Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Title: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

Genre: Mystery, Action, Family

Director: Rob Letterman

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, Ken Watanabe, Chris Geere, Rita Ora

Release: 2019-05-09

Plot: A live-action film franchise based on Detective Pikachu, a new character in the Pokemon universe. There is currently no official release date nor a official synopsis or plot released.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

For all of those people out there who wanted a gritty live-action film noir set in the world of Pokémon:

 

[mattCR]

This is so not what I expected I have no idea to think about how this turns out

 

[DavidJ]

I don’t know what to think of this.

 

[Chris Will]

My wife found this trailer on YouTube and played it for me; I thought it was a joke. Since Deadpool, I wouldn’t put it past Reynolds to do a joke like this. I still can’t believe this is a real movie.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

I knew this was being made, but had doubts about it. My oldest son grew up on Pokemon - played most of the games, and watched almost all the series and movies. So, naturally, I know a lot about that world too - played a few of the games, and watched much of the early shows, and more than a few of the movies. None of us ever played the Detective Pikachu game, but my son had heard and seen a lot about it. But none of us had any idea how this would work as live action.

We all watched that trailer the other night when it went live. I, just before leaving work, and my wife and two boys (the younger one too) saw it at home. We all loved it. It actually looks interesting. They obviously went all out making this a pokemon world - every frame has a loads of stuff in the fore and background.

 

[JQuintana]

My young son came up to me the other night and said "Dad, do you know what the STUPIDEST movie is that's coming out soon!!??"

I had no idea and he said "A PIKACHU MOVIE!!"

Needless to say this will not get any of our money.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Just for the record, there's a real Pokémon movie, the annual 2-D anime release from Japan, playing as a Fathom event starting November 24. This is the one I'll be seeing:

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Sooo, you know how they are making a pg-13 version of Deadpool 2? I expect the vice-versa of that for this movie.

 

[JQuintana]

Just for the record, there's a real Pokémon movie, the annual 2-D anime release from Japan, playing as a Fathom event starting November 24. This is the one I'll be seeing:

You are a brave man for wanting to sit through that.

 

[Vic Pardo]

You are a brave man for wanting to sit through that.

I've seen every Pokémon movie, most of them multiple times, and enjoyed them all. I reviewed many of them as well, for different venues. It is, after all..."a world we must defend."

 

[JQuintana]

I've seen every Pokémon movie, most of them multiple times, and enjoyed them all. I reviewed many of them as well, for different venues. It is, after all..."a world we must defend."

Glad you have fun watching them. I've tried watching a few of the cartoons when the whole Pokemon Go fad hit and I just couldn't stand it. Like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Glad you have fun watching them. I've tried watching a few of the cartoons when the whole Pokemon Go fad hit and I just couldn't stand it. Like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

The movies are much more elaborate animated adventures than the half-hour show and take place in very detailed settings modeled after real-life places. GENESECT AND THE POWER AWAKENED took place in a city patterned after New York, with Times Square scenes and a lot of Pokémon action in Central Park. As a New Yorker, I was overjoyed. One of the older movies, POKEMON HEROES, I think, took place in a setting modeled on Venice, Italy.

 

[JQuintana]

Part of my lack of interest in these and all other Anime (?) is the herky jerky style of animation and the over exaggerated look of the characters (big eyes etc), and also the janky lip sync when they "talk".

 

[Vic Pardo]

Part of my lack of interest in these and all other Anime (?) is the herky jerky style of animation and the over exaggerated look of the characters (big eyes etc), and also the janky lip sync when they "talk".

It's an acquired taste which I've--happily--acquired. Although I must admit I was drawn to it as a kid by Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Gigantor, et al, and then rediscovered it as an adult when films like PHOENIX 2772, GALAXY EXPRESS 999 and AKIRA started playing in animation festivals. And then I discovered Hayao Miyazaki in 1989 and the rest is history.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Reviving this thread!

Saw "Detective Pikachu" the other day and thought it was wholly... okay.

Seemed very "safe" to me. It wasn't snarky or edgy enough to embrace the promise of Reynolds' casting, but it also wasn't "pure Pokemon".

Rather than be fire or ice, it ended up as lukewarm water...

 

[Edwin-S]

I saw the film about a week ago. It felt like it took quite awhile for the film's real story to get rolling. It felt like 20 or 30 minutes of the film passed before Pikachu showed up. To me, it was one of those films that ended up in a no-man's land where it wasn't quite sure what audience it was going for. It wasn't exactly purely a kid flick but it also wasn't exactly aimed at adults. As a family film it couldn't quite coalesce its kid orientated parts (the Pokemon) with the material aimed at an older audience into a unified whole.

With Reynolds in it, I was expecting something a little more smart-assed but they played it fairly straight. I thought it would be funnier than it turned out to be. It wasn't terrible but it never came close to a top tier family film such as Zootopia or something similar.

However, I did think that Reynolds did a pretty good job with the Pikachu character.

I stayed through the end credits and it was interesting to see that the film was shot on 35mm rather than digitally. I thought that was unusual considering the kind of film it was and how much CGI was used in the film.

 

[DaveF]

We rented it tonight. The trailer promises a much better movie. It was a middling movie for tweens. Not bad, and once pikachu gets going, it has a number of fun scenes.

But, I don’t understand the end. It feels like dad and pikachu remember nothing past the car accident...and that’s a pretty bleak and depressing ending to me. Kinda “Flowers for Pikachu” sorrow.

 

[Malcolm R]

Though there's a certain logic to it,

Spoiler

since while they were combined they couldn't remember anything prior to the accident. Pre-merge and post-merge are like separate timelines.

I watched the 3D version last week. Kind of fun, though I know next to nothing about Pokemon so some of it seemed kind of weird at times.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

I'll chime back in.

As someone who's first son grew up on Pokemon - by 4, he knew all 151 original Pokemon, and I played the early Pokemon Yellow (which featured Pikachu) on the Gameboy as he played Pokemon Blue - I know quite a bit more than I should.

Just for reference, I was 35 by then.

Our second son was born 12 years later. He knew Pokemon pretty well too having all the same games and books for the games passed down from the oldest. The youngest is 10 now, while the oldest is 22.

All three of us saw the movie right before it left theaters (and again recently when it was on VOD on DirecTV). We all enjoyed it. There's a lot of subtle things the Pokemon characters do that you kind of do need to know about to understand. It's not needed to follow the story in general, but is kind of needed to catch some of the reactions and comments made throughout the movie.

It does follow the same world as the previous anime movies - the Mewtwo in this movie is the same Mewtwo from Pokemon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back from '98. There's a comment made about how this Mewtwo escaped from a Kanto lab 20 years ago. Kanto is the original Pokemon region for the first games and the setting for first movie.

I thought Reynolds was great. I was rolling when Pikachu is yelling "A man is being eaten alive...", and later when he's on the bridge and sadly singing/crying the theme song from the series (which has been burned in my memory from the years of hearing it).

This does seem to set up more movies, so this is just to give it all a start. A bit safe, yeah. But, I'll watch more.