Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution

Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution is a 2019 Japanese computer-animated film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and Motonori Sakakibara. The film is the 22nd installment in the Pokémon film series and a Maya CGI remake of the first film. The film was animated at OLM's Maya CGI animated unit. So far, this is the only Pokémon production made in Maya CGI animation.

In Japan, it was released on July 12, 2019, by Toho, eight days after it's showing preview in Los Angeles, USA. A preview was shown in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2019, on Independence Day 2019. The film was released worldwide on Netflix on Pokémon Day on February 27, 2020.

Plot
After a scientific experiment leads to the creation of a clone of Mewtwo, he sets out to destroy the world. Ash and his friends then decide to thwart Mewtwo's evil plans.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The story retelling of the first movie stays true to the first Pokémon movie's original story, but with only a few changes to the original plot. Unlike mh:awfulmovies:Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, this Pokémon movie does a good job with retelling past events.
 * 2) *To be fair with the I Choose You movie, it was an Alternative Continuity film, which does explain why the movie's events were different from the original episode that began the anime. But was still used in the wrong time anyway.
 * 3) Misty and Brock appear in a Pokémon movie once again, and it's still nice to see those characters shine to the spotlight in the Pokémon movies again. As usual, their voices are still great, and even their designs in the CGI animation look awesome.
 * 4) The other Pokémons are animated and rendered well in the CGI animation.
 * 5) The voice acting in both the Japanese and English dubs are very well-voiced.
 * 6) Like in the first Pokémon movie, all the characters are very well-portrayed. Including Mewtwo, who seems to still be the badass villain in the Pokémon franchise.
 * 7) The CGI animation looks superior and beautiful, as it steps up from the past Pokémon movies that were traditionally animated graciously.
 * 8) The rendering of the characters look so faithful to the original 2D animated designs. And Pikachu looks really awesome in CGI animation.
 * 9) The English dub of the film had improved script-writing 4Kids would have done with the original version of mh:awfulmovies:Pokémon: The First Movie. For example, despite the fact that everyone else's memory about the events of Mewtwo and the other Pokémon fighting has become forgotten, Ash still remembers he saw one of the rarest Pokémon.
 * 10) The colours and backgrounds are just as splendid as the CGI animation.
 * 11) The ending songs played in the end credits are brilliant.
 * 12) Outstanding soundtrack.
 * 13) The intro battling sequence, like in the first movie, is very satisfying and enjoyable.
 * 14) The remake of the theme song made for both the first season of Pokémon and the first Pokémon movie stays true to the original theme song from the original Pokémon era (Seasons 1-5), "Gotta Catch Em All!".
 * 15) If you have Netflix in the US, you have the option to listen to the Japanese dub of the CGI remake. Best of all, the American Pokémon theme is played in this version, despite not being dubbed into Japanese (but that's only in the case of the US Netflix).
 * 16) Fantastic direction from Tetsuo Yajima who has an amazing understanding of the franchise and has long time series director Kunihiko Yuyama helping him out with the direction as always, which is a great sign of proof that the film is in good hands and since they did good research on the original film's plot and knew about it's charm, it gives the remake the same charm and appeal as the original and improves on some aspects here and there, as expected from the same guy who made XYZ and The Power of Us.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The CGI models for the human characters look great and are rendered very well, but they kind of look like Barbie rejects.
 * 2) While this does retell a past Pokémon movie in a great way, the origin story of Mewtwo from the original version of Pokémon: The First Movie wasn't planned, which is pretty disappointing.
 * 3) Depending on your opinion, Brock's voice does sound a little bit too gruff and over the top in some areas in the English dub.
 * 4) Although the intro sequence did look great in the CGI animation, the way of using three Pokémon at once is still there like in the original, but even that being said, that still goes against the original source material of the games.
 * 5) This may not necessarily be counted as a bad thing, but there isn't that much of a difference between the original traditionally animated version and the CGI version, aside from a couple changes.

Reception
Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution got mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans of the Pokémon franchise.

On Metacritic, the movie has a critic rating of 50/100 ("mixed or average reviews") and a user score of 6.3/10 ("generally favourable reviews").

IGN gave the movie a 5/10, praising its new visuals and action sequences while criticizing its pacing issue and some of the characters' flat expressions.

The Daily Dot gave the movie a full score of 5/5, praising its visuals, storey, characters and faithfulness to the first movie.