Detective Pikachu

Pokémon is an amazingly popular phenomenon that took over the world and arguably still has its grip on it to this day. While many may have grown tired of it over the years, no can deny that it became a staple in pop culture video game media through its inviting visual, creative design, and simplistic RPG gameplay that knew how to draw kids in. Recently they took bizarre a turn in their repetitive formula and created Detective Pikachu, an action-adventure game based more on crime-solving and puzzle mechanics than the typical catching and battling components the franchise is known for. While it wasn’t beloved by any means and people will always favour the original presentation first and foremost, it was at least an attempt to try something different with their favourite mascot, enough so that this spin-off actually managed to secure itself a live-action film adaptation before any the main series games. Tim Goodman (played by Justice Smith) had lost any aspirations of becoming a Pokémon trainer after the loss of his mother and his estrangement from his police officer father, but he is forced to travel to Ryme City, a place where Pokémon and humans live as equals and not as master and pet, once he learns from his father’s friend, Lieutenant Hideo Yoshida (played by Ken Watanabe) that his father died in a freak accident that the press seem to have no leads on. In his despair, he suddenly comes across his father’s old partner, a talking Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). He tells Tim that his father may still be alive, and it was a cover up surrounding a governmental experiment involving a gas that provokes aggression in any Pokémon that ingests it, and all of it being revolved around the sinister and mysterious Pokémon, MewTwo (voiced by Kotoro Watanabe and Rina Hoshino). Though unwillingly, Tim decides to help Pikachu solve the mystery which could also jog his memory, which have been blank since the night of Tim’s father supposed death and discover how all of this connects back to why his father was targeted in the first place. Although it did mediocre reception upon release, Detective Pikachu became the second highest grossing video game adaptation with a worldwide gross of $433 million, proving that people were interested and did go check this movie despite its bizarre premise. While the film isn’t spotless by any means and can even be a little dull from time to time, it does hold enough decent qualities to make it a simple, but relatively okay movie.

This kind of narrative is nothing that hard to grasp, following the all-too-familiar trajectory of any detective story where two conflicting personalities have to work together to solve a mystery that often ties into one the character’s pasts, and through this mission, they form a connection that results in both lives being improved once the culprits have been apprehended. While the layout of the game’s narrative is relatively similar to that of this film, it varies a touch in regard to its conclusion and its overall direction. As a whole, the story written by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit and Nicole Perlman is a little by-the-numbers and doesn’t really provide anything that out of the ordinary for a detective story or for something aimed at a specific demographic, but at the same time, it’s not insultingly mindless or without passion and there are a few directions it takes that, while a bit obvious, are handled in a way that still feel fitting. It is a weirdly talk-heavy movie, which makes sense since it’s within the mystery genre, but for a production known for its combat and visual action, it’s bizarre to see a flick with so many outlandish creatures dotted throughout mostly just doing regular human stuff. It’s not that these scenes are done poorly, it just feels like an odd decision, and it can lead to a few of those slow tiring moments. The director for this movie was Rob Letterman, whose track records isn’t fantastic with films like Shark Tale, Monsters Vs Aliens, Gulliver’s Travels, and Goosebumps under his belt, and while you do get that vibe and personality in this film, this one isn’t too poorly in that department. Its pace is fine enough, the movie doesn’t really waste time on subplots so it never gets distracted, the actors feel decently lead, the visuals can be pretty inventive and fun once they are allowed to let lose (especially during the climax set during a parade), and while the movie isn’t taken extremely seriously to the point of it feeling completely unnatural or like an evolution of the brand, its treated with enough care and energy that you don’t really find yourself laughing at what it’s doing (which is impressive given the premise). In terms of investment for something that is arguably as stupid as this premise, it has more than it has any right to have. The script could’ve used a bit of work though, with the writing by Hernandez, Samit, Letterman and Derek Connolly not really providing much in terms of true drama or even true comedy. There’s very rarely any actual good lines or situations created, but rather something becomes funny through how an actor says it or how the situations unfold, so that is a little unfortunate, but that isn’t to say that the film has no good bits as there are a few (that Mr Mime interrogation was pretty great).

The cast feel like they want to be these goofy, colorful, and zany characters that explode with personality and life, but the writing just isn’t solid enough to make any of it feel genuine or natural and it sadly results in most of them not leaving much of an impression. They aren’t given much development or even set-up to feel like fleshed out individuals and more like stock cartoon characters, which could be explained away from its original source, but for a story and even premise like this to work, you need characters that leave a bit more of an impact than these. The one exception to this is the Detective Pikachu, with his straight-faced way of explaining away the nonsense surrounding the world against his overly cutesy and fluffy design making for a strange, but also nicely fitting in this kind of environment which mostly coming down to the acting. Ryan Reynolds as a talking Detective Pikachu is surprisingly perfect casting. He definitely feels committed in his role and he is part of some of the only real good lines in the movie despite the poor script and less than funny writing, and just seeing a little electric rat talking with such an earnest tone feels genuinely cute, memorable, and even kind of touching. The rest of the cast sadly isn’t as memorable. None are bad, just either standard performances or forgettable ones. Justice Smith as the lead gives a fine performance and even has sprinkles where he’s actually quite good, but the role doesn’t give him much to work with, he always seems indifferent for most of the movie and feels pretty one-note throughout. His love interest played by Kathryn Newton is also mostly forgettable. She again does a decent job for the most part and even has a good set-up for her character as she’s trying to come across like one of those quirky but composed investigatory reporters yet is constantly failing at it which does help her form more of a unique identity than just the bland love interest, but it doesn’t really go much further than that. Ken Watanabe is pretty good but is barely in the film, and Bill Nighy as the obvious villain comes off as super cartoony in his accent and pronunciation, although a twist involved with him at the end does result in that direction being a little more entertaining.

For a movie that would’ve require a ton of effects considering how many unique looking creatures are just casually walking around in this location, they are actually handled pretty nicely here. It’s hard to say that they look necessarily realistic as it’s hard to see how that would even function without some of them looking like pure nightmare fuel (which in all honesty, some of them do), but just from an expression and creative standpoint, they work pretty well with great textures and unique designs. Sometimes they can have fun with their unique properties and go a bit more extravagant with what they can show off (having literal mountain sized Pokémon acting as slumbering mounds of earth that almost kill the leads is a pretty cool visual), but it doesn’t do it as much as it could’ve. Granted at times some can look a little video gamey especially MewTwo with his overly sleak design resulting in a few shots that look a little uncanny, it doesn’t distract any from some of the others and even the fact that this location has several people and Pokémon naturally living together creates a very nice atmosphere. The city itself they inhabit is pretty generic from a production standpoint with the components that come with any usual city-scape within a fantasy like environment; a large metropolitan-type setting with in-joke advertisements and neon-lit signs drenched all throughout, it’s by no means a bad location and when the film takes place in a more grungy part of the location, it can look a little fun in contrast to the lighting, but it isn’t anything that spectacular. As previously stated, the limited action does feel a little weird and detrimental to itself as whenever it is features, it’s not too bad featuring lively looking effects and fun scenarios that go a bit more over-the-top yet don’t feel out of place given the circumstances.

Detective Pikachu is better than it has any right to be and given what had come in the past with other video game adaptations, this is honestly one of the better ones. With ‘’money grubbing sell-out’’ slapped all over the premise, it is at least comforting to see it not be as overly disastrous as it could have been. It still has issue that keep it from being a great movie, but it does act a decently cute film for children and even a passable fan-service experiment for nostalgic fans, being able to deliver enough for them to be entertained and not offend anyone. The story’s formulaic but harmlessly so, the characters are flat, but the acting is better than it needs to be, and the action is limited but the visuals are very nice and appealing. It could be a lot better, but within this a genre of films that are rarely even passable, good is much better than the alternative. Not a perfect catch, but at least an okay one to check out.