Review of Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) by Qualitygamer — 09 May 2019

My overall feelings on Detective Pikachu collect into a "7" score, which is by and large the best score of a live-action video game adaptation I have given. Everything else has honestly been 4 or worse, but Detective Pikachu deserves recognition for not being great, but actually succeeding in catering to fans AND ALSO being a watchable movie. Pros:

Pokemon are animated beautifully and I was immersed.

They lightly touch on the PKMN trainer thing, make it seem like they are manchildren which was funny.

Ryan Reynolds almost carries the movie with his presence as a yellow, electric furball.

The main lead is a pretty good actor for someone I've never heard of or seen before.

Tons and tons of references, easter eggs everywhere in scenery or dialogue making this movie an absolute treat for Pokemon fans.

The Mehs:

The Pokemon are animated beautifully BUT the variety runs out halfway through. I think their budget only allowed for 50 or so Pokemon to be rendered and animated, and when most of your movie takes place in a gigantic city, this really sticks out. There's nearly a thousand in the universe today.

The reason for Rime Citys existence is that it allows humans and Pokemon to co-exist and leave peacefully, with no trainers and no battles. Ok, so basically the whole premise of Pokemon, sans the trainers and battles? It seems like they overlooked something on their part, because there are so many instances in the anime, movies and games where people describe pokemon battles are something they can use to bond with their Pokemon stronger. Traits of loyalty, determination and feelings of love and protection for one another, the Pokemon AND its trainer, come from battles. Just seems like they missed the reasoning for this one thing.

And finally for the Mehs, the story. It's nothing new. You've seen the same twists and turns in other media before. It moves along briskly, but you have past experience.

The Bad:

God damn does the female lead bring forth a bad performance. Her introduction scene was almost cringeworthy, and for the rest of the film, her performance never felt genuine. I know that the actress is probably the most avid Pokemon fan out of the cast, but her acting really wasn't great, felt like she was reading lines. Very big misfire. And a personal nitpick I'd like to make: where was all the downtime? Did it all get cut in post-production? Part of why this movie is pretty watchable is the brisk pace, but there is almost no downtime between scenes! I wanted to see more shots of Pokemon living with their daily lives of people, casually and in business, even communicating with each other, but sometimes they only give off a presence as if they are decorations or pets. There is a scene late in the movie where the lead tries to communicate with wild Bulbasaur. Pokemon don't know human language, but they can read and feel you accurately, which this entire scene tried to convey. This needed to be a theme recurring through the whole movie! Especially considering Pikachu can actually be heard by the male lead. Well, now that I think about it, if Pokemon can only feel and understand you through emotion and body language, and even if the male lead can understand Pikachu for some reason, why is the Pikachu able to understand the male leads English? That's a can of worms.