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

Preliminary statement: The professional reviews are very questionable. And don't listen to people who say "how can fans of the franchise question critics, opinions rule". That is flawed logic. Which is quite a funny thing, by the way because now even the fans try to refer to this posting and want to call it the "worst" as if it is spreading "hate". No. It doesn't. Unfair and inappropriate criticism, off-context steming from the lack of information is a non-contribution so it is absolutely legitimate to warn from. Being misinformed is one thing but already knowing that it will influence your rating heavily is a big issue. Do the fans here not point out flaws in the movie just because they know the franchise? They do.

If you already know you give it an unfair treatment through the lack of knowledge then you are criticising inappropriately. And what is this nonsense of "please ignore the 10 reviews"? So trust the other so-called "opinions" but not the 10s, that acknowledge flaws? 10-movies have flaws. And you can integrate the lack of knowledge but less than 5 primarily because you don't know it is just not ok.

___.

This movie was absolutely solid.

Is it the most logical movie of all time and does it have a super original story? No. What does, really? Still for the first real theatre-released live-action movie of the Pokémon franchise this has been absolutely fantastic. And the way the story was presented was still quite original in its own way because of how it relies on certain elements that are just not given in similiar stories most of the time.

What can I say about this movie that got me a bit on the negative side? The lore is different. They say stuff like "Pokémon don't understand what we say, they feel it" yadayada. Well, that is definitely not true - in OTHER continuities. But this is a new continuity so who cares. Same goes for some other things like "in old times people caught Pokémon" et cetera and then showing ancient drawings when the game continuity actually has NPCs saying the exact opposite: The trainer stuff is quite new and humans and Pokémon once even lived together, eating on the same table and all (yes, there are people reading NPC dialogue, unbelievable!).

Also the way they treated the strongest Pokémon made by mankind (Mewtwo) in this movie during the finale was a bit something I did not like but that is because I grew up with the first REAL Pokémon movie and the Mewtwo in the original movie (which definitely got them some of their plot details) would never have let a villain do this to "him" - but stuff from before like him being used or how he was caught was a good parallel to how he was originally made in the anime or how Giovanni tried to get him back in the second Mewtwo movie "Mewtwo returns".

What did they do fanservice-wise that I really like how they re-used the Mewtwo stuff, just as mentioned. Also how they used the instrumental version of the Western opening and actually let Ryan Reynolds sing it. I must really say - for a not even 2 hour lasting movie there was a lot happening, especially plot-wise for a movie like Pokémon, I really have no idea what those critics are babbling about because I already watched it twice and yesterday I was justb surprised how far the movie was advanced in such a short time. Is the master plan of the villain cheesy? Yes, it is. But it is supposed to bring the world of Pokémon which is a kid's show on the big screen (as said, live action, Pokémon has enough movies). I am not that fine with how they displayed the humor because it got a bit too extreme for Pokémon. The manga is very dark and aggressive and even the games use words like "kill" and "die" very late in the games, although the theme was already there from the first generation on but constantly bringing up that topic or talking about throwing up, making a drug joke or bed jokes is just a bit too much. Not that I did not find it funny or that it was such an incredible no-go, it is just something displayed a LITTLE bit to extreme for something that is primarily associated with the games and anime instead of the manga. Some Pokémon were really goodlooking, some were a bit too much with the uncanny valley effect. Pokémon like Bulbasaur for example should definitely have been remade. Pikachu, Mewtwo, Jigglypuff, Psyduck, Charizard and Gyarados were top-notch.

Overall it was very entertaining. A good start for what I hope is the first step to more Pokémon movies and children will surely love it. Old veterans/freaks like me will surely enjoy lots of the fanservice during this nostalgia trip even if it is not exactly like the other continuities. Although they already mentioned Kanto, so who know what comes next.

Since most people might be missing me saying this: Ryan Reynolds was great. I think that's a given and does not need to be mentioned. Most people like him so this does not need long paragraphs.