As a literalDeus ex Machina, Arceus shows up out of nowhere to stall the time-space warp at the film's climax.
Shadow Hoopa somehow being able to control multiple Legendaries like Giratina, Palkia, and Dialga.
Latias and Latios are able to Mega Evolve without their Mega Stones for no reason whatsoever. Seems that there's a trend lately concerningLegendaries activating Super Modes in the movies in ways that outright contradict the games.
Latios' entire presence in this movie doesn't make much sense considering what he did at the end of Pokémon Heroes. This mostly applies to the dub audience because the dub truncated Heroes to remove the explanation that many Latios and Latias had come to Alto Mare in the past, meaning this Latios is a separate member of the species.
Wobbuffet successfully reflecting a Shadow Ball back at Giratina, despite the anime establishing that he cannot counter attacks that are beyond his own power level.
The time-space warp. How it happens raises a few eyebrows ("too many Legendaries together" seems like a bizarre cause, as multiple Legendaries have appeared together at once before with no warping of time and space anywhere, and it's not specified as a direct result of having the Creation trio involved), and its only real purpose is to force a climax onto the movie and make it run for longer than it needs to. That said, the specific line is that "too many were summoned", which may be related more to Hoopa's portals damaging space due to too many being used in a short span of time (in other words, Hoopa had never summoned so many Legendaries before). However, there is still room for absurdity in this scenario, because the literal physical gods of time and space are present, yet they couldn't fix this problem, which clearly is within the bounds of their power.
Critical Dissonance: Despite being one of the most reviled Pokémon films among the fandom, it has a user rating of 6.1/10 on IMDb.
Heartwarming Moments: Hoopa at one point early in the movie summons a ton of different Pikachu using its rings, then challenges Ash to guess which one is his Pikachu. Ash makes the right choice immediately. Now that'strue friendship right there.
Inferred Holocaust: Legendaries slice and dice buildings, blast streams of molten lava into others, and freeze people in subzero conditions. It would be a miracle if no one actually died.
Just Here for Godzilla: Admit it - with this many Legendaries together, odds are you're only interested in seeing the film for at least one of them.
Either that, or you're interested in seeing Possessed!Ash.
While "Alléhooparing!" is a silly nonsense word that seems suited for the small, mischievous-looking Hoopa Confined, hearing it from the big, ogre-like Hoopa Unbound is... surreal.
In general, both of Hoopa's voices are almost impossible to take seriously in the English dub.
Regigigas's cry, unlike its cry from Giratina and the Sky Warrior, ranges from "monotone guy in a recording booth", to "a dying computer's last pathetic sounds". Try listening to it with a straight face.
The look on Meowth's face when he is possessed into opening the Prison Bottle.
Kyogre flying. Or for that matter, Groudon not flying, when every other Legendary Pokemon could fly, even those that don't seem capable of doing so.
Narm Charm: There are a good number of people who actually find Regigigas's cry awesome as much as they find it laughable. Or at least appropriately pitiful, considering that it already has a Memetic Loser reputation from its crippling Slow Start ability and this movie cements it by making it barely able to do anything before going down.
Nightmare Fuel: Hoopa's introduction at the very start of the movie is quite disconcerting, especially considering that it essentially appears from nowhere, flashes a Slasher Smile at the people nearby, and then causes all hell to break loose.
Sequelitis: Even among modern Pokémon movies, this one isn't held in high regard, largely due to the very thin plot behind the fireworks of the legendary scuffle, the repetitive dialogue that hammers what's happening onscreen into the viewers' heads and a (quite literal) Deus ex Machina ending. Japanese audiences seemed to agree, as the film only made ¥2,040,078,200 ($22 million) in theaters, being the worst-performing Pokémon movie since Pokémon Heroes, and the second-worst performing one in the franchise (only being outdone by the very next one)!
Lugia shows up early on, gets thrown out of the movie before it can even take part in the Kerfuffle of Legends, and is never mentioned again. You're almost left to wonder why it was even brought in at all.
While most of the Legendaries count to some degree (being little more than snarling Kaiju who punch each other for half an hour), another big offender (despite being on the poster) is Arceus. All it really does is act as a literal Deus ex Machina to save the day before promptly disappearing.
Clemont, Serena, and Bonnie count too. While Ash spends half an hour commanding gods, they sit in the background doing some ritual to forge a Prison Bottle, spouting little to no dialogue.
Baraz and Meray were wasted, merely being there to explain what is already shown, give exposition, or be a plot device. Many would have liked to see the origins of their powers and connection to Arceus.
Arceus himself is foreshadowed throughout the movie and apparently lent his Plates to forge the Prison Bottle, but his role is limited to a Deus ex Machina with no dialogue.
Despite having multiple Legendary Pokémon fighting each other, the actual "Clash of Ages" winds up lacking dramatic tension due to every human character except the core cast up and vanishing from the scene, thereby eliminating any actual threat and consequences the battle may have beyond property damage, on top of the characterless Olympus Mons lacking any real motive to fight each other (besides "Let's You and Him Fight"), and as such the audience has no real reason to root for anyone beyond their favorites to win.
The Legendaries present are all Pokémon that could be caught in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and among them is Lugia. You'd think this would be the perfect opportunity for Ho-Oh to get its long-awaited movie treatment (if only as a side character), but once more, Ho-Oh is a no-show. This, however, is actually fixedtwo movies later.
Speaking of Lugia, both it and Kyogre are legendaries strongly associated with the ocean, but are summoned by different Hoopas. Expecting them both to clash in an epic battle? Too bad, Lugia is shafted before the battle can actually take place, while Kyogre only gets the spotlight for a single scene and is otherwise more or less forgotten amongst the other combatants.
Video Game Movies Suck: Hoopa ranks up with Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened as one of the most fan-criticized Pokémon movies, largely due to the thin plot: outside the titular Clash of Ages (which has problems itself), there's very little of note going on. The writing (especially in the English dub) has also been criticized for being very hand-holding, over-explaining every facet of the plot with constant exposition, even when the onscreen action makes it obvious what's happening. And then there's the ending, which many perceive as a cop-out.
, unlike its cry from Giratina and the Sky Warrior, ranges from "monotone guy in a recording booth", to "a dying computer's last pathetic sounds". Try listening to it with a straight face.