Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

photo courtesy of rollingstone.com

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     In Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Tim (Justice Smith) is searching for his father, detective Harry Goodman, in Ryme City, a place where humans and Pokémon coexist. Tim gets help from an unlikely source: a Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) who can understand him and speak to him. Together, Tim and his new Pikachu will have to put together the clues, solve the mystery, and learn some valuable life lessons along the way.

     Detective Pikachu will be a huge deal for kids and Pokémon fans, but I expect it’ll only be a moderately large deal for everyone else. For someone like myself, who wasn’t into Pokémon as a kid, the nostalgia factor in Pikachu isn’t really sufficient to maintain interest. So for me, it’s the humor—provided mostly by Reynolds—that makes the case for Detective Pikachu.

photo courtesy of digitalspy.com

     Reynolds is obviously a worthy comic actor, and his energy translates even in the absence of his physical form and his trademark Deadpool pottymouth. Justice Smith also gives a solid performance (including some comedic moments), but Reynolds remains the real selling point. His style—quick delivery, heavy on references—lends the movie a kind of carefree energy, a willingness to be silly that the movie desperately needs. Then, when you manifest that performance in a ridiculously adorable CGI Pikachu, it only gets better.

     And the first half of Detective Pikachu channels an interesting and fresh neo-noir vibe. It’s all dark, hazy streets, neon lights, and secretive figures (both human and Pokémon). The movie leans into that atmosphere, and even riffs off it from time to time, which makes for some enjoyable sequences.

photo courtesy of consequenceofsound.net

     Detective Pikachu’s big drawback is its plot, which leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t think that it particularly matters, given the target audience; nobody who’s deeply passionate about Pokémon is going to leave the theater nitpicking the storyline. But it might very well leave some less enthusiastic viewers checking their watches or catching up on their naptime while the movie runs out the clock.

     Pikachu’s story just sort of goes wherever, jumping from one beat to the next with only the thinnest narrative thread to link scenes together. The characters all follow along, for the most part without making any informative or constructive decisions that impact the narrative. (The movie’s one female character, played by Kathryn Newton, gets the worst treatment; she hardly has any reason to be in the movie at all.) The movie’s twists, of which there are a few, are all easy to spot within the movie’s first thirty minutes.

photo courtesy of variety.com

     That’s not to say you won’t enjoy Detective Pikachu. I imagine quite a few people (especially the diehards) will get a big kick out of it. Just don’t walk into the theater expecting a well-realized, thoughtful storyline—or characters you’ll remember in a couple weeks.

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is rated PG for action/peril, some rude and suggestive humor, and thematic elements.

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