Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) Review

"Are you gonna turn me into a lampshade?"
-Detective Pikachu




Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is forced to travel to Ryme City, a place where humans and Pokémon live in harmony, after the mysterious death of his estranged father, who was a detective.  Tim meets his father's Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) and they are both shocked to learn they can understand one another.  Pikachu is convinced that Tim's father is still alive.  The two of team up to explore the dark underbelly of Ryme City and discover Tim's father was on the trail of a massive conspiracy that will rock the world.


I will have spoilers ahead, so I will just say I don't know how much non-Pokémon fans will get out of this movie, but anyone who loves Pokémon will love this.


What Works:

Off the bat, I have to say I'm a pretty big Pokémon.  I loved the TV show when I was a kid and I still play the games to this day.  I've even seen a fair amount of the other Pokémon films.  The fact that we now have a live-action Pokémon films blows my mind and 6-year-old me would go bonkers if he found out about this.  It really is a complete joy to watch.  Seeing these standard establishing shots of a neighborhood, but filled with Pokémon is incredible.

Most of the Pokémon films aren't very good, but the few I do like work because they are movies first and Pokémon movies second.  Pokémon 2000 is a save-the-world move.  Destiny Deoxys is an alien invasion movie.  Detective Pikachu is a detective movie.  The Pokémon stuff is all secondary.  This movie also doesn't shoehorn Pokémon battles into the film.  There is only one in the movie and it feels very natural.  Detective Pikachu puts its story first and its property second which is why it works.

I love that we get to see the darker side of the Pokémon universe.  We have an underground Pokémon-fighting ring.  Drugs are a major plot-point.  We even have genetic experimentation.  I love that they didn't go entirely child-friendly.  Pikachu swears once!  A Mr. Mime gets accidentally lit on fire.  Even the bad guy's plot has some rather disturbing implications.  I wasn't expecting a dark detective story by any means, but having a few quick moments of darker elements was every nice.

Ryan Reynolds is fantastic as Detective Pikachu.  I am a bit disappointed we didn't get Danny DeVito in the lead role, but Reynolds does an amazing job.  He's a lot of fun and it's really weird to hear his voice come out of Pikachu's mouth.  He is definitely the best part of the movie.

Finally, I love the nods and refferences to other aspects of the Pokémon franchise.  We get referneces to Mewtwo's past, the Poké Floats stage from Super Smash Bros. Melee, at one point Detective Pikachu even sings the original theme song from the show.  It's all amazing and I'm thankful the filmmakers put all of this into the film.


What Sucks:

I didn't love Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton), a reporter and Tim's love interest.  I found her incredibly annoying and off-putting in her first scene and after that I found her dull.  

The script is also not super tight.  A few more drafts would have been good.  There were just a few storytelling elements that didn't work as well as they could have.  The best example is the giant Torterra stuff.  The sequence is fun, but it ultimately doesn't add anything to the movie.  It just felt like an excuse to show-off and get Detective Pikachu hurt.  He could have gotten hurt any old way and it would have accomplished the same thing.  Another route they could have gone is to use the Torterra as part of the bad guy's threat.  They simply weren't used enough.

Finally, the ultimate plan of putting humans in Pokémon bodies is amazing and I can't believe that's the direction they took the story in.  I loved it, but they didn't do enough with it.  I would have loved to see more of the population panicking over what was happening.  It ended much too soon.


Verdict:

Detective Pikachu is a complete joy and a must-watch for any Pokémon fan.  Ryan Reynolds is great, the story is solid, the references are fun, and the movie is a but darker than I expected.  There are definitely some flaws, but they are mostly easy to overlook.  Ultimately, Detective Pikachu is not only the best Pokémon movie, but the best video game movie ever made and it has certainly got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

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