Pokemon Detective Pikachu is based on the giant worldwide phenomenon, with its roots in videogames, a card game, an anime, and thousands of dollars in merchandise. Pokemon has become a gigantic cultural icon, and this is the first live action film based on the series. The film follows Tim Goodman, played by Justice Smith. He lives in a world where humans and Pokemon live side-by-side in unity. However, tensions are struck when his father, who was never there for them, is labeled dead. Conflicted about how he feels, he visits his dad's office, only to find a talking Pikachu, voiced by Ryan Reynolds. This Pikachu, which Tim discovers to be his father's Pokemon, has no memory. What he does know is that he is a detective. Oh, and there's a possibility that Tim's father might still be alive. Together, Pikachu and Tim must work together to find out what happened to Tim's father and Pikachu's memory.
Fun fact: I absolutely adore Pokemon. Pokemon has been a part of my life for almost my entire life. I watched the anime a lot as a kid, and I still play the games to this day. As a result, I was both highly excited and highly skeptical about this movie. I was excited because... well, it's a live action Pokemon movie. I have always wanted to see Pokemon in the real world, and this would be the closest remedy to that. I was skeptical because video game movies have a history of being terrible. Even the best video game movies are mediocre at best. So, what are my thoughts? Honestly, I'm kind of torn. As a Pokemon fan, I was highly entertained and thoroughly enjoyed it. As a movie fan, I found it incredibly stupid and somewhat cringy. In other words, we have what could possibly the guilty pleasure movie of the year.
The story is pretty dumb. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense and it's told in a way that lacks an emotional connection. It's all surface level storytelling, with predictable plot twists and corny writing. One of the writing's biggest problems is its tone. It shifts from moments of sadness involving death and acceptance, but then shifts to cartoony antics involving the Pokemon. The tone is pretty inconsistent, and it results in some sloppy storytelling. The story as a whole is weak and stupid. But honestly, I'm not surprised or disappointed. It's a Pokemon movie. I'm not expecting Oscar level writing here. Plus, I was entertained. There is something about the way this story is told that makes it genuinely charming.
What ends up hurting this film a lot is the characters, particularly the humans. Every single human character in this film sucks. They are all underwritten with little to no character development. Their dialogue is stupid and their personalities range from bland to annoying. The characters did not make me care about what was happening in the story. And yes, I know that this is a Pokemon movie, and Pokemon has a lot of focus on catching and battling the Pokemon. But there's little of that here. A lot of time is spent on the main character and how much of a prick he is. I didn't care about him or his struggles, and the writing never gave me a reason to care. The humans were definitely the weakest aspects of the film.
There is one aspect that saves this movie from being a dull, boring mess, and that's the fact that it's a Pokemon movie. Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu was a surprising stroke of genius. He is charming, adorable, and has all of the best jokes in the film. His chemistry with Tim grows to be pretty endearing, and how his character unravels becomes quite touching. He is by far the best character of the film, and he makes the movie a lot more entertaining than it could have been.
The positives don't stop there. All of the Pokemon look great. The CGI renders look accurate to the games and anime, and seeing them live among the humans is delightful. Plus, seeing their real life functions is highly entertaining and results in some cute sight gags. There are some moments where the animations and textures look odd, particularly with Pikachu's facial movements, but it rarely looks like a horror show. They are all beautifully realized and bring this fantastical world into a surprisingly vibrant reality.
In fact, the production aspects are the best parts of the movie. The cinematography is gorgeous. The use of lighting is great and brings a lot of character into the world. Rhyme City feels like a real city that could be inhabited by people and Pokemon alike. It feels lived in. The music is fantastic, and the way some tracks thread the needle between orchestral melodies and Gameboy era synths is very clever. I could tell the people making this film cared about the source material and wanted to make a picture that bring Pokemon to life in the best way possible. Their vision was certainly executed well in those aspects.
I'm not going to say Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a great movie. Heck, it's not really even a good movie. The story and the characters prevent this from being a solid flick. However, I still managed to have a lot of fun with it. I recognize that this is technically pretty mediocre, but I highly enjoyed it and I would want to see it again. I do consider this a guilty pleasure movie, but not like most others. Most guilty pleasure films are labeled that way because their so bad their good. I consider it a guilty pleasure because I'm able to enjoy it even if it's not very good purely for the fact that it's Pokemon. And I love Pokemon. If you're not a Pokemon fan, then I don't see this doing anything for you. But if you are a Pokemon fan like myself, I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit. It's not good, but it's stupid fun, and that's all I wanted.
Usually, my feelings towards a movie matches with the quality. However, my thoughts are so drastically different, that for the first time ever, I'm doing a score breakdown. I won't do it for other guilty pleasure movies because even if I enjoy them, they're still inexcusably bad. I can still commend this one for not being awful, as well as actually trying to be good.
Entertainment Score: 7/10 (Good)
Quality Score: 4/10 (Mediocre)
Final Score: 5.5/10 (Average)
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