Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
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Pokémon Detective Pikachu Movie Review
Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a 2019 fantasy mystery film directed by Rob Letterman and starring Ryan Reynolds and Justice Smith. It’s such a good, commendable movie.
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“At this point,
how could you not believe in climate change?“
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This movie is pretty much a mystery at its heart above all else and it also surprisingly enough has some strong noir sensibilities in it. That was weird and unexpected, but ultimately it was so well executed that it was a strong experiment. The movie pretty much abandoned some of the essential features of the franchise such as Pokémon battles as well as the catching and training of them as it deemed them as animal abuse, and that was unfortunate to witness as it made the movie less fun.
But we still get some awesome battles nonetheless and those are excellent in execution and a whole lot of fun. And ultimately I liked its different mystery approach with some strong SF elements to it as well with all of the genetic meddling with the DNA of the creatures and the Pokémon evolution. That was very interesting, albeit mostly regular and too meticulous in detail. And simply the movie’s more adult, more serious approach really worked in its favor.
I was skeptical at first about Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu here and yes, he still sounded like Deadpool to me, but much more subdued of course. However, he’s so funny and so amusing that I ultimately got used to it and I didn’t mind it all too much.
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As for the movie’s major twist at the end that Pikachu was Tim’s father all along (played by Reynolds in flesh), well, it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, it made the role of Pikachu significantly reduced which really bothered me as the movie overall is too focused on humans and it needed a bigger emphasis on the Pokémon themselves.
But on the other hand, it made for a fresh, very interesting twist that I did not catch at all and the fact that it surprised me and I am rarely surprised at movies anymore is commendable. And it also made perfect sense and was the most sensible way probably to explain a talking, detective Pikachu. So in the end, I liked it more than I didn’t.
Justice Smith as Tim is too much of a wet blanket at first which annoyed me as he lives in this awesome Pokémon city and cannot fully appreciate it, but eventually he becomes more accustomed to the idea and his relationship with his father is so well realized.
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Lucy is ultimately underutilized and thus not as memorable as the movie thought she would be obviously. Bill Nighy as the villain is very good and although that whole taking over the body of the Pokémon concept was too odd, it in the end worked as it was crafted as well as they could have done it.
Let’s talk about the Pokémon. I loved Pikachu and he was so adorable and perfectly transported to live-action. Psyduck is as funny as he always is, but not as hilarious as he was in the anime. Mewto is so awesome visually and in action scenes, he was badass. I liked Charizard as well, but unfortunately many other ones including Jigglypuff were entirely underutilized.
Detective Pikachu is solidly paced and truly entertaining throughout. It features an excellent mysterious atmosphere to it and in terms of fantastical elements it excels and I bought that these creatures were real thanks to truly outstanding VFX. Some Pokémon look better than others, but the best one is Pikachu as he’s beyond adorable. There is so much good stuff here that I am excited to see more.
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Detective Pikachu has a lot of things going for it and a couple of things going against it. Its twist ending is a mixed bag: on the one hand, it reduced the role of Pikachu problematically, but on the other hand, it made sense and it genuinely surprised me. The story overall is pretty good, the humor’s great and the film’s mystery approach was excellent with the Pokémon evolution angle also being very interesting. The characterization is strong as is the action, but the decision to get rid of the signature battles and training bothered me. The Pokémon mostly look superb thanks to truly impressive VFX. Overall, this was such an entertaining, very good movie and it was very cool seeing all the famous Pokémon in live-action, but for the next flick I would personally like to see a bigger emphasis on the Pokémon themselves instead of humans.
