Pokémon - Detective Pikachu is directed by Rob Letterman and stars Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy. And of course Ryan Reynolds provides the voice of Pikachu. And I would like to consider this movie a video game adaptation, instead of an anime adaptation.
The film is about a young man and former Pokémon trainer who travels to a place called Rhyme City to look for his detective father who has disappeared. Eventually he encounters Pikachu and the two decide to go looking for the missing detective together.
The performances are all passable but it is Reynolds as Pikachu who stands out among them. Although he plays the part in a very one note way, he tries to get the most humour and likeability out of every line he is given and is surprisingly good at being emotional when he needs to be. I especially thought that was impressive since his character isn't exactly the emotional type.
The film was written by Rob Letterman, Derek Connolly, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit. My thoughts going in were that this film was going to be some kind of detective film/ Pokémon hybrid, and I feel I was right. Those two things are balanced out quite well, it alternates a few minutes as a Pokémon film with a few minutes as a detective film. An issue I did have with the script was that the human characters were rather uninteresting. In the end this script is just average, it's got a fair share of good and a fair share of bad to it.
The film was shot by John Mathieson. I would say the shots I was most impressed with were those that blended the CGI Pokémon into signature noir cinema shots. Examples include, the well-lit noir street, a character being questioned under a light bulb, and a shot of an unidentifiable person standing in the shadows. What I liked about them was that the Pokémon characters blended into the shot quite naturally and never at any point felt like they were out of place.
The score was composed by Henry Jackman, and the problem with it is that nothing stands out, there are maybe a few moments that sound noteworthy when you hear them at the time, but once that is over, you realise just how easily forgettable it actually is.
Here is the one major flaw with this film: it feels over-reliant on the property that it is based on. I have heard of plenty of movies based on popular franchises where you don't have to be a fan to enjoy them. This film is not one of them; there is very little for non-Pokémon fans to enjoy here. While I do understand who the film's core audience is, and clearly the film does too, if you have never bothered with Pokémon in your life, don't let this be your introduction.
I also found the final twist to be very hard to take seriously. There is definitely a simpler way to carry out the twist ending, but the way this film has chosen to do it just had me thinking in the end, what?
In conclusion, Pokémon - Detective Pikachu has good performances and a well-balanced but average script. Some interesting visuals are to be found in the cinematography, and a score that sounds good at the time but is ultimately forgettable. Plus, the film is flawed in relying too much on the property it is based on and a twist ending which just left me confused. I will emphasise what I said before - don't let this be your introduction to Pokémon.
Having taken all my pros and cons into account, im going to give Pokémon Detective Pikachu...
C
Thank you for reading.
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