Admittedly without game knowledge it makes sense to pick Charmander, the toughest one to win the game with. Red’s Pokémon is supposed to be Bulbasaur, and he grabbed the middle pokeball (Squirtle). Red picks Charmander, because marketing told him to. Oak gives lots more exposition (pick up the pace!), and they get to pick a starter. His literal only personality trait is gone. This makes them both hot headed and pushy (that is a Silver thing, not a Blue thing). He is the calm blue oni to Blue’s emotional red oni (ironic). Red is supposed to be a player avatar except for being very calm. This is taking itself very seriously, so your names cannot be “Red” and “Blue.” In fact Red has a default name of “Jack” you could have used. The games are not serious, the show (with normal names) is not serious. First problem that should have easily been addressed, the names. Red arrives at Oak’s place where Blue is posing and insulting him. It worked in the game, but it just looks bad in animation.
Like many comic book movies I keep noticing them just pausing in poses from the game. The fighting animation is good, but human animation looks stiff. I often hear the animation is good (for the first part at least), but I see the opposite.
To make it worse this is a badly done trip that looks stiff. To give him flaws the creators make him trip once to give him the clumsy flaw. His actor has very limited range, and it is so grating. He not only talks but has very pointless monologues. It is very good until a few minutes when Red talks. He is also a terrible professor who has no idea Pokémon have sexes or reproduce. It is faithful, but Oak sounds way too serious for me.
The opening to the game is with Oak explaining Pokemon, so the movie does the same thing. The Pokémon show has the exact opposite of one in Ash Ketchum. Video games almost always have mary sue protagonists. Video games have garbage villains normally, and the show uses that to its advantage. That makes easy episode adaptations, but it is disastrous for a movie. Moon, and Viridian Forest in addition to gyms to divide the game. In Pokémon you have different parts like Rock Tunnel, Mt.
Video game movies are known for sucking especially compared to TV show adaptations. I did not get into Pokémon until I was 20 years old, so I can actually review this without any nostalgia lenses. Pokémon Origins debuted in Fall 2013 all together in four acts as a truer to the game version.