Directed by: Rob Letterman
Runtime: 104 minutes
There are many different franchises that hold a special place in my heart, most of them because they formed a large part of my childhood. As a child of the ’90s, it is no surprise to say that Pokémon is one of the largest. I was the exact right age when the Pokémon craze swept the world; I was one of the millions of kids collecting the cards, playing the games, and watching the anime. While I am now a mid-twenties nerd, far beyond the demographic that The Pokémon Company are aiming for, I still bought a Nintendo Switch as soon as a mainline Pokémon game was announced for the platform. Knowing this now, I bet you think I was super hyped to go and see Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. Well… I wasn’t. I hated the trailer for this film, with my friends having to listen to a multitude of disenfranchised rants. There were just too many things I didn’t like about it to recount them all here. I went into this film thinking it was going to be a steaming pile of trash, only to walk out with a massive smile on my face.
For context, Detective Pikachu is based on a spinoff game of the same name and, while I have played all the mainline Pokémon games, the spinoffs are where my knowledge most lacks. I found this didn’t sour my experience in the slightest. It’s a simple concept: the Pikachu can talk and is a detective. The story revolves around, you guessed it, a mystery that Detective Pikachu and our reluctant protagonist Tim Goodman must solve together. The story is interesting in the sense that it’s something that we have seen before in kids’ movies, and movies in general, but not in a world like this. The regular formula of a mystery story is used throughout and is only made more exhilarating by setting it among a neo-noir Pokémon backdrop. For example, instead of visiting an underground street fighting ring along the way, our characters visit an underground Pokémon battling ring. The inclusion of these fuzzy creatures makes everything even more enjoyable and, if you have any affinity to this franchise, these types of scenes can bring a huge smile to your face. That’s not to say you need to know about the Pokémon world before going in; explanation of the world is built into the story well enough that parents who have no idea what a Cubone even is will still be able to follow and enjoy the story quite easily. The only problem I have with the story lies in the last ten minutes, where things go a bit too juvenile and a few plot points make little sense.
Before going into the film, one of the things that worried me the most was what I had seen of the performances in the marketing materials. After seeing the film, I think the best way to critique the performances is to split them into Pokémon and humans. First, humans. They were… fine. Justice Smith and Lucy Stevens both put in decent performances: nothing amazing to rave about, but nothing worthy of derision either. Bill Nighy, on the other hand, is so obviously doing this just because a grandchild begged him to and he looks to be half asleep in most of his scenes. His performance isn’t horrible, it just feels lazy. The Pokémon, however, shine. The animation does well to give us solid facial expressions on all the Pokémon who can’t say anything more than their own names, making them seem more than lifeless CGI shadows. For the Pokemon that can talk (namely the movie’s drawcard—Pikachu), Ryan Reynolds knocks it out of the park. Bringing his signature wit, he spits out some great one-liners, quick dialogue and obvious ad-libbing: the high point for me being a Seinfeld reference placed perfectly within the script, leaving me in stitches.
My other concerns were all in regard to the visual style of the film, both in the world-building and Pokémon character designs. The film managed to leave me pleasantly surprised in this department. The trailer had me feeling that the Pokémon were all grimy and slightly off-model, but in the film itself, they look to have cleaned up the textures. Along with this, their movement and facial expressions were lively and enjoyable. The film takes place in Ryme city, and while the trailer seems to have focused more on the darker parts of the city, the world building within the film does well to integrate both Japanese and Western culture to create a plausible living city in both day and night. Pieces of lore from the games and anime are slipped into the main story, along with background elements that fans will enjoy picking out.
In the end, Detective Pikachu is a solid kids’ movie that both fans and newcomers can enjoy. Having a simple story allows the humour to stand out and shine, and while the world is firmly planted in Pokémon lore, it doesn’t prevent newcomers from being able to engage and enjoy the ride. While the last ten minutes do feel weak, this hasn’t caused me to write off the film in its entirety. There are plenty of in-jokes and lore for fans of the franchise to smile about, and I know it did exactly that for me. Now, I’m off to go and figure out whether to pre-order Pokémon Sword or Shield.
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