Ok, I wasn’t the coolest kid on the playground. I was one of those kids who took pride in being able to recite all 151 original Pokémon including their pokedex ID number. I knew all of their various types, move sets, strengths, weaknesses, where you could potentially catch them and how best to train them.
Have I lost you yet? Because if not like me, then you will not have a single clue what is going on in this movie. Even back then, I would still be lost.
Reports online suggest that Detective Pikachu would not exist had it not been for the success of Pokémon Go, the mobile game which was a global phenomenon for the first few weeks of its release in July 2016 (until everyone got bored of it, or bored of just general exercise).
This was a year filled with live-action remakes smashing it at the box office like Disney’s Jungle Book, so it was not surprising that Legendary Entertainment was keen to cash-in and so whilst we were all out chasing virtual beings with our iPhones all across the country.
They managed to rush a script, hire Director Rob Letterman and swiftly complete casting by the end of November. Faster than the sprinting speed of a Deoxys (Am I right Pokefans?).
The Pokémon with the pokémouth
Let’s not forget Pokémon has changed a lot since the 1990s. There are hundreds of new characters, a stack of new games and quite a wide range of fans from many generations to cater to. One of my main criticisms of the movie is that it does not aim for one particular audience and rather spreads itself very thin.
They aim at a younger audience with the slapstick humour and adorable poke-visuals whilst trying to navigate through a very dense evil corporation plot-line. This leads me to Detective Pikachu’s casting, there are only a few actors who can span the gaps between the different generations of fans.
So let’s talk about the Donphan in the room (Google it!). As we expected, this movie owes a lot to Ryan Reynolds who manages to push the boundaries even when playing the super-cute sleuth that is Detective Pikachu. Delivering the humour in his unique way of self-expression, he is on form right from our first glimpse of his character.
The film really takes off from here and instantly becomes more fun, colourful and entertaining than a very drawn out introduction. Fortunately, Reynold’s is able to drive the plot and manage to keep our focus for the remaining hour of the movie providing a loyal and wholesome pairing with our protagonist played by Justice Smith.
The Dialogue between our two main characters is very shallow and the humour in the rest of the movie falls very flat unless the titular character is involved. Ken Watanabe plays an experienced detective who is struggling to cope with his regret of losing his partner – this is completely ruined with the attempted comedy of pairing him with a large pink dog character and most of the jokes fall flat, certainly in my screening the audience felt like it didn’t know whether to laugh or just grin with sympathy.
The Movie Struggles to Balance it’s Lighter and Darker Sides
Like I said before, if you are not at least familiar with the source material then you will be scratching your head for most of this movie. For me I was left disappointed as I felt that the story glossed over and struggled to introduce any real explanation to the Pokémon world portrayed on screen, nor did it provide much fan-service or invoke any strong memories of the original 1990s Pokémon that I grew up with.
Compare this to the Marvel Cinematic Universe where an appearance or reference to a forgotten superhero can provide a welcome touch of nostalgia.
Now perhaps I am getting older and more cynical but I found that the opening 20 minutes had the pace of a gritty BBC2 Scandi-noir drama. There are a lot of dark themes at the beginning such as rejection, loneliness and the death of a loved one all going on amidst the hustle and bustle of an overpopulated Rhyme City. This only overshadowed what is supposed to be a fun introduction to a very lively and harmonious Poke-friendly world.
When Pokémon: The First Movie was released in 2000 it was met with critical disdain despite it being largely successful at the box office. This movie had dealt with themes such as Pokémon cruelty, the ethics of cloning and featured some genetic splicing. Not exactly what you would expect from a movie aimed at such a young audience.
Unfortunately, Detective Pikachu follows this trend. Weaving in and out of poke-cruelty, animal testing, dog-fighting, drug dealing… the list goes on. The movie struggles to draw the line between light-hearted comedy and murky noir darkness.
Of course like any Noir film, our heroes discover some twists and turns. There are quite a few in this movie, but they all seem to come within the last 10 minutes and I felt like I had been hit by a double-decker bus full of Tangela pokemon! (google that one as well). There are a lot of head-scratching moments and I would suggest seeing this just so I can have someone to try and explain it to me.
Verdict
Detective Pikachu has it’s heart in the right place for the most part and although it feels very far away from the Pokémon I used to know, there were a good few moments that were quite enjoyable for me.
We must understand this is Pokémon’s first real live-action movie and considering the backlash of the recent Sonic the Hedgehog trailer we can only thank the team behind Detective Pikachu for at least doing it justice. This film will most likely draw large box office numbers and a sequel will no doubt be green-lighted, let’s just hope they learn from their mistakes.
