Kyogre and captured by the police as May bids farewell to Manaphy (which leaves her by speaking, in English, "Love you, mama! Love you....May") and Jackie radios his base with the news of his mission's success.During the credits, we see Phantom and his crew in prison, Jackie speaking to an Officer Jenny, and Jackie capturing a Zapdos with his Capture Styler (a tool used by Pokémon Rangers) So, what is good about this movie? Unfortunately, not much. It is terribly unoriginal for one, sharing many plot details with "Jirachi Wish Maker." Phantom is an amusing villain who engages in a bit of slapstick comedy, but he has absolutely no backstory. Also, the token Ash death with him drowning in the temple feels rather tired this time around. Drowning is a common "death" that has been used many times in the TV series and movies.On the plus side, Manaphy is adorable, and May waited a long time to get spotlighted (while Max, a more minor character, was highlighted three years earlier in the sixth movie) Overall, though, this one's disappointing. Movie 10, "Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai," looks to be much better than this. We shall see early next year if that holds true.

The Pokemon movies stopped appearing in American cinemas with the sixth feature (now released direct-to-DVD), but are among the top grossing movies in Japan to this day, where the tenth is currently set to release in the land of the rising sun this summer. This is the ninth, and the first to be dubbed by the new voice cast that took over for the ninth season, Battle Frontier. The previous two Pokemon films were just about perfect—fun and enjoyable fantasy plots, wonderful and creative animation, excellent voice acting, sprinkles of great humor, a little bit of drama, great music, and totally enjoyable endings. The ninth feature has all of that for certain. The new cast, led by Sarah Natchonneny, does a great job in this feature. May gets a spotlight in this one as well, to great effect, as she has always been one of my favorite Advanced Generation (6th to 9th seasons) characters. Team Rocket has one of the best lines in the movie in a wonderful fourth-wall breaking moment, and Ash has some really cool heroic moments towards the end. The ending song isn't quite as good as the one in 7 or 8, but is still pretty good. Sometimes you just want a movie where the good guys are good guys; the bad guys are bad, and watching it is just fun. This movie, like its predecessors, left me feeling content and satisfied, something that many movies focused on avoiding the happy ending just can't do.