Punky’s Movie Experiment: Pokemon Detective Pikachu [Spoiler Free]
Director: Rob Letterman
Producers: Cale Boyter, Mary Parent, Hidenaga Katakami and Don McGowan
Screenplay: Dereck Connolly, Benji Sait, Dan Hernandez and Rob Letterman
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Ken Watanabe, Chris Geere and Bill Nighy
Running time: 104 minutes
This was a very challenging film for me to review, mostly because being a film reviewer and a Pokemon fan means that I need to shut down that inner fangirl that is super excited about this film. I want to be as objective as I can, without forgetting too much of what a fan might think about it. I know, it’s complicated but it can be done.
Detective Pikachu is based on the 3DS game of the same name, which tells the story of a kid named Tim Goodman (Smith) who learns about his father's strange disappearance after a car accident. He comes upon a Pikachu (Reynold) that used to belong to his father, and surprisingly they can understand each other. The pair go on a mission to find out what happened to his father and discover much more than they were hoping for. You can say that “the game is ON!”
*cue Sherlock music*
Let’s start with the not-so-good part. The story is pretty basic and linear with just a tiny bit of drama, but there were some ok action sequences to balance it out. Overall, it was just a little bit cheesy, with a dash of cliche and some funny lines, much like the games themselves. Nothing out of the ordinary. The acting was alright, Ryan Reynolds was a rated PG version of Deadpool so all was good in the world. No Danny DeVito, but what can you do? Maybe they overdid it with having so many Pokemon hanging in every shot (over 50!) but if you play the games, that’s pretty much how it is. Tell us what Pokemon you saw in the comments!
The big treat for Pokemon fans were all the Easter eggs. Those little details had me literally squeeing every time I saw something I recognized from the games. It’s those little things that let you know that the production team really cared about making a film for the fans, not trying to make something to see if they can convert people into liking Pokemon. After having a week of stress from watching Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame, it was so nice to watch a movie that made me feel as if a childhood dream of seeing Pokemon in real life walking with humans like they belong there, and it’s such a feel-good thing to imagine.
I’m giving this movie 5 Magikarp and 1 Charizard out of 2 Dugtrios. If you’re not a fan of Pokemon, go see it anyway if you wanna see something super cute and chill. But if you’re a Pokemon fan, go with your favorite shirt and have an awesome time finding all the Pokemon and references, and then let me know what was the coolest details you found while watching it and your favorite Pokemon.
