Pokémon Detective Pikachu Shocks and Awes

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

Pokémon Detective Pikachu is far and away the best video game movie ever. I know that is not much to go by, but I had a great time watching it. For context, I have played every generation of Pokémon and have even completed the Pokédex in three games. To answer your next question, no I do not have a life. But as a fan of the franchise, Detective Pikachu hit a lot of the right notes. Its greatest success was the translation of the Pokémon themselves from the cartoon and video games into real life. They were beautifully rendered and textured in a way that they were a blend of the tangible and surreal. When the movie was first announced, I was nervous at how the Pokémon would look, thinking that it would be at one of the extremes; either cartoons with people, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or disgusting CGI monstrosities, a la Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Fortunately, Detective Pikachu nailed the visuals. The Pokémon felt realistic enough and their faces were still animated to allow for emotions and expressions, which is important when they are characters that can only say their name. Beyond the visuals, the story was built off of Pokémon: The First Movie. It involves a young adult trying to track down Mewtwo, the strongest Pokémon, in connection to the disappearance of his father. The first half of the movie has a tongue-in-cheek noir vibe, which is delightful, and ends as a fantasy action story, but the tonal shift makes sense with the plot. The plot was simple and straightforward, but it is a family movie, so it can’t be too subversive. Also, the plot was only a vehicle to carry the star of the movie, Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu. This movie could have easily been a disaster by casting someone less charismatic than Reynolds. He absolutely owns the role and steals every scene. I have seen enough animated movies to know that some people are not cut out for voice acting, but Reynolds is dynamite. He should do more animated movies because he is able to convincingly convey all manner of emotions through his words, maybe even an animated Deadpool movie. But even though Reynolds was clearly the star, the other actors did great jobs adding to the believability of a world with Pokémon. Even though I loved this movie, there were some issues. The music left something to be desired. The mixes of the songs from the games and cartoon were a little overproduced and sometimes did not match the scene that was happening. Also, the villain was very basic, as was his motivation. But beyond that, Detective Pikachu was a blast and was better than I ever imagined a Pokémon movie could be. I give Detective Pikachu 23 out of 25 (Pikachu’s Pokédex number).