Here's what you need to know; following Detective Harry Goodman's mysterious death, his son, Tim arrives in Ryme City in search of closure, but that isn't what he finds when Harry's Pokémon shows up at the apartment, a Pikachu with amnesia, an addiction to coffee and the ability to talk. But more pressing matters loom on the horizon; with a mysterious gas circulating around the city that makes Pokémon crazy, a quarantined research lab and Mewtwo on the loose, it seems that Harry learned more than he should have, and that a sinister plot that threatens all of Ryme city is about to erupt, one that only Tim and Harry's Pikachu can stop.
So a Pokémon movie happened, a theatrically released live-action Pokémon movie starring Ryan Reynolds, but do you know what, I saw King Ghidorah on a billboard the other day, nothing surprises me anymore. And maybe I'd have been more excited about this film if I'd given a damn about or knew a single thing about Pokémon, I was always a Yu-Gi-Oh guy in my younger years, so knowing that this film would be full of monsters and references that would go right over my head, I went in looking simply to have a good time, and to be honest, I kind of did.
The film surprised me in its opening as Mewtwo breaks out of the research lab and blasts Harry's car off the road, setting up the film's mystery in an honestly quite compelling way, I wanted to know more as this sequence unfolded. What follows is your standard sequence of setting up the film's protagonist, introducing us to a much, much less annoying Justice Smith as Tim, the lonely young man looking to just live a normal, boring life away from Harry. What I came to really like about Tim though is how the film explores the relationship he had with Harry, dabbling in a backstory that's actually rather morbid, one that drove Tim away from Harry, leading to him making decisions that he now deeply regrets. Into this troubled young man's life then crashes a talking Pikachu voiced by Ryan Reynolds, who's basically Deadpool because why wouldn't he be. While Tim tries to be the heart of the film kind of succeeds, Pikachu is the film's driving force, firstly in comedy. It's Ryan Reynolds, we all know that he's funny, and shock and horror, he's funny as a talking Pikachu with a coffee addiction. It being Ryan Reynolds, there's a fair few adult jokes scattered about the film, and Pikachu undoubtedly brings the film's biggest laughs, but what's really weird is just how well it works. There is a strange juxtaposition of Deadpool's voice coming out of a photo-realistic CG Pokémon's mouth, but eventually that went away, probably not long after I realised that Pikachu wasn't a purely comedic character, and that the emotional stuff with him was good.
This really is Pikachu's movie, as well as Tim works in the role of sympathetic, lonely kid who finds companionship in his adventure, and I know what you're thinking; the clue's in the name. But Pikachu is the strongest part of the film; the mystery is his mystery, he's looking for his friend and trying to remember his past, and the personal connection the mystery has with Tim and Pikachu means that the film is always engaging, never straying too far from the point of the story. But what's a good story without some side characters, let's see; you got Lucy and Psyduck, Howard Clifford, who totally isn't a villain, and Ken Watanabe who the film needed more of. Lucy is clearly the big one here; a blogger looking to become a big boy journalist and hoping that solving the mystery of Harry Goodman's death will get her there. She inevitably becomes the object of Tim's desire, with him being a lonely twenty-something year old and her being an almost intolerably cute woman. But outside of seeing what Tim clearly sees in her, she's not exactly the beating heart of the film. The scene where she tries to be an intense, serious journalist and fails miserably is very funny and cute, but she doesn't stand out in the film like Tim and Pikachu do, and yet again, sorry to be a dinosaur who's still beating this drum, but this is yet another film where the guy doesn't get the kiss at the end, this surely sounds petty and that's because it is, but it's something I've noticed again and again and again in the past few years and here it is once more, it's almost like Hollywood finds it dirty or something. Still, at the end of the day, she's cute, has her moments of pushing the story forward, and her Psyduck was really funny.
But of course, the biggest character of this film isn't really a character at all, it's the world; this is the first time Pokémon has been presented in live-action, and for this film to work, its world has to work and its world building has to be on point. For the most part, I had no trouble believing that this world was a world where Pokémon exist, as ridiculous a premise as that even is. Ryme City was also a very cool setting for the film; a sprawling, near future big city with a bunch of London Landmarks in it for some reason, despite the film clearly going for a more neo-noir-y aesthetic. In this world is a bunch of references and monsters that I don't recognise or understand, something I wholeheartedly expected and am therefore not going make an issue of. But something I can almost buy is the film's representation of the Pokémon; from a design standpoint, these are the Pokémon from the game, practically nothing has been changed about the way they look outside of them now being photo-realistic, which actually works really well. Charizard for example looks awesome, and Bulbasaur is completely adorable, and those are the Pokémon I know, I don't know the names of any Pokémon outside of them and a few others in this film like Cubone and Mewtwo. I did watch some of the Pokémon Anime films a long, long time ago though and as such, I remember Mewtwo, who is easily the second coolest Pokémon in the film after those giant turtle things. Make no mistake, this isn't Ghost in the Shell or Alita: Battle Angel, two films with amazing world building whose worlds I wanted more of once the film was over, but what's here is cool, and will probably be way, way cooler if you like Pokémon.
But those giant turtle things though, apparently they're called Torterra, I get it, very clever, but that sequence was awesome as the world around them shifted and contorted, leading to probably the film's most visually impressive shot where it is revealed that they're in a forest growing out of the backs of mountain-sized Torterra. This rather nicely brings us to the film's action sequences, because it's a film about Pokémon, even I know that it's about battles. For the most part, the film's action sequences are pretty cool, take for instance the entire sequence with the giant Torterra, where all logic and rules are completely disregarded in favour of cool visuals, I mean, that fall really should have killed him. But one of the film's first action scenes; the chase with the hand monkey Pokémon is exciting and funny, and of course then you have the finale, which is when things go a little nuts. Obviously, this is where all is revealed and it becomes all about stopping the film's villain, whose plan doesn't really make a lot of sense, but it's Pokémon, I think expecting it to would be kind of unfair. But this sequence is a lot of fun; it's naturally also the sequence where you get all the Pokémon action you may or may not have wanted, as Mewtwo flies around magic-handing people and Pikachi throws down with his electric powers. Truth be told, this sequence is entertaining, it does end very cleanly, however, with the villain's plan not really having any long-term consequences outside of the big reveal of who Pikachu is and why he can talk. The payoff of that mystery was very surprising to me, not because it was unexpected, it was kind of obvious, but because it rounds out the film's story in a very conclusive and wholesome way, one that would make carrying this story on in a sequel difficult, but since inconclusive, sequel setup endings are kind of a curse in this age of movies, seeing one in what is certainly the first of a franchise is very surprising and kind of admirable, and the payoff of that ending was very sweet and did put a smile on my face.
That's A Twist, That's Very Twisty
As someone who is completely outside of the Pokémon bubble, I still expected the film to a serviceable, entertaining family adventure film, and to that end, the film didn't let me down. Its leads are funny and have a surprising amount of emotional depth, its twisting, turning plot is very intriguing and weaves in and out of the heroes' personal stories perfectly, and to top it off, the film's action sequences are very impressive and fun. I once had a discussion with a then co-worker who thought this film was literal cancer and a sign that the movie industry is dead, but Detective Pikachu isn't even close to that, it's an alright adventure film, and clearly its heavy reliance on its course material isn't that important to its effectiveness. I enjoyed Detective Pikachu and I'd say it's worth a watch.
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