In Rekku no Houmonsha Deokishisu, Deoxys, a pokemon from space, crash-lands on Earth in search of a special crystal.  However, along the way it attracts the attention of Rayquaza, the ozone-dwelling dragon pokemon, and the two start an intense four-year rivalry.  Satoshi and his friends get caught up in the conflict, and it's up to him and his new group of friends, including the enigmatic Toh'i, to stop their battle from destroying the high tech LaRousse City.

The movie had a lot of hype behind it.  It featured a pokemon which many people compared to Myuutwo, and it looked like it was going to be the most action-packed movie yet.  It was also the first movie not to feature a cute yet ultimately useless mini-movie, and many fans were excited at the fact that we were getting an extra thirty minutes or so added to the film as a result. 

So, did the film live up to the hype?  Well...yes and no.  The opening battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys was exactly what fans had been hoping for, and it really looked like the anime producers were trying to aim the movie at an older audience.  While Deoxys' arm being severed didn't look as cool as it did in the manga, it was still pretty cool-looking in the anime.

Other than that, though, the movie was pretty average for a Pokemon movie.  We got more than our share of obligatory side-characters (Toh'i, Rondo-Hakase, Yuuko, Ryuu, Shouta, Audrey, Catherine, Hitomi, etc.) and, while there were quite a few, the anime producers did at least try to give each person a unique personality trait.  The city of LaRousse was pretty interesting to look at, and, until the end of the movie, the Blobo were a nice touch as well.  The Battle Tower scene was also well-done, and even though it didn't feature a Satoshi/Haruka double battle like the trailer would have you believe, it wasn't disappointing at all.  And Gonbe, who many thought would be the annoyingly cute and useless mascot of the movie, actually turned out to be genuinely funny and useful.  Imagine that.

There are other good points worth mentioning.  The animation, for the most part, was really well-done.  It shined the most during the aforementioned opening scene, but there were other moments when the animation was nice as well.  The soundtrack, save for the ending theme, was also really nice. 

However, the movie did have its shortcomings.  For one thing, the ending theme, L-O-V-E-L-Y ~To Dream of the Lovely Boy~ is the most annoying piece of music I think I've ever heard in my life, and I've seen The Brak Show.  The song is like an earworm that gets stuck in your head and will not leave, and I guarantee you that you'll be driven insane after hearing it the multiple times it and its instrumental counterpart is played through the course of the movie.  In addition, a lot of the pokemon just weren't as cool as they could have been.  Metagross didn't do anything other than use one Reflector attack.  Other than that, it just kinda floated there, saving the animators money by not moving at all.  I mean, there's a scene where we see Shouta struggling to pry open the door to the botanical garden, and Metagross just FLOATS there, doing nothing.  Bashamo was another pokemon with whom I was disappointed with.  Remember how it debuted in the Jouto League as this badass fire/fighting-type Houen pokemon?  Well, you might as well forget about it when you watch this movie.  We see it slide on a playground slide with the twins on its lab.  We see it jump on a windmill like a thirteen-year-old girl on her brother's bed during a sleepover.  And, in the movie's ending sequence, we see it dance around with pom-poms in its hands.  It almost seemed as if the anime producers were TRYING to turn Bashamo into the biggest dork in the pokemon universe, which is really disappointing considering how cool Hazuki's was. 

In addition, I felt that the end of the movie was just a mess.  The entire Blobo plot felt like a last minute addition, and it was glaringly obvious that it was just tacked on at the end to make the movie longer.  In addition, the resolution to the Rayquaza/Deoxys feud was practically non-existent.  The Deoxys shield Rayquaza from an onslaught of block robots (for no reason), and then *poof* the rivalry's over.  It's almost like "Y'know, we've been fighting for four years, and I've pretty much hated you all this time, but you've shielded me from this one attack, so you know what?  I forgive you."  I was hoping for a better resolution to the much-hyped battle, and I was very disappointed.

When all is said and done, Rekku no Houmonsha Deokishisu is a solid addition to the Pocket Monsters movies.  Despite its shortcomings, the film is an enjoyable way to spend about two hours.  While it's not the best Pokemon movie, it certainly isn't the worst, and I think that many people will be happy when the movie makes its way to our shores.