We’ve been teased for months but Detective Pikachu is now in theaters and I have to talk about it… As a fan and as a reviewer! Because one is red… and the other blue!
I started my long and still ongoing Pokémon adventure back in 1998. And over the next years, I got to see the original movie “Mewtwo Strikes Back” a couple of times and I remember thinking what it could look like as a live-action film. I grew up with the fantastic “Space Jam” and I had an old VHS of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” I absolutely loved. So dreaming of a Pokémon movie came naturally for me. And now more than 20 years later my prayers have been answered. Detective Pikachu is finally here yet I feel torn apart…
I will try to keep the bias to a minimum but I will start off my review through the joyful eyes of a longtime fan of the Pokémon series. The first thing I noticed was how brilliant the world looks! Warner Bros and Legendary created a world that looks and feels genuinely like a real living world where Pokémon and humans live in harmony. The creatures are rendered in a photorealistic manner ranging from the scaly skin of a Charizard, the soft fluffy fur of a Growlithe to the realistic breathing movement of Pikachu’s tiny nostrils. Everything feels real, it’s as if there was actual anatomy behind these monsters.
Seeing this detail in IMAX 3D is incredibly immersive and fun. Seeing the scale of the living world and hearing the cries of the creatures moving like real entities makes this movie stand out. Even the attacks and poses the Pokémon take came straight from the games and it makes you feel right at home. This is the world I wanted Pokémon to take place in as a child! Pokémon battles are fantastic and I wanted to see even more of those. The movie did a great job showcasing how battling and capturing would work in a real Pokémon world without neglecting the core RPG DNA. If this movie is the birth of a dedicated “Pokémon Cinematic Universe” I am ready for the future, ask my jellies!
Now as a reviewer I must restrain my galloping Rapidash because although the story contains some very twisty twists, it remains pretty straightforward and sometimes some important story elements feel shallow or too transparent. I feel like Tim’s character was fleshed out enough but Lucy’s was very flat and a bit chaotic at times. It has nothing to do with Kathryn Newton’s performance. I feel like the character of Lucy was not “complete”. It looks like she misses some real incentive for her actions. Furthermore some scenes really only serve the plot and you can feel they’re only there to do just that. So storywise I expected a bit more depth and thinking on my part since it was supposed to be a “detective” movie with the darker subplot. It started all mysterious but it lost a bit of mystery by giving away too much too early.
Now, of course, we could start the debate whether or not Detective Pikachu is a kids’ movie or if it was made for older fans due to the casting of Ryan Reynolds and the more mature jokes every few minutes. Some scenes are even reminiscent of the original “Mewtwo Strikes Back” I mentioned earlier and those will be noticed by old time fans. I guess the writers tried to tailor the movie for both kids and their parents or older fans of the series. And that is a hard thing to pull off since you need to please two different types of audiences with different expectations in levels of depth a movie should offer. Something to keep in mind if they go on with this live-action world?
In the end, I had a great time watching Detective Pikachu and I really hope they continue the “Pokémon Cinematic Universe” and expand on this vivid world that could host a wide variety of different stories. But next time maybe tailored for a specific audience instead of trying to please both.
