Off the Cuff Reviews Highlander (1986)

You ever watch a movie that left you more disappointed than anything else? A movie that had promise, that had some good elements which ultimately went nowhere? I'm not sure if I had, until today. Highlander (1986) is such a disappointment to me because, at a certain point, it had me. I was intrigued. I was invested. I was interested. And then, at a later stage, it lost me. The crazy thing is, it wasn't even a gradual thing. I can pinpoint the exact second I went from 'This movie's okay' to 'I don't like this'. I'll get to that point later. Starring Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, Roxanne Hart as Brenda Wyatt, Clancy Brown as The Kurgan and Sean Connery as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez.

Highlander (1986)

First of all, I just want the record to show that I get it. I can understand why people have fun with this movie. It really just is kind of one of those movies. A movie that you can put on and just have fun with. And, for a long time, I agreed. Especially in the opening couple of scenes, the movie was having fun with itself, delightfully over-the-top and ridiculous, almost in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. A big bombastic Queen song in the opening credits, leading directly into one of the most ludicrous yet perfect fight scenes I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I was confused, certainly, as I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I was on board. I was along for the ride. And, if the movie had kept up the same tone and the same pace consistently throughout, I might have walked away calling this a masterpiece. It could have been a movie that knew what it wanted to do: be ridiculous and nonsensical and just be entertaining. Sadly, once the story actually begins, a lot of the enjoyment really started to drip-feed right out, for me at least. If you can put this movie on and unironically, or even ironically, love it, good for you. As for me, I can't. As the movie progresses, it starts taking itself more seriously, telling an actual story with stakes and themes, and it just can't balance that against the goofy, bombastic s*** that's going on at the same time.

Sean Connery as Ramirez

I really thought the movie had hit on something big with the immortality stuff. The story in and of itself is actually really compelling. A bunch of immortals being drawn to a big showdown where the last one left gets imbued with endless knowledge; that's a story I haven't seen before. Immortality in general is an inherently compelling subject to discuss, and this felt like a good opportunity to explore it. And it gets it occasionally. The stuff with Heather and how Connor handles her passing, that was all really good stuff. Sadly, the movie takes just a little too long to explain everything, leading to about 45 minutes of a confused audience wondering what the hell is going on, and 45 minutes is a little too long to get to your key premise. All the wacky s*** happening in the first act just, kind of, happens, and once we get the explanation, we don't really get any more content like that until right at the final showdown. The flashback structure was absolutely the only way to tell this story, but the order wasn't quite right. It also didn't help that the cop stuff in New York was nowhere near as compelling as the immortality story or even the story in Scotland. Talk about not compelling, however, now we get to Connor MacLeod. Good God, talk about a blank slate. I finished the movie 5 minutes ago, and I couldn't give you a single adjective to describe who he is as a person except 'immortal'. He's just written so poorly, we never get a sense of who he is, which is especially bad for an immortal character, since the stakes are rarely high enough for us to care anyway. This is why I got so disappointed; immortality is so compelling, I didn't want to see it wasted on this paper towel of a protagonist.

Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod

It didn't help that Christopher Lambert was nothing special in this role. He was serviceable, he did his job okay, but there was nothing in his performance that really made me think he was the only choice for this role. Anyone could have played him, and that especially becomes a problem when you realise if they'd gotten anyone else, he wouldn't have sounded French half the time. He gets the Scottish right occasionally, but at other times, he goes all over the place with the accent. He goes American sometimes, which I guess is fair enough, since he'd have picked up bits of the accent after living in New York for so long, but at other times I heard Australian. It always still sounded somewhat French, though, and I really had a hard time looking past it. Not as hard a time as trying to figure out why Sean Connery was cast as a Spanish Egyptian. This is another one that could have gone to anyone else: why would you cast a Scotsman to play the only man in Scotland who isn't from Scotland? He's Scottish! He's unmistakably Scottish! Connery does fine in the role, but, again, it could have been played by any older actor and nothing would have changed. The only person in this cast who really nails it is Clancy Brown. He really feels like the only pick for this role. He has the wacky nihilism, the intimidating voice and the dignity to carry it all off and not come across as mugging for the sake of mugging. His character brought back some more elements of that tone from the beginning; I yearn for the movie that could have existed had they just taken themselves a little less seriously.

Clancy Brown as Kurgan

If it had taken itself less seriously, I might have been able to overlook some of the more out there plot elements. Had it committed to its 'What the f***?' tone throughout, I might have enjoyed the swords that could cause stone walls to explode. Swords that cause stone walls to explode. Swords! That cause stone walls! To explode! There's only one kind of movie that s*** belongs in, and it's a movie that doubles down on how bats*** crazy that premise is. This movie tries to play it half-and-half, so I have to be more critical. Also, I may be the only one asking this, but why does immortality allow one to breathe underwater? I get that they can't die, but surely it'd be more realistic (and make for a more interesting scene) to have it so they couldn't breathe but still couldn't drown? And, I know you've been waiting for it. I know you've been hanging on the edge of your seats for me to get to it. What was the exact moment I checked out? What was the precise instant that turned me to considering this a bad movie? Well, I'll tell you. Connor reveals to Brenda that he's immortal by driving a knife she's holding into his stomach. A reasonable sequence of events to prove immortality, I'll grant you. It's what happens next that had me turned. Literally the very next thing that happens is the two of them passionately kissing, leading into a sex scene. Right there. That was when I was out. And, again, if the movie had played it up, gone for the 'This is all ridiculous' aspect, I might have been on board. It could have been a commentary on how other movies force in romantic subplots out of nowhere. But it didn't. It played it completely straight, simply forcing in a romantic subplot out of nowhere. You can't do that. You can't treat this romance like it's the greatest love story ever told when not only was there barely any build-up to the two of them even liking each other, but a stabbing is the event that immediately preceded the f***ing. I just wanted a movie about immortal people. Not this.

Beatie Edney as Heather

Look, I'm sure that Highlander (1986) is a fun movie to watch in the right atmosphere, and there's enough here that would make it an excellent party movie, but critically? I just don't like it. The good elements are outweighed by the boring or the bad. It's such a shame, though. There's a really good movie hidden somewhere in those good elements. It just couldn't get out. Like I said. Disappointing. 3.5/10.

Off the Cuff Reviews Pitch Perfect (2012)

I was never on board for the Pitch Perfect (2012) hype train that existed earlier this decade. I saw it soon after it came out, I liked it, but that was about it. I wasn't quoting it in the schoolyard or using 'Pitch please' in conversation like a lot of people were back then. Then again, I also didn't take the stance that a lot of people take when a popular movie like this comes out, where people hate something just because it's popular or 'overhyped'. Jesus, 'overhyped' I could talk about for hours, but that's for another day. So, watching this back today? Yeah, my feelings are about the same. It's not a ground-breaking movie, but it's not garbage. It's just... a good movie. Maybe even a great one. Starring Anna Kendrick as Beca Mitchell, Brittany Snow as Chloe Beale, Anna Camp as Aubrey Posen, Skylar Astin as Jesse Swanson, Rebel Wilson as Patricia 'Fat Amy' Hobart, Adam DeVine as Bumper Allen, Alexis Knapp as Stacie Conrad, Hana Mae Lee as Lilly Onakuramara, Ester Deen as Cynthia Rose Adams, Ben Platt as Benji Applebaum, John Michael Higgins as John Smith and Elizabeth Banks as Gail Abernathy-McKadden.

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Let me start off by saying this: I like a capella music. Always have, always will. And, this movie makes the best possible case for why a capella music is great. It also, strangely, makes a good case for why it can be considered boring. That's probably the best thing this movie does. When the Barden Bellas are doing the same old thing and not playing it up, it's slow and stale and boring. It doesn't matter how well they hit the notes; as with any live music, you need to be having fun and playing it up for the crowd and doing something new. When the a capella is like that here, from any band, it's great to watch. And it's even greater to listen to. I shouldn't need to say this, but they cast some really talented singers in this movie. That, of course, should be a given; you make a movie about a capella, you better get some damn good voices. And, thankfully, there are some damn good voices here. Anna Kendrick, Skyler Astin, Ben Platt, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine, everyone else, they're all fantastic, and when they're in their respective groups, their voices complement each other really nicely. When the Barden Bellas are kicking ass in the final number, it's perfect. I'm not sure who was in charge of 'composing' these mixes, but they did a hecking fine job. In addition to being an a capella fan, I'm also a fan of mash-ups; when two or more songs mix into each other seamlessly and beautifully. The film does a good job of sprinkling just enough in throughout the film before the final number hits and blows you away.

Anna Kendrick as Becca

You might think it's weird for me to be talking about the final scenes so extensively like this, but trust me, it's not a spoiler. This isn't one of those movies that has an unpredictable plot or leaves you guessing, because at its core, the movie's story has been done before. We've seen it a million times. A new prodigy comes into an established group with their own traditions, and they're not listened to at first, but eventually they soften to their ways and the team comes together to win the big championship. There’s always a big championship in a movie like this. There’s also the traditional ‘rival team that has won in the past and attempts sabotage’ story running underneath, and while it’s not a huge focus, or even treated like the main goal to overcome, it is there. The story even occasionally stretches to the completely unrealistic at times, such as the way the movie handles Nodes. The first time it’s brought up isn’t over the top or exaggerated: Nodes really are basically a death sentence for your singing career. The degree to which you’ll be able to sing after getting Nodes is grossly understated from that point forward, however. Chloe was singing far too well for someone with Nodes, and that’s before she somehow acquires a super sick bass as a result. I may not be able to speak to the validity of an American college treating it’s a capella bands the way they do, or if projectile vomiting like that is realistic or just for the joke, but the movie’s treatment of Nodes is where I can say with confidence the film loses me. 

Adam DeVine as Bumper and Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy

Despite all of this, I’m going to stand by my assertion that the movie is really well written. The strength of this movie isn’t in its story, it’s in its dialogue. The characters, even the ones that are extended versions of stereotypes, are all written really well, and all feel like real people. The funny thing is, even the characters aren’t that unique: the introverted, closed-off girl, the funny fat friend, the uptight, stuck-in-their-ways leader, the love interest that’s going to get through to the protagonist, they’re all here and, like the story beats, basically all fulfil the roles you’d expect them to fulfil. The difference here is, unlike with the story, the writing is strong enough to make the characters seem unique. The way they talk to each other, the relationships, maybe even the a capella setting, something makes it seem new. It could also be the comedy. The humour, when it’s not making Jew jokes for some reason, is really strong here. They go for a lot of different jokes in this movie: character jokes, dark humour, mean-spirited jokes, and they all seem to work with each other really well. Maybe because the dialogue and performances are somewhat conversational, maybe that’s why it all works, and the laid back tone also comes across with the ad-libs that clearly made it in to the movie. I say ‘clearly’ as if it stood out like a sore thumb, but it really didn’t. It’s obvious the cast were encouraged to ad-lib, with Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine clearly doing the best job, but the tone overall really helps these ad-libs mix in with the rest of the writing really naturally. As someone who likes to ad-lib on stage/set, I appreciate that. Also, just quickly, John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks were consistently hilarious.

John Michael Higgins as John and Elizabeth Banks as Gail

All the actors are funny, though. No one's outstanding, but no one's bad either, everyone plays their parts extremely effectively. Anna Kendrick is probably the highlight, as she's given the most to do and the biggest character growth. She and Skyler Astin have great chemistry, and Astin himself is fantastic in his role. Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine are the comedic highlights, though Ben Platt gets his moments, as do everyone. Honestly, I'm really impressed with some of the minor characters here, and while everyone in either a capella group did great, there are others that really stood out to me. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was very funny in his limited appearance, and Joe Lo Truglio had me rolling in my seat. But, again, no one was bad in their roles, and everyone gets their moments of comedy, even if it took a long, long time for me to get behind Aubrey as a character. Anna Camp plays her extremely well, but I feel like her character was a little confused, and by that I mean the writers were a little confused when putting her together. I don't know, I just think that someone who screwed up on a national level like that would not be given nearly as many responsibilities as she's given. It kinda makes her story a little weak, and the fact that the movie waits so long to actually explain the why of Aubrey is also odd. The vomiting thing wasn't the crux of the character, we have to wait until about 20 minutes to the end of the movie to get some emotional payoff regarding why she is. I feel that if it had been sprinkled throughout the movie a little better, or at least hinted at, the audience could have been more on board with her as a character and why she's so insistent on just doing everything the same way. The reveal is truly shattering and it really makes you feel for her, but it just came too late. Maybe one more draft could have ironed all this out and you'd have a really solid story here.

Anna Camp as Aubrey and Brittany Snow as Chloe

In the end, however, is Pitch Perfect (2012) the cinematic masterpiece that everyone was touting it as in the early 2010s? No, but it was never trying to be. All it wanted to be was a fun movie about a capella bands. And, in that sense, it succeeds wonderfully. Never seen the sequels. Will probably get around to them eventually. 8/10.

Off the Cuff Reviews Blade Runner (1982)

You know what I love? Stories. Specifically unique, nuanced stories that can only be told in very specific ways and are made all the better by being told in those unique ways. Blade Runner (1982) is an excellent example of such a story. It touches on themes and ideas that can only be explored in this way, and presents a unique and interesting world to discuss them, but also provides familiar narratives and characters, which work wonders for relating these concepts back to our everyday lives. I may sound a little wankish doing the review like this, but it's the only way I can start this review properly. This is a thinker's movie, so I gotta do it like this. Starring Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, Sean Young as Rachael, Edward James Olmos as Gaff, M. Emmet Walsh as Bryant and Daryl Hannah as Pris.

Blade Runner (1982)

For clarification's sake, I saw the 1992 Director's Cut of the movie, simply because that's the version I was given to watch. I usually try to watch the theatrical cuts of films like this, since that's the version I'd have seen had I gone to see it in cinemas like all the new releases I get a chance to see. However, the copy of the movie I was given was the Director's Cut, so that's what I saw. Anyway, this movie is gorgeous. By that, I of course mean 'gorgeously decrepit', but the way this world is brought to life is just great to see.  The practical effects that are used throughout are fantastic, and the limited CGI never stands out too much, which tends to happen with movies like this. I will say that it is a little noticeable later in the movie when the movie doesn't so seamlessly hide the fact that it is a movie. There's one specific shot right towards the end that was clearly shot in a different location than anything else, with a blue sky visible for the first time ever. The sky itself may have been symbolism for what was happening at the time, which I do understand, but the surrounding buildings looked nothing like anything else we'd seen in the movie up until that point, so it just made the whole moment seem cheap. Aside from those one or two moments, however, the entire thing was great to look at, and the world the movie presented constantly felt alive and bustling. I always love how, in these older movies, their idea of a future society still contains technology equivalent to the time they were made. It's honestly really charming, and for a sci-fi, it can tell a story of when the world began to change in relation to the world we exist in now, which is some great unintentional world-building.

Sean Young as Rachael

This movie is essentially a story in world-building. There's a lot that goes on here, and while not all of it lends itself towards the main stories that are being told, all of it goes towards further establishing the world, which leads to further defining the stories being told. We're not told how the world of Blade Runner came to be, as it's largely irrelevant. The main focus of the story is on the 'Replicants', and these are extremely well established. It's their story, so it's only natural that the bulk of the back-story goes towards them and how they function and not towards why Deckard initially resigned from the Blade Runners to begin with. We don't need to know that. It's more of a pressing matter to explain how the Replicants work and what they want and what makes them different and what makes them the same as us. All of these are explained wonderfully through some really clever dialogue and some very intelligent 'show-don't-tell' story-telling. Most importantly, like all good sci-fi, it shines a light on the human condition. The moral grey area with the Replicants is great to see, as any other movie like this would have made them straight-up bad guys. Opening with Rachael's story really helps with that, as does the multiple different stories they tell with the different Replicants, and even human characters, throughout the film. All these tales from the metropolis tell a different story that come together in the end to discuss the themes the movie wants us to consider, and it's handled brilliantly by the end.

Daryl Hannah as Pris

I say 'by the end' as it's not the smoothest journey to get there, at least, for some people. Because, yes, the movie is slow-paced, especially for a sci-fi movie. At times, maybe even too slow. I can forgive it for the most part, however, as this movie isn't just a sci-fi. It's also a detective movie. The mystery element isn't necessarily in the forefront. There's no real mystery for the audience to solve, as we have none of the information that the characters in the movie have, so it essentially becomes us watching this guy do all the work, which is why the movie slows to a halt at times. In a regular detective movie, the audience is usually working off the same information as the detective is, and the best ones will have the audience piece things together at the same time the detective does. Here, with the world being so different from our own, this can't happen, so you feel lost at times. However, like I said, since this isn't a mystery movie at its core, and rather uses the detective story as a vessel to tell the sci-fi story, it works well enough, and Harrison Ford carries these sections of the movie. I don't think I've ever seen him in a role and not liked him. He's just so charming, and he does this amazing thing with his characters where he manages to portray all the years of experience he has been through almost effortlessly. Seeing him in this role, and many others, you want to know his stories, you need to see his past adventures. He wears it all on his face at all times, and it's a big reason why this role worked as well as it did.

Harrison Ford as Deckard

The rest of the cast do fantastic jobs as well. Sean Young does an excellent job with the really rather hefty role she was given. It's quite a complex character, and a super compelling one at that, but Young makes it look easy. She does such an amazing job at making you sympathise with her plight, as well as get across all the themes that the character was there to explore. The other Replicants are great as well, with Daryl Hannah given a lot of the spotlight amongst them, but they all play their parts well. The MVP of the piece, however? It's got to be Rutger Hauer. Oh, my God, he absolutely crushes it with this performance. Talk about wearing your experiences on your face, Hauer nails it. Batty is just such a complex character, and his conversations with both Deckard and his creator are easy highlights of the movie for me. The 'tears in the rain' moment has obviously been beaten to death in pop culture by this point, but it was still incredibly powerful to see where it originated here. These ideas of trying to conquer death and the creator vs the creation and the line where humanity begins... these are just interesting topics of discussion for this world and, really, for our own. These are relatable issues for our own world without being 100% things that actually properly affect us in our lives. They're just interesting things to talk about, and that's honestly what I love in a good story like this. There's a reason this movie is left as open-ended as it was (at least in the cut I saw, anyway). Some of these questions have no real answers, and I love that not all of these issues, or even story-lines, are given answers here. It's far more realistic that way, and this extra sense of realism is another thing that helps ground the world and stories of the movie and make for some goddamn entertaining science-fiction.

Rutger Hauer as Batty

Blade Runner (1982) is a fantastic movie, and I imagine it ages flawlessly on repeat viewings for it to have lasted as long as it has. I hear the sequel is even better than this one it, and I'm certainly eager to get around to that at some point. For now, though, this original movie still holds up extraordinarily well. 9/10.

Off the Cuff Reviews Detective Pikachu (2019)

It's amazing how quickly one trailer can change the internet's entire perception of something. For the longest time, people were criticising even the very idea of a Detective Pikachu (2019) movie, and saying that it really shouldn't exist. Video game movies already had that sort of reputation, and this just wasn't what certain people were hoping for in a first live-action Pokemon movie. After that first trailer, though, it was a complete 180, with people already claiming it was going to be the best video-game adaptation ever made. I can't exactly disagree with that sentiment. Detective Pikachu was a great time, and hopefully this can be a turning point for video game movies in general. Starring Ryan Reynolds as Detective Pikachu, Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens, Suki Waterhouse as Ms. Norman, Omar Chaparro as Sebastian, Chris Geere as Roger Clifford, Ken Watanabe as Detective Hideo Yoshida and Bill Nighy as Howard Clifford.

Detective Pikachu (2019)

First of all, I really like the look of this movie. Usually I open by talking about the visuals, and I'll obviously touch on that in a second, but I want to mention the overall aesthetic here for a moment, because they did a really great job of bringing the Pokemon world to life, and that's taking the Pokemon themselves out of the picture for a moment here. The world really looks like it came right out of one of the Pokemon games. At one point very early on, there's an aerial shot of this little village, and I remember thinking how much the layout of the town looked like the layout of what a small Pokemon city would look like in the games. It's also the little touches, like the fact that people drive cars from the right-hand side of the car, like it would be in Japan, and not on the left, like it would be in America. Small stuff like that really makes me appreciate how much thought was put into bringing the world of Pokemon to life in the most accurate way possible. And, of course, the Pokemon all look fantastic. It's not just Pikachu; every single Pokemon they use in this movie looks ridiculously accurate to their designs in the games. They manage to land somewhere in the middle of hyper-realistic and ultra-cartoony, and that was the right call. These are magical creatures after all, and while they never look like they're not really there, they look distinct enough that you know they're not the same as normal animals.

Ryan Reynolds as Detective Pikachu

There are a lot of different Pokemon in this movie, as well. More than I was expecting there to be. There are some shots where there may be upwards of a dozen different species of Pokemon on the same screen. The ones they give a spotlight to are predominantly ones that people will recognise, mainly from the original 151 or Smash Bros., but there are a lot of distinct species they pick, which I appreciate. Having the recognisable ones is obviously the right way to go, but throwing in the little-known Bouffalant or Morelull or Audino goes a long way to really making it seem like the movie wasn't just thrown together to appeal to the general masses and give the die-hard Pokemon fans some treats just for them. What's great about all of this, though, is that it never feels like ham-fisted fan service for the sake of fan service. If anything, the sheer amount of Pokemon used helps make Ryme City feel even more faithful to the games, as the variety feels accurate to how it would actually look. There are also a lot of audio and visual easter eggs thrown in that I really appreciated, and if you're a long-time Pokemon fan, keep your eyes peeled. Without spoiling anything, the way they animated the first part of the credits was especially nice, and really serves as the cherry on the cake called 'We're treating our fans with respect'. Basically, you can tell this wasn't just thrown together to exploit a demographic like a lot of other video game adaptations can feel. A lot of heart was put into making this as fulfilling for fans as it could have been while also telling a unique story, which is the sweet spot that few adaptations hit.

Charizard and Omar Chaparro as Sebastian

Touching on the story for a second, I'll say this: I was surprised by how much this movie... well, surprised me. At around the end of the second act, just when you think you know the direction the movie's heading, it throws you a curveball or two, and I've got to say... kudos. You got me. The movie genuinely surprised me on occasion. Of course, there was other stuff that I did predict, but that just makes the more surprising twists all the better for it. It's not very often a kids' movie can pull a third-act twist that genuinely caught me off guard, but not in the way that it feels like it came out of nowhere for the sake of a twist. Also, I say 'kids movie' because you do need to be aware there are moments that do feel a little dumbed down for the younger viewers, mainly with some of the dialogue. Some lines can be a little much, like they're trying to spell it out as much as possible for the children, and though I can't be too upset about it, it does stick out a little when it happens. You've got an intriguing and intense missing-person story that actually works its hardest to shock you, and some of the dialogue just feels out of place at times. I also wish the movie was a little funnier than it was. Some of the humour didn't quite land with me, and moments that went for the obvious joke were made even more disappointing by the moments that were genuinely funny with well-written humour. The funniest scene is definitely the Mr. Mime scene. It's in all the trailers, you know it's funny already. You don't know how funny it's going to get. That scene went the extra mile, and I wish all the humour was like that across the board.

Justice Smith as Tim

Of course, if the humour was too saturated, it would have taken away from the more emotional moments, the majority of which really work for the movie. I give a lot of credit to Justice Smith here, as he does a really good job balancing the wacky situation he find himself in with the depressing reality he finds himself in. I really want to see him in more things moving forward, since he was excellent in this. And Ryan Reynolds is great as Detective Pikachu, as well. He, of course, nails the comedic timing the role requires him to have, but I honestly like him better when he needs to slow down and be a little more emotional. The scenes with Pikachu and Tim just having a genuine heart-to-heart are really good, and their chemistry throughout really helped carry the movie a lot of the way. The rest of the actors do their jobs well enough. Bill Nighy is great as always, Ken Watanabe is great as always. Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens is pretty good, too. She has great chemistry with Justice Smith, and when she's interacting with Psyduck it's believable enough but... I don't know. She was kind of inconsistent at times. In moments she was overplaying it, and in some other moments, she was underplaying it, it just comes across like she wasn't sure what she was doing for the first few weeks of filming. The majority of her performance is fine, though, particularly when she's interacting with Tim, so I can look past it overall.

Kathryn Newton as Lucy

And, overall, Detective Pikachu (2019) was pretty great. It's just great to see a video-game adaptation that actually respects its fanbase for a change. This movie doing well would apparently open the door for more movies set in the Pokemon world in the future, and I would 100% be on board with that. But, even if this is the first and the only, it's definitely proof that the genre of video-game movies isn't dead on arrival. They can be good. Just be smart and respect the source material. You'll get a good movie out of it, I swear. 8.5/10.

Off the Cuff Plays Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu & Let's Go, Eevee (2018)

This is basically how I'm going to handle all of the main series Pokémon games when I get around to them; there's not going to be so many differences between the two different versions that I can't review them both after finishing one. I personally played the Eevee variation, but I'm sure I would end up giving both of them the same score were I to play and review them separately. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu & Let's Go, Eevee (2018) were never shy about what they wanted to be, and I feel like they catch a lot of unnecessary hate. I personally didn't love them, especially compared to the other main series Pokémon titles, but I still liked them fine, and I feel like I dislike them for far different reasons than other people do. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee are 3D role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu & Let's Go, Eevee (2018)

Normally when I do a video game review, I cover the plot in the first paragraph, along with the controls and gameplay. However, the plot in this game is ridiculously paper thin, moreso than in other Pokémon games I've played. I do feel like that's a limitation from the original games these are based on, and I'll touch on that more a little later on. The story is basically you play a character that sets out from their hometown to become a Pokémon master, beat all the gyms, defeat the evil Team Rocket and become the champion. Not much more to it than that. Except this time you get a special Pikachu or Eevee that is basically your companion were you the main character of the Pokémon anime. They're not integrated into the story in a unique or clever way, they just sort of show up and now you have a special Pokémon partner. In terms of gameplay, this installment in the franchise is essentially a meld of the core series Pokémon mechanics and the gameplay from Pokémon Go. Battling, levelling up and even the Pokémon themselves basically function the same as they have in other core games, but catching wild Pokémon is very different. You don't have to weaken them in battle or inflict a status ailment, you just feed it a berry and throw a Poké Ball when the timing is right.

Bellsprout

I'll say this: as someone who's played both the main series Pokémon games and Pokémon Go, they did a fairly good job of mixing the two series' mechanics into one another. This feels like the right way to drag Pokémon Go players into the more in-depth world of regular Pokémon games. Because, at the end of the day, that's what this game was designed to do. The box basically advertises it as 'My first Pokémon game'. With all that being considered, I really can't get too upset at the gameplay being a little stripped back from what I'm used to. Catching Pokémon in this way actually proves to be really fun, and in a different way than catching Pokémon is in the regular games, where it can be a chore at times. Catching lots and lots of Pokémon is front-and-centre here, and it's the main way you train, so implementing factors that reward you for being better at tossing Poké Balls is a great idea. I was a pro by the end of the game, and catching Pokémon is also the main way you gain experience, which is well utilised since your entire party sees an equal gain from this. It's a lot quicker to grind this way, and it means you'll be spending less time in the wild battling random Pokémon to train your current team. Granted, I wasn't spending too long aimlessly running around to level up, since I was pretty over-levelled early on, though that might have been my fault from spending so much time in Viridian Forest trying to catch a Spearow with the right nature just for me to say 'F*** it' and go fight Brock like I should have done an hour ago. But, like I said, I got good at catching Pokémon. I even learned how to use the Poké Ball Plus accessory to full effect. Yeah, I bought that customised controller specifically for Let's Go, primarily because it was the only way to access Mew. But I was surprised by how well it functioned as a controller. It was, of course, specifically built for Pokémon, and it did everything well. I was impressed by how it would light up when attempting to catch something, lit up with the colour of the specific Pokémon when it was successful, as well as playing its cry, and the way it played the Pokémon Center jingle when it was plugged in to charge was a great touch. The only problem with it is that since it's a sphere, it will occasionally go off-angle in your hand, meaning walking around is a little jagged, but it's simple to readjust in those cases.

Saffron City Gym

The presentation is really strong here, and it honestly something I should have, and usually do, lead with. The visuals are crisp and clean and while they're not the most detailed visuals a Pokémon has ever been, it's certainly the prettiest to look at. The animated cutscenes, especially those featuring the legendaries, are beautiful, and it made my first experience with Kanto just that little bit better. Yeah, this is my first time playing a Pokémon game based on the original games, what of it? By the time I owned a DS (and, by extension, Game Boy) Crash Bandicoot had already won my heart and I wasn't really interested in, well, any actual Nintendo property for a long time. As such, I've never really been able to appreciate the world of Kanto, or its music, for that matter. To be honest, it's kind of hard for me to listen to the compressed, 8-bit tunes from the original games; I just find them somewhat grating on the ears, especially with all the high-pitched beeps and whistles. These orchestrated tracks, however, have officially made me fall in love with these tracks. The Gym Leader music, Legendary Pokémon theme and an awful lot of the Route music all got stuck in my head pretty much immediately. I'm generally of the opinion that pretty much everything will sound better orchestrated, and these games make a great case for that. So, before heading into this last paragraph, I want to clarify something I said before: all the things that dumb this game down a little more for kids? I have no problem with them. Being specifically advertised as 'My first Pokémon game', I feel like that's to be expected, and some of these changes actually make the gameplay experience more bearable for me. Not having to run back to the Pokémon Center to change your party is so much nicer, and the ability to rename your Pokémon from anywhere in the world is beautiful, and it's probably the one thing from these games I desperately hope stays in all future installments.

Indigo Plateau

To that effect, it's a lot of the stuff brought over from the original Pokémon Red & Blue that really end up holding this game back for me. In my opinion, the original Pokémon games are really just surviving on nostalgia at this point. I consider them to be incredibly dated and, at times, backwards, and this game shows that. Only including the original 151 Pokémon is fine, since you don't want to overwhelm new players with all 800+ Pokémon at once. It's the original Kanto Pokédex that I take issue with. Overall, I just don't find it very interesting. Not only are a lot of these Pokémon just poorly designed in my opinion (Electrode, Persian, Fearow and Dugtrio spring to mind), but for there being 151 of them, there's surprisingly very little variety, and a lot of the Pokédex just seems like filler as a result. Why do we need 3 different Grass/Poison types? Why do we need 3 different pure Poison types? Why do we need both Pidgeot and Fearow in the same game? Why is every Fire-type apart from Charizard and Moltres just a pure Fire type? Why are there so many pure Water types? When you just keep seeing the same types of Pokémon over and over again and you can just keep sending out the exact same Pokémon with the exact same strategy to defeat pretty much everything in an area, things can get boring very quickly. I found myself getting really bored by the 2nd half of my playthrough in general. Kanto is such a boring region to look at. Everything looks exactly the same. Every open-world route, every cave, every water route, they all look identical, and the layout of the region is so confusing that it really doesn't help things. Why are Routes 12-15 all just one long path to Fuschia City with nothing interesting or noteworthy along that entire corner of the region? Put something there. Put anything there to make it not seem like, again, filler. Finally, and this is a real hot take coming here, I don't find Team Rocket interesting in the slightest. I actually think they might be the worst evil Team in any Pokémon game. They just do nothing in the entire game, and they barely service the story in any meaningful way. They take over two buildings, gain nothing from either of them, and are dealt with basically immediately. That's all they do, and their big base of operations is put right after the 4th gym, which is confusing for so many reasons. First, it means that the rest of the story has exactly nothing to do with Team Rocket, but also you've got 13 floors of a building which is basically a gauntlet of evil Team Rocket fights, but plonked right in the middle of the story. It makes no sense from a structural standpoint, and when you do finally confront Giovanni again, you beat him in a Gym Battle and he just suddenly decides to abandon evil out of f***ing nowhere. At least with other evil Teams in other games, there's a set goal they're working towards, the evil leader is always getting in your way leading up to a final showdown towards the end of the campaign that actually means something for the side characters and the world as a whole. Here, if Team Rocket weren't involved in the story at all, very little would be different for basically anyone involved in this game. There's a lot from the original Pokémon Red & Blue that's been updated or changed since then that's made the Pokémon series better as a result. These returning elements honestly hindered this game overall for me.

Mewtwo

At the end of the day, though, it's still Pokémon. The basic gameplay is still so much fun, and training your cute little critters into majestic and terrifying creatures that still love you will never get old for me. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee (2018) is a fun Pokémon game let down by the source material it's based on. I'd absolutely recommend it for newcomers to the Pokémon franchise. For veterans, I'd advise knowing full well what you're in for before jumping back into the world. 7/10.