The biggest crime that this film commits, other than its over-reliance on the adorable factor, is the fact that they did my boy Cubone so dirty by turning him into a full-circle gag. Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a cute and nostalgic film that really is a perfect movie for the entire family. Past that, however, it does not offer much in terms of anything new or creative. While I did enjoy seeing so many of these creatures that defined a huge part of my adolescence, the plot was incredibly predictable and the characters were honestly borderline unlikable. Thankfully, the best character in this film was Pikachu himself as Ryan Reynolds definitely delivered in embodying the absolutely charming little electric mouse.
Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is a young insurance salesman who refuses to have a Pokémon of his own because of his estranged father, despite everyone in his life being bonded to one. When he finds out that his father has gone missing, Tim partners up with a Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who happens to be a world-class detective, in order to solve the mystery of what happened to his father while navigating the peculiar and colorful world of Ryme City. The writing in this film was unfortunately its weakest aspect and definitely brought the experience down for me. I definitely expected a much better-written story, especially from a Warner Bros. partnered film. The plot of this movie follows Tim and Pikachu as they attempt to solve the mystery of where Tim's father went and this became very dull very quickly. The writing was awfully predictable and the twist at the end of the movie was built up to in the simplest of ways. Even though this plot was not as interesting as I had hoped, there is no denying that it still works. The simple premise of this movie lends itself to creating this world that will undoubtedly have spinoffs in the near future: because who doesn't love Pokémon? And the very basic plot helps to make this movie perfect for families and perfect as a summer blockbuster, which is all that modern audiences could really ask for anyways. I may not have enjoyed the ridiculously easy story, but I understood its intention, as it was frankly just there to pave the way for waves and waves of cartoon nostalgia. The production design of this film was great too, as the Pokémon actually looked like they would if they were set in reality. Even though there were many moments of some wonky animation and gross edits, at least I enjoyed the color scheme and design of all the creatures.
Along with the story, the biggest part of this film that I could not get behind were the performances. Justice Smith's Tim and Kathryn Newton, who played an amateur reporter named Lucy Stevens, acted in excruciatingly obvious ways. In most big-budget Hollywood films in which a human actor is on screen alongside a CGI creature of some sort (think Rocket Raccoon), the characters are decently placed and seem realistic in the way they interact. This entire film relies on the world full of these pocket monsters and because of that, the actors need to be able to act as if they actually live in that world. I could not feel that at all from these two human leads, and in so many shots, it was painfully obvious of how their bodies did not match up with whatever they were communicating with. The attempted emotional aspects of this story were also very cringe-worthy and even though Smith and Newton are two relatively rising stars, I feel like they relied too heavily on the charisma of Reynolds. It also doesn't help that Lucy was written to have the most aggravatingly annoying presence in a world full of socially normal people. Her character was so exaggerated that it became frustrating whenever she was on screen. Thankfully, Reynolds delivered the best character in this entire film and even though it was initially hard for me to imagine him voicing a CGI Pikachu, he brought so much life to this character. A lot of his humor and style were incorporated into Pikachu's personality, which was the funniest aspect.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a fun movie that honestly does no harm in today's world of massive and divisive blockbusters. Even though this movie is a painfully generic detective story with a twist that anyone could see coming from miles away, it's undeniably great to see these adorable, live-action creatures living in harmony with humans.
My Rating: ★★★
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