Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (劇場版ポケットモンスター ミュウツーの逆襲 )

TNT RoughCut by

Why do I keep having to see such awful movies?

Baltimore Sun by Ann Hornaday

With its incomprehensible plot, flat visual style and indecipherably mixed messages (violence is good; no, wait, violence is bad!), this movie seems chiefly to be an excuse to sell even more trading cards.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey

Essentially, the film functions as a holiday catalog, introducing fans to a new Pokemon whose effigy they can collect in trading cards.

New York Post by Hannah Brown

Strictly a kids' movie, but parents may be relieved to sit back and enjoy the fact that for two full hours, they won't have to hear the kids asking them to buy any more Pokemon trading cards.

Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector

By the time the fighting between clones and their originals turned to fraternal bonding, I was quite moved, even blissed out.

Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan

An unoriginal warming over of a skimpy Japanese production that has been re-edited, rescored and rewritten for American tots and padded out to feature length with a plotless short called "Pikachu's Vacation."

USA Today by Mike Clark

Plays a little like a pacifistic variation on Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon."

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

It's just a sound-and-light show, linked to the marketing push for Pokemon in general.

TV Guide Magazine by Steve Simels

This totally sucks.

San Francisco Examiner by Wesley Morris

The film is obviously a long-form episode of a show better digested in 22-minute segments.