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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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