Pokemon Detective Pikachu Review

Pokemon Detective Pikachu
Director: Rob Letterman
Cast Headliners: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe, many many pokemon
Original Release Date: May 10th, 2019

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is a bit of a chaotically, sillily weird one. Pokemon as a franchise needs no introduction for anyone alive on this world from the 1990s onwards. There's been games, anime series, trading cards but never until now has there been a film that's not an anime film. That's probably for good reason as usually when games go live action or to films in general results are not quite the best(just ask Pikachu's company cousin Mario). They've also chosen not to adapt a classic Pokemon tale but instead create something new from...a semi-obscure 3DS spinoff game about a wisecracking noir-esque Pikachu. Turns out choosing to go for something so specific and distinct in tone helps it become smartly decent as can be.
On the offchance one has been living under a rock this is a world of sometimes adorable, sometimes  colorul fierce cartoonish creatures called “Pokemon” who here live in an apparent utopia known as Ryme City. These creatures have an intelligence far beyond any other pet and even can have superpowers over elemental forces or magic and so on. However, most cannot talk. This movie makes one exception.
Tim Goodman(Justice Smith) is a mundane insurance worker who gets brought downtown after the apparent death of his father. While searching through his father's things he comes across the titular Detective Pikachu(Ryan Reynolds) who's a yellow electric mouse...that can speak English. They find themselves entangled in a criminal conspiracy of mysterious power-boosting gases, an experimental intelligent weapon pokemon known as Mewtwo, and shadowy figures.
The tone, and quality, of the flick is all over the place but kind of in  a great way. It's strong at being some (hard PG into PG-13 turf) family, silly, chill wacky fun humor. Reynold's performance is perfect at this. It's much like his take on Deadpool of course but it works so amazingly well. The diminutive critter has as much sass and constant joking as that Merc With a Mouth with a bit more of a grumpy hardboiled wisened angle. He has some good stuff with Smith's Tim and well anyone really. Smith's lead isn't far quite as effective but he has his charms and quips aside generic / general “Woah there what's happening” kind of reactions. They're joined by Lucy(Kathyrn Newton) a blogger and her “bomb” avian Psyduck companion who must be kept calm (which leads to some great fun with Det. Pikachu). Unfortunately Newton's acting, along with some others, is not very good at all. Its cheesiness and amateur nature remind one of something like a Nickelodeon or Disney Channel original movie in quality but perhaps its its all ages kid-friendly nature.
The others too don't quite leave an impact although they managed to pull a couple of big names. Bill Nighy portrays wheelchair bound CEO and inventor Howard Clifford who has some importance to the plot although it's typical generic stuff. Ken Watanabe's police chief Detective Yoshida has an adorably grumpy pet Snubbull but just gives a couple of brief, slow bits of exposition. The same applies for anyone else who really isn't worth mentioning. A possible exception is a bit cameo by Karan Soni...Dopiner from Deadpool.As a fan of the source games Mewtwo(Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe) is handled very accurately which is nice although comes off as a bit hokey in reality.
Emphasis must be reminded on “hokey in reality”. That's both the incredible benefit but pitfall of this movie. So many game films have failed to actually capture the feeling , mechanics, or plots of the original. While this is a fresh take it does accurately (more or less) portray a glimpse into the world that's right out of the games. Some of the pokemon designs are incredibly cool looking and given a realistic, animal touch. However some of them do not hold up well in CGI or reality. These are usually the more colorful, supernatural, big eyed ones who's looks and powers can be a bit stupid to see but in a way it's what a fan would want although to non-fans it may seem...off in a way. It's more about charming than immersing.
There's actually a couple of intense action scenes and what it does right is having some surprises within. The plot is nothing to write home about although it's interesting to see a bit of a noir story for all ages. This is helped by the directorial efforts of Rob Letterman. The cityscapes and colors can sometimes be a bit of a gorgeous sci-fi cyberpunk palette when they aren't being cheesy and shaky. The music is often great too (kudos to Henry Jackman). The synths and strings add to that steamy detective noir mood...which makes the adult / cartoony contast that much more entertaining.
It's not too deep of a movie and some ridiclously silly cheesy stupid things occur. However for Pokemon fans its a slight bit of a must watch at some point just to see the dream come alive. It could have been a lot better but its about what one would expect. Simple silly Pika fun with a spy touch...for better or worse. 7.8 out of 10