(spoiler free)
How do you get a Pikachu on a bus? You Pokémon obviously. How do you make a good live action Pikachu movie? The answer to that is unfortunately still unclear. Director Rob Letterman is the man tasked with bringing everyone’s favourite video game to the big screen for its first ever live action outing. With the star power of Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokémon detective, combined with the nostalgia and the current popularity of the gaming series, selling tickets was never going to be an issue but would ‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu’ be super effective when audiences are watching?
The film follows Tim Goodman, played by Justice Smith, a young insurance salesman who gets some bad news regarding his estranged father. This in turn leads him to Pikachu, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds and the pair quickly decide these circumstances need further investigation. This plot should have provided a fun mystery, serving as the foundation for the film but instead all it offers is confusion and boredom as it becomes increasingly convoluted as the film progresses. Younger audiences might have trouble keeping up with the intricacies of this narrative whilst more mature viewers will most likely just lose interest in it. The pacing doesn’t help either with the film seemingly taking longer to reach its culmination than a journey through Victory Road without HM05 Flash. That’s not to say that the story as a whole is a disaster. There are certainly fun moments with some well executed comedy, although audience’s enjoyment of these will be dependent on if the Pokémon involved are personal favourites or not. The variety of Pokémon included provides a healthy mix of the original one hundred and fifty and the subsequent generations although older viewers might not approve of so many of the newer Pokémon.
In addition to this, the ambitious concept of having so many of these Pokémon featured and often sharing the screen at one time creates a problem for the aesthetic of the film. The varying designs of this huge range of Pokémon don’t always mesh together that well leaving the finished project, and the world presented looking unconvincing despite the cuteness overload that some individual designs achieve. The cast are somewhat unconvincing too. Their performances go from bad to middling with a varying range of quality across the cast but seriously, who keeps giving Rita Ora acting jobs? Reynolds is good in his role here but his voice is maybe just too recognisable as when watching you could be forgiven for hearing Reynolds rather than Pikachu as the character here simply feels like a watered down Deadpool. Thankfully the spirit and enthusiasm of his and the remaining cast make the film watchable but the mismatch of performances only further contribute to the slightly jarring visuals and messy feel of the film has as a whole. On the plus side though it’s all tied together with a playful score that blends the sounds of the games with original music in an enjoyable way, nicely complementing the unfolding action.
The ambition of this project has to be admired and the attempts to please several different audiences is admirable. There are some excellent moments littered throughout this film but they’re all too fleeting to enhance the quality of the film as a whole. The over complicated plot really holds the film back and further hampering it is the skewed visuals that just don’t ever sit right. Certain sequences suggest that this could be the type of film younger audiences will quickly take to their hearts and rewatch repeatedly as there is fun to be had but unfortunately just not enough to recommend this Pokémon adventure. Detective Pikachu, I don’t choose you.
Written by Hamish Calvert
Rating – 5/10
Question: Who is your favourite Pokémon?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)
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