This is the one that finally pays off the Sinnoh trilogy, and it does it by putting a god on trial. Arceus wakes up furious, convinced Damos stole the Jewel of Life and left it to die, and the movie's answer isn't a battle, it's Dialga throwing Ash back into the past to prove a dead man innocent. Watching Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, three legendaries who spent two films trying to erase each other, line up together against Arceus and its Judgment is the payoff every kid who sat through Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior was owed. Michina's bright, sun-bleached ruins and the 16 plates give the whole thing a mythology-tablet weight the earlier films only gestured at. Marcus is the rare Pokémon movie villain whose betrayal actually reshapes the plot instead of just monologuing. Skip the first two and you'll be lost. Watch them and this lands like a closing argument.

Thousands of years ago, the legendary Pokémon Arceus stopped a meteor that threatened the world, but it was badly hurt in the effort. A man named Damos cared for it, and in gratitude Arceus lent sixteen parts of its body to form the Jewel of Life, meant to make the desolate land of Michina prosper, on the condition that it be returned by a set date. When it was not given back, the betrayed Arceus vowed to judge humanity once it woke. Ages later, Satoshi, Hikari and Takeshi reach the riverside town of Michina and head for its ruins atop a great rock. There they meet Sheena, a descendant of Damos who hopes to return the Jewel when Arceus awakens. As Dialga, Palkia and Giratina clash and Arceus stirs, Satoshi must try to keep the human race from being destroyed in this action-packed fantasy adventure.