Okay, I'm reviving this thread because 1) I can and 2) I find it hard to believe this thread has gotten no replies in six months when we just got BW2 a couple months ago.
On a whim, I watched this movie this morning, and I thought that overall it was pretty bad.
This movie's plot makes no sense at all. Keldeo wants to fight Kyurem? Why Kyurem, other than the fact that he wouldn't appear in a movie otherwise? Kyurem has no link to the Swords of Justice other than in this movie, which isn't canon. The only thread I can think of is that the reason Keldeo needs to prove himself to Kyurem is because Kyurem is described in the movie as the strongest dragon. That would be fine, except the Swords of Justice and the dragons of the Unova region share no connections with one another.
When Keldeo challenges Kyurem in the beginning of the movie (like an idiot), he predictably gets owned. Keldeo wusses out and runs away like a little girl, but Kyurem (who is the film's only saving grace) forbids Keldeo from forfeiting and chases him to the train, where he attacks Ash and crew just because they're close to Keldeo. I haven't seen a Pokemon bent on murder like that since Mewtwo.
Okay, so now you might argue that since Keldeo was stupid enough to fight Kyurem, he should finish what he started. It's clear that the Swords value this battle against Kyurem highly when they refuse to interfere with Keldeo's fight, both in the beginning and the end. In the beginning, I kind of agreed with that assessment, but at the end of the film when Kyurem revealed he knew Keldeo was a liar, the whole "moral code" argument falls apart. If Kyurem knew that Keldeo was lying when Keldeo challenged him, why did Kyurem chase him down when he fled? Is lying punishable by death or something? It must be, because Kyurem spent the rest of the movie trying to find and kill Keldeo.
It's only after Keldeo takes one for Ash and co and actually tells Kyurem he quits instead of physically running does Kyurem stop his rape festival and allow Keldeo to walk free. This is ridiculous; if Kyurem was going to acknowledge Keldeo as a Sword of Justice regardless of the outcome of the fight, then what was the purpose of the battle in the first place? Was this all some sick test just so Keldeo can activate his Resolute Form? It must be, because Virizion knew what it was. Even if it wasn't a test, why would you keep that from him?
<Keldeo> I wanna fight Kyurem!
<Virizion> LOL No way man, you will get stepped on [I was kinda shocked when he actually -did- get stepped on, lol]
<Keldeo> *angsty whine* I am strong enough!
<Cobalion> You must feel the weight of your sword or something
<Keldeo> Cobalion just shut up okay, speak plainly or don't speak at all
<Cobalion> Fine. If you keep training and learn the magic of friendship, you will get a badass sword like us (except bigger), not to mention an a powerful attack that none of us will ever have regardless of the amount of training we do.
<Keldeo> Will it help me beat Kyurem?
<Cobalion> Probably.
<Keldeo> Hell yeah! Let's get training!
There, see? If they'd been honest with him from the get-go, this entire movie wouldn't have even happened.
And of course, we will never know if Keldeo could actually take Kyurem in a fight because he had to basically forfeit so Ash and co wouldn't take a Freeze Shock to the face. What a turd. Keldeo should totally get a do-over.
Despite my griping, there -were- a few cool parts:
- Any time Black Kyurem was on screen; he just looks far more beastly than White Kyurem.
- Ash and co engaging in theft in the beginning of the movie (but it's really the girl's fault for giving them the merch before they paid)
- Ash taking a Focus Blast square in the face (which was still kind of stupid because it was Pikachu who was about to interrupt the battle but hey, can't complain)
- Kyurem shooting down Iris's blimp (except when magically it was okay)
- Cilan using Crust-le's Rock Wrecker to annihilate the Cryogonal in the tunnel (as much as I hate Cilan this was a pretty smart play and I have to give credit where it's due - thank you writers for writing this amazing attack scene).
- The animation was pretty cool, I was watching in HD for about half the movie when suddenly it flipped to near-potato quality about halfway through and stayed that way the rest of the time...
By the way, about the whole scene where Iris and Cilan decoy themselves so Keldeo can get away: Iris stealing and piloting a blimp was not only (presumably) a crime, it was pretty stupid considering the goal was to get away as fast you can. At least Cilan had the right idea and was actually able to evade the Cryogonal for a while.
I also didn't like how Jessie and James were only in one shot each, and they weren't even together. We didn't even see Meowth (the one owned by Team Rocket). Seeing Team Rocket leads the viewer to believe they're going to be involved somehow.
And finally, I really didn't like the fact that there was no villain. Kyurem is not a villain. No one speaks ill of him; they actually do the opposite by lauding him as the world's strongest dragon. Kyurem is just painted as one because he terrorizes Ash and co trying to get to Keldeo, which wouldn't have happened if Keldeo hadn't run away in the first place. If anything, Keldeo is the villain. And speaking of being terrorized, where were all the people? Were Ash and co visiting a ghost town or something?
There are two things that could have made this movie even worse:
1. Dawn
2. More Cilan lines (Black Kyurem totally should have crushed Cilan in the train car, who's with me)
k. I'm done venting. I just can't get over how stupid this movie was. Did any of you like it? If so, what did you like? Or are you more like me, bitter and disappointed with this "film" (I use this term loosely because it's barely an hour long)?
No wait I just remembered one more thing? Keldeo can fly, apparently? I guess maybe it's more like hovering or something...? Whatever.
Watching this movie actually made me more psyched for gen 6 because gen 6 means Ash will be traveling in a new region and Cilan won't be around anymore. I hope he [Cilan] gets hit by a bus.