Review of Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) by Niles2K14 — 09 May 2019

The movie was average to say the least. It has pacing issues whereas the plot goes by way too quickly, it's not able to flow naturally. The characters especially seem like plot devices than anything else.

They just spew out their data dump or make long-winded speeches about the plot and Tim drifts along from one part of the plot to the next in a frantic manner. Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu is definitely one of the saving graces of this film because of how snarky and charismatic he can be.

There are moments though when Pikachu talks way too much and it gets annoying when Tim's talking with somebody and Pikachu keeps adding in his two cents about what's going on which distracts me sometimes.

I also find that the movie tries so hard to juggle being an action movie, a noir story and a comedy, it takes away from the mystery of the plot since it's extremely predictable. The plot twists suffer as a result of how predictable the plot is.

I won't go into too much detail about that though. As for the main villain, I can't say much about him since he's extremely forgettable. In fact, he behaves like a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon.

Despite all of these issues I have with the movie, the Pokemon look excellent in CGI live action. Their designs are near-perfect recreations of their video game designs though Mr. Mime and Ditto can be utterly creepy.

I also like the graphical effects of the Pokemon's moves. Ryme City especially looks magical because of the diversity of Pokemon that inhabit the city while cooperating with the humans. It gives a sense of world-building though in actuality, the movie severely lacks world-building because of how insubstantial the plot is.

This movie is pure fan service for Pokemon fans though it's mainly aimed towards the kids. It's not a bad movie at all, but it's extremely far from being the "best video game-movie". I would like a sequel to this and if there ends up being one, hopefully it improves upon this movie's pacing issues since that's the biggest problem I have with it.