The following movie review was submitted to ThoroldNews by Ryan Walsh:
Video games never had the best luck having movies based on their properties. They often range from becoming a spin-off targeted to a certain demographic, being faithful but with a dull, predictable plot—so bad it’s actually entertaining—to ‘What were they thinking?’
The latter definitely applies to any film directed by Uwe Boll. In this case, however, since we live in a time where popular franchises are bringing in the big bucks by being as faithful as possible, for better or worse, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures teamed up with The Pokemon Company, an association of Nintendo, in attempting—of all things—a live-action Pokemon movie; Detective Pikachu.
Most people who are familiar with Pokemon instantly imagine the long-running anime series that focuses on Ash Ketchum, a young boy who dreams of becoming a Pokemon master; a series that’s still going, with more than 1,000 episodes. This isn’t the first time Pokemon was in theatres, as back in 1999 the franchise made its debut with Pokemon: The First Movie, also known as Mewtwo Strikes Back.
Along with the other 20 films that came out based on the anime, it was expected that the films would not cater to newcomers and most adults. So how does Detective Pikachu differ from its 2D predecessors? Aside from the obvious live action factor, Detective Pikachu is loosely based on the Nintendo 3DS title of the same name, as its story is not about capturing and training Pokemon, but rather solving a mystery of a lost relative.
The film focuses on 21-year-old Tim Goodman, who gave up Pokemon training after his mother’s death and the discovery that his father died in a car crash during an investigation. Tim heads to Ryme City to collect his father’s belongings, a place that actually bans Pokemon fighting as both humans and Pokemon live together in a thriving community. It’s there that he encounters a Pikachu that, strangely enough, can talk, and only Tim can understand what Pikachu, voiced by Ryan Reynolds, is saying. They encounter a mysterious chemical with the label “R” on it and learn that any Pokemon that inhales it goes berserk and attacks anything in their path.
Realizing that this is all connected to the case that Tim’s father was working on, Tim reluctantly agrees to help Pikachu to work on the case of solving the mystery of substance “R” and determining what happened to his father.
With most video game movies, I’m skeptical because Hollywood often doesn’t understand the material they’re working with, assuming they know what audiences want, resulting in frequent failures. Detective Pikachu, however, was a nice surprise, as I’m quite familiar with the franchise since its early days in the late 90s. I wouldn’t say it’s a groundbreaking film, but as an adaptation of a spin-off video game, it was quite pleasant.
One of the major strengths of this film—unlike the previous anime movies—is that Detective Pikachu is very forgiving, for those who are not familiar with the series, so newcomers won’t be lost while watching the movie. Ryan Reynolds is also great as Pikachu, making the popular icon pretty tongue-in-cheek but also believable to his role without coming off as though he’s trying to play Deadpool again.
I give the film major props for successfully bringing the many Pokemon to life, which not only makes them look convincing, but also keeps them faithful to their source material. Most live action adaptations these days go too far in trying to make fictional characters look as real as possible, to the point that they come off as creepy.
With Detective Pikachu, they are supposed to be monsters that differ between cute and creepy while keeping their characteristics and animal behaviour. This works because nothing about them has changed and the audience can totally buy that the world exists.
Detective Pikachu, however, is not without its faults. While the movie is easy to understand, it also comes at the cost of being predictable. The film’s story varies from the titular video game that it is based on, so those who played the original before seeing this movie can be somewhat surprised by some twists to the plot. For those who can detect certain plots, this one is easy to predict.
At least the film doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence, since some viewers can enjoy the journey and sights more than what’s going on in the plot. It’s just important to keep in mind that you won’t get anything deep from a Pokemon film, but you won’t get a shallow experience, either, which is nice. The comedy in the film can also be a mixed bag at times. Thankfully, there are no forced moments of pop culture references and pop songs playing; similar to most current adaptations, the film does sneak in some references to the games and anime that most people can recognize, which is fitting and gave me a few chuckles. That’s actually the best way to describe the humour in the film, chuckle-worthy, though nothing that will make audiences roar with laughter.
Overall, I had a pleasant experience watching Detective Pikachu. I wouldn’t describe it as being on par with the likes of big blockbuster films and it doesn’t break the video game movie curse, especially considering the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog film…but I digress. This film is very refreshing and reassures that when filmmakers attempt to not only be faithful to the source material but also actually write an engaging story, it’s sometimes just what we need—a simple story that can charm audiences, excite children, and put smiles on the faces of Pokemon fans.
