Review: Pokémon Detective Pikachu, or This Could Be the Beginning of a New Film Franchise

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"I feel like I'm ripping off Arthur Conan Doyle with this deerstalker."

Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment, two Hollywood powerhouses, join together to bring us Detective Pikachu. The official title of the movie, according to IMDb, is Pokémon Detective Pikachu, because Detective Pikachu refers to the Nintendo 3DS game. But this review isn't for the game, so there really won't be any confusion when I refer to the film as simply Detective Pikachu.

So anyway, is this movie based on the game? I don't know, I've never played it. So this review will not be referencing the film's gaming roots in any way.

I admit, I was a casual fan of the cartoons. Wait, scratch that. I am a casual gamer of Pokémon Go. So with the cartoons, what's less than a casual fan? A sporadic fan, maybe? I'm not sure. Point is, my knowledge of Pokémon isn't that solid to begin with.

Remember back in 2007, when Michael Bay released the first Transformers film (which incidentally was the very first film reviewed on this blog)? You might remember the backlash it received from fans for not staying true to the eighties TV show. Why’d they make Bumblebee a Camaro, they asked, when Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle, and a Volkswagen Beetle only, nothing else. The only thing they retained was the colour, because Bumblebee can only be yellow. Wait, what was my point?

Oh yes, the fans. So the fans actually taught Hollywood a valuable lesson when it comes to adapting existing source material. If the source material is a book, then visual interpretations may be free for all, except for very specific descriptions the author used. But if the source material is another visual medium, such as a comic book, or a children’s cartoon in this case, then of course there must at least be a semblance of visual similarity, because that is what the viewers will be looking for.

And who are the viewers in this case? Although the studios may argue that these films are meant to draw in new audiences, let’s face it: these films are driven by nostalgia, and are really directed at those who were young once and now are employed and thus have money to spend at the cinema. That’s the same with every piece of adapted cinema that is released twenty years after its source material, such as Charlie’s Angels, the Transformers franchise, Inspector Gadget, and many more. (One can also argue that Mission: Impossible started off like this, but has grown so big that it has taken a life of its own now, with fans that don’t know and don’t care about the 1970s television show that inspired it.)

Wait, what are we talking about again? Oh yes, Detective Pikachu. Particularly visual similarity. Well, all I have to say is that the adaptation of the flat two-dimensional animated Pokémon into their three-dimensional computer-generated counterparts was extremely faithful. None of that “Bumblebee is a Camaro” crap. The Cubones you see on the big screen is exactly the same as the one in your childhood memories. So are the Squirtles. The Growlithes. The Gastlies. And of course, the lovable Pikachu. Except for one small thing: Pikachu’s voice.

No more “Pika Pika” cuteness here. Instead of miming and context clues, the filmmakers gave Pikachu a voice, and that is Ryan Reynolds on cocaine. I’m kidding, of course, it’s just regular Ryan Reynolds. It is of course a bit jarring at first, but don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.

Detective Pikachu went to great lengths to give us something that deserves being called a detective flick, with the cinematographer even shooting on 35 mm film to make it feel more like Blade Runner. Aside from Pikachu sporting a deerstalker–an obvious homage to Sherlock Holmes–all the elements of classic mystery storytelling are here, albeit toned down for a younger audience. Don’t expect a great whodunit, though, because the plot’s fairly easy to predict. Just sit back and suspend your disbelief, is what I would suggest. It’s the ride that matters, anyway.

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"Am I gonna get my own movie?"

Pokémon Detective Pikachu. USA/Japan/Canada. 2019.



Original rating: 7.2/10
Pikachu sounding like Deadpool: +0.1
No Kathryn Newton nudity: -0.1
Justice Smith: +0.1
Bill Nighy: +0.1
Ken Watanabe: +0.1
Psyduck: +0.1
Final rating: 7.6/10

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I cannot imagine how a film can squeeze so many veteran (and I don't mean "aged") actors in a film. Since Love Actually, a lot have attempted to achieve the same result, but none have ever replicated its success. Some came close, but still not quite. Until The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And alas! It's still from the English.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a place for the "elderly and beautiful" in Jaipur, India. And it's where our veteran (this time, I mean "aged") characters are drawn to when their current life circumstances left them feeling alone, lonely, or wanting. Okay, that doesn't sound like Love Actually at all, but this film reminded me of it.

It's a bunch-of-characters-in-one-film kind of similar, eh? 

Total Recall (2012)

(Comicbook.com)

I don't remember much of the original Schwarzenegger film. I've always liked Colin Farrell in action movies, whether he's the good guy or the bad guy, but my expectations for remakes is always a tad lower.

Wrath of the Titans

Warner Bros.

I am generally not a big fan of sequels. Though there are a few exceptions, I generally regard sequels as a sign of capitalist greed, wherein the quality of a release is sacrificed over how much money it can generate in the box office.

Warner Bros.

Can you believe how much they pay this man?

Rango

This movie should teach everyone a valuable lesson, and it is this:

Just because it's Johnny Depp doesn't mean you have to watch it.

This, by the way, is a Nickelodeon and Industrial Light and Magic production, and marks ILM's first venture into CG-animation. And I'm so sorry to say that it actually failed in the character designs. First off, the title character himself:

The Hawaiian shirt isn't helping.

Valkyrie

Less than five minutes into the film, I already stopped it in my head.

Why?

Because Tom Cruise spoke English.

I already mentioned in my earlier reviews about effective realism (if I want to coin the word, I'm going to have to do an academic paper on it, which of course I will NOT do), and I wish all movies would follow the same trend. Inglourious Basterds, for instance, also used effective realism. If you're going to do a film about the Germans, then please make them speak German. Or at least make them all look Aryan. I mean, they could at least have dyed Tom Cruise's hair blonde, to make him look more German and less all-American pretty boy. Didn't Tom Cruise look good as Lestat, who had blonde hair?

Also, the story kind of--there's no better word for it--sucked. I don't know if it was director Bryan Singer's fault, or the scriptwriters', but suck it did.

But what saved this film was the production design (excellent uniforms and props, and that annoying eyeball that Cruise keeps in his pocket), and the performance of Tom Wilkinson. He is fast becoming my favorite "fierce old guy" actor. I hope he isn't a fierce old guy in real life.

Oh, and also, Bill Nighy was here. Only I don't know which character he played. He was so damn good, he escaped my eye. I only saw him on the IMDb cast list.


*some info from IMDb
pic from specialcomment.wordpress.com


Valkyrie. USA. 2008.


Rating: Six out of ten.
Tom Cruise's eyeball: One out of ten.