Pokémon Detective Pikachu Movie Review

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Rob Letterman and Derek Connolly (screenplay by), Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Nicole Perlman (story by). Satoshi Tajiri & Ken Sugimori & Junichi Masuda (based on "Pokémon" created by), Atsuko Nishida (characters), Tomokazu Ohara (original story), Haruka Utsui (original story)
Directed by: Rob Letterman
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe
Rated: PG


Plot
In a world where people collect Pokémon to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent talking Pikachu who seeks to be a detective.

Verdict
This is fairly standard kid's movie. It relies on tropes and the writing is pretty simple, irritatingly so at times. This has its moments, but they're mostly obscured by the very basic plot. A lot of the plot happens just because we need a villain and the movie needs to fill ninety minutes. Pikachu is the draw, and the writing underscores that. The CGI is great. Pikachu felt real. I did like how this handled the Pikachu story from Tim being able to understand him to the reasons why, but the conclusion is feeble.
Skip it.

Review
Pokémon translates to pocket monsters. The franchise was created in 1995, beginning as a video game. It's been translated to an animated series, a card game, more video games, books, comics, and music. Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise. With that fact, it's surprising a movie hasn't been made earlier.

 

The credits across the opening are in a font that gives the words a Japanese character look. It's a really cool look that I assume is paying homage to the origins of Pokémon.
This starts with a city where humans and Pokémon live together. Humans are encourged to catch and pair with a Pokémon, though the details of that aren't disclosed.
I wondered if this would do an Alien Nation subplot that comments on the inherent class system, but it doesn't. I didn't really expect it to with what this is.

 

This doesn't try to give a backstory as to why Pokémon exist in the world. There just isn't a good way to explain it and ignoring it completed is the best path. It just is.

It's an interesting enough mystery, though not original. A detective is dead and his son, Tim, is sorting through the rubble. Tim runs into Detective Pikachu who was Tim's dad's partner. Pikachu has amnesia and is also trying to figure out what happened.

Tim can understand Pikachu which is abnormal. Humans can't understand Pokemon, and Detective Pikachu seems quite a bit smarter than the average Pokemon. It's easy to write that off in the context of this movie, though it does have significance. I initially thought a chemical agent Tim encountered gave him this power, which the movie seems to want us to assume, but it isn't the case.

I surprised that with Pikachu back Detective Yoshida didn't make a bigger deal about. Tim's dad Detective Goodman and Pikachu were supposedly killed in a car crash. With the presumed dead Pikachu back, that seems like a huge break in the case. Yoshida doesn't even consider Goodman could be back or that the entire story could be a fabrication. If one supposed dead cop is back, what about the other? I then suspected Yoshida might be part of a conspiracy, but no, it's just lazy writing.

Tim and Pikachu uncover the mystery with the help of an ambitious reporter to be. The ending gets away. There's very little setting up the conclusion, and even then this resorts to a basic big bad.
While there's a bit of misdirection, this movie is relying on Pikachu to carry the movie.

Pikachu is voiced by Ryan Reynolds, and Reynolds style of humor is definitely present though more kid friendly. The CGI is really good. Pikachu is expressive and felt like a character rather than just a technology demo.

I get it's a kids movie and the writing takes a backseat to the character. I like how Tim understanding Pikachu was handled, but how that ultimately concluded was a bit easy. Everything about the movie is a bit easy. It never knows what to do with the other Pokémon. At one point we seemed poised to get a big fight, but not much comes of that.