‘DETECTIVE PIKACHU’ BRINGS POKEMON TO LIFE

“Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” is good – quite good actually!

Shoutout to writer/director Robert Letterman and screenwriters Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Derek Connolly, and Marvel Studios alumnus Nicole Perlman. These ambitious few have crafted a movie which not just works fairly well as a standalone movie, but also as a potential introduction to a new movie franchise.

This film sets up two quality characters: our titular Detective Pikachu, played convincingly by Ryan Reynolds, and our actual lead character, Tim, played by newcomer Justice Smith. However, its true success lies in its setup of a larger universe, one rife with future film opportunities, if The Pokémon Co. and Nintendo wish to move in that direction.

 It begins with the introduction of Tim, who is lonely, sheepish, and in his early 20s. In the colorful and action-packed world of Pokémon, he has chosen to dedicate his life to being… an insurance salesman. He seems aimless in life and in denial of the fact that selling insurance probably sucks. And his luck only worsens when he is informed that his father, a police detective he has not seen in many years, has died.

This news takes Tim to “Ryme City,” the center of Pokémon/human interaction, where Pokémon and humans live side-by-side, “free from pokéballs” as the movie puts it. Pokéballs are the instrument used to imprison Pokémon, and without them, Pokémon roam the streets like regular people, most of them even having jobs as traffic guards and bartenders and such.

This is, for me at least, the highlight of the movie. Seeing these funny little interactions between Pokémon and people just going about their day makes the universe feel very real and “lived in,” in a corny but also self-aware way. Every corner of “Ryme City” feels alive and moving with the hustle and bustle of a real city. 

Tim soon meets our beloved little lightning rat, Detective Pikachu, who was his father’s “Pokémon Partner,” and is a detective himself. Upon their meeting, Tim discovers that he can understand and speak to Pikachu, something never seen before in the history of human-to-Pokémon relations. This leads the two on an interesting and surprisingly heartfelt first act where they decide to look for Tim’s dad, as they believe his death to be a part of some type of conspiracy.

 Along the way, we meet characters Roger and Howard Clifford, played by Chris Geere and frequent Edgar Wright collaborator Bill Nighy, and Tim’s semi-love interest, Lucy Stevens, played by Kathryn Newton, an aspiring news reporter and partner to a “Psyduck.” The three humans turn in middling-to-poor performances (the Psyduck is great; Oscar-worthy, perhaps) especially Nighy who, to be fair, is given some LUDICROUS things to say and do during the film’s climax.

The first act concludes with an entertaining but rushly-explained action set piece (featuring Diplo, who is playing HIMSELF, because, you know, what’s a good Pokémon movie without the guy who produced “Paper Planes” with M.I.A.?). Next comes what is certainly the most forgettable portion of the movie – more of the serviceably good comedy with less of the heart of the first half-hour or so, ending with one of my personal least favorite film tropes: the misunderstanding when a miscommunication or some wrong information leads the two main characters to drift apart. The movie never really convinces us that the separation will last, which only insults our intelligence as viewers.

Only then comes our first real introduction of “Mewtwo,” a character teased throughout the first act. Mewtwo is the most powerful Pokémon, capable of telepathic communication with humans and seemingly just about anything else, and he is shown to be massively powerful. He just serves as a plot device for the most part, giving us exposition in the form of illusions presented to the characters. This, along with several hologram sequences that also serve as exposition, seem to demean the audience. (I heard a young child in my theater, like, 5 or 6 years old, state out loud what was going on, only for the movie to spend several minutes explaining what he and everyone else in the theater, already understood.

This is indicative of a larger problem: an inconsistent tone. Early on, this movie sets a goofy, funny, but slightly adult tone and tries to say, “Hey look at us, this movie can be enjoyed by kids AND adults, aren’t we funny?!” Several jokes are made about coffee that will be lost on kids, and Pikachu even says something about people, “sticking their fingers in me,” (eww), and yet we, as an audience, cannot be trusted to put two and two together.

But in the third act, that tone is thrown out the window and this quaint detective story, set within the Pokémon universe, turns into a superhero movie with flying and explosions and evil plots to change the world. I was sincerely flabbergasted (yeah, I said it) by the direction this movie went, but, due to me not having been a fan of Pokémon since I was, like, 8 – I really liked it.

If you are a Pokémon purist expecting battles and lore and Pokémon-insider easter eggs, you won’t find it here. If you just want a fun and rather dumb (I mean this in the best way possible) movie with a little bit of heart, a little bit of genuinely good humor, and a sincerely surprising third act with some actually appalling but well-earned revelations in the last 15 or so minutes, I think you may very well enjoy this film. For a strong first and third act, some decent character development, and some truly impressive world building, I give Pokémon: Detective Pikachu 3 out of 5 stars.

I implore you to see this movie, at least to see some of the absurd places it goes to in the third act. I was actually astonished by how dumb it gets, in a fun way.

This movie is great for kids, casual Pokémons fans, Diplo fans, Ryan Reynolds fans, and anyone just looking for a pretty good time at the movies.