Detective Pikachu

Pokémon has come out with their first live action movie. The recent film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, was released on May 10, 2019. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, and Kathryn Newton, it is rated PG and takes place in Ryme City.

Tim Goodman is an insurance salesman who’s given up on Pokémon and is estranged from his detective father Harry. He soon learns of his father’s death and being his only relative, goes to his apartment to collect his things. While there, he encounters his father’s Pikachu who can somehow speak to him. The two of them start to feel that maybe Harry is actually still alive and reluctantly team up to find him. With a limited amount of information to work with, this is going to be a hard mystery to solve. Can they solve it?

The first thing to address about this movie is the mystery theme. It keeps you thinking as the story unfolds, leading to a very unexpected plot twist. There’s also more of an actual story going on than just people catching Pokémon. The movie is built around the relationship between Tim and Pikachu. They start out having a salty interaction with each other, but build a better relationship over time, giving the movie more heart. Now, let’s talk about some elements beside the story.

There is a lot of attention to the details on the sets of this movie. The interaction of the Pokémon in the living world really brings them to life. In addition, the brief moments of the film that do contain action are well done and make it fun for the viewer. I do have to complain about the CGI for the Pokémon however. With the exception of Mewtwo, I feel that all of the Pokémon end up looking like fake stuffed animals, especially Pikachu. But the film does make up for this with humor, which I’ll talk about now.

The humor is good enough to provide ample laughs without taking away from the story. It also helps that Pikachu is voiced by Ryan Reynolds, who is best known to make people laugh in the Deadpool movies. Unfortunately, not all of the actors are as good as Reynolds. That is another problem that the movie has. I have to say that this feels more like a good movie than a great movie. However, there is one benefit to that.

Video game adaptations have generally been poorly made and not well adapted from the source material. That’s what makes this film different. Even if it never really reaches greatness, it is a good enough time to be recommended. Hopefully it gives an example for other film makers to follow and could lead to better video game movies in the future.

Overall, despite not being the best it could be, this is still a good movie that people should see, Pokémon fan or not.