As a long time Pokémon fan who was a teenager when the franchise was released (and the first movie was released when I was in eighth grade),this remake was unnecessary and disappointing. While I am giving it two stars for the effort of keeping the movie close to the script, there is some problems. The character models are iffy, as the humans look like something taken from an Imagi movie (you know the company that did that Astro Boy movie). Also, whoever took over the roles for Misty and Brock are not doing a good job mimicking the roles (Brock sounds a little too gruff, and Misty sounds too light),and why did they have to change some of the lyrics to the classic Pokémon anime theme? I recommend avoiding this and watching the original Mewtwo Strikes Back instead.

Growing up with the Pokémon franchise during the peak of its fervor, I definitely remember going to see the first movie when it came out in theaters. Consequently, there is an amount of nostalgia that I associate with this first forray of the franchise onto the big screen. When I saw that Netflix had recreated the 2D anime of my childhood with their style of CGI animation, I was intrigued enough to check it out.

Much like in the recent CGI version of The Lion King (2019),just because a movie was faithfully recreated using newer animation technology does not make it a better movie. Additionally, I believe the fact that I had aged since I first watched this movie made it so I could see it through a more objective lens. What I found was that the story was incredibly light, and the only thing that made it worth watching in the original was the fact that the Pokémon I had seen on the small monochromatic screen of my Game Boy were on the enormous screen of the movie theater.

I do have a feeling that Netflix has a certain style for their CGI anime reboots, and I don't know if I entirely like it. For example, the Knights of the Zodiac CGI reboot they did looks really sharp, but has a few weaknesses when it comes to the human characters. This weakness was even more pronounced in this Pokémon movie because they tried to retain the same animation style of the humans from the original, which made them look really weird. My eyes were amazed at all the inorganic textures-like rocks and water-but the human characters were well within the uncanny valley for me and made it difficult to watch.

A nostalgia-filled remake that fell into the uncanny valley, I give Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution 2.5 stars out of 5.

Was this or the original a particularly good movie? Mediocre at best. But it is pure nostalgia.

The writing can be pretty awful at times and the pacing is so off. That being said, the animation in this, and even the original, is absolutely stunning and shows off what a Pokemon battle could and should look like. Being a remake, there is also that one particular moment that hits just as hard as an adult; if not harder. If you don't cry, I'm not sure you have a heart.

I remember renting this from my local video store, as a kid, for weeks on end and loving every second of the action but not fully understanding Mewtwo's anger. As an adult, I fully comprehend it but am left wondering if it could've been more fleshed out. Still, the actions scenes are stunning, the pocket monsters themselves are as lovable as ever, and it's pure nostalgia for nostalgia's sake.