Pokemon 2000 was a bit chaotic, and the plot wasn't particularly novel, but hot damn did it have a good soundtrack.
Lugia's Song is a good piece of music all on its own, much less as background music. And then there was the greatest prophecy ever.
*Problems happen.*
"The world will turn to Ash."
*Ash fixes everything.*
Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that.
Spell of the Unown (#3), Celebi: Voice of the Forest (#4), and Heroes: Latios and Latias all had fairly varied plots, and all had good moments. Spell of the Unown had
motherfuckin' Charizard come help, as Charizard was wont to do. Some real creativity was shown when passing through a regenerating crystal wall. Charizard blasted a hole in it, then Squirtle's water spit poured through to keep it from regenerating while the crew all swam through the hole. Genius. Voice of the Forest had time-travel and a young Professor Oak, so it couldn't be all bad. Just about the last one where Jesse and James did anything notably villainous. Heroes was let down by the fact that the 'impending doom' of - get this -
one Aerodactyl was the main villain. Seriously.
An Aerodactyl. Also some crazy flooding, but that should have been impossible. The whole sea level would have to rise to drown the island the way they showed it. Nonetheless, the moment that Latios sacrificed himself to make another Soul Dew and protect the island was pretty deep, if a little corny.
And then you had Jirachi: Wish Maker (#6), which tried to follow in the footsteps of Lugia's Song with
May's Lullaby. It's just fucking
bad. And it's about Max, who is objectively the worst. Nobody liked Max. And now there's a magical sky-fairy that grants him all his wishes while managing to be almost as obnoxious as Max himself. Admittedly, it had a pretty neat ending battle with pseudonatural Groudon, though the random Flygon that showed up for Ash to ride really should have been Charizard. (I mean, at least that deus ex machina is well established and makes some sort of sense.)
Destiny Deoxys was a good movie, which is saying something for Pokemon movies. They pumped it out in a little under 6 months. The Deoxys invasion was actually pretty eery, and the movie had an actually dangerous villain. The futuristic city turning on its inhabitants was pretty well done. (Who wasn't a villain in the end after all, what a tweest!) Also had Rayquaza doing his Rayquaza thing, which is apparently fucking up interstellar travelers. The intro was just great. Deoxys crashes into the planet and has an apocalyptic battle with Rayquaza right from the get-go. It ends, appropriately, with Rayquaza beating the living shit out of Deoxys, who had to spend four years regenerating to try that again.
Lucario and the Mystery of Mew had a plot, at least. It could have used 'aura' about a hundred fewer times, but a plot it was nonetheless. The flashback to the ancient war was pretty interesting for a Pokemon movie, though it was a tad silly that the Blue kingdom had just one Lucario and trainer for a military. As far as legends go, it was pretty fleshed out. Max said almost nothing.
Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was fairly awful. There wasn't really a narrative, though there was a fun part with a water Pokemon circus. It featured May pretty heavily, which isn't a great thing. That also meant Max got some lines, which was terrible.
I'll summarize/review the rest later. The movies immediately after those were a little forgettable, so I'll have to check my notes.