Pokemon Detective Pikachu

Image credit: IMDb

While it’s an absolute truth that the cinema affords many pleasures, if you want a rainbow you have to put up with the rain, and there are times when, even in the safety and voyeuristic comfort of those plush seats, you can be disappointed, sometimes greatly disappointed.

I am sad and sorry to say that I experienced such a disappointment recently, in Detective Pikachu.

This highly anticipated family film tells the story of Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a slightly antisocial young man who travels to the big city when he hears that his father has passed away. Upon arriving, Tim discovers that his dad’s Pokémon, Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), is still alive, suffering from amnesia and, more startlingly, able to talk to him like a human. After discovering some chemical that makes Pokémon go crazy, Tim and Pikachu team up to find out what happened to Tim’s father.

Based on a game, Detective Pikachu is a great example of what happens when a film can’t quite include all of its potential audiences. On the one hand, it’s a film for people who grew up with the game, but on the other hand it’s a live action Pokémon movie that is going to have a lot of nostalgia clout for the audience that grew up watching the anime on weekday mornings. While I have to give it snaps for trying, it doesn’t even get a sliver of the cake.

The story is boring and predictable with the protagonist being one of the most uninspired and narratively weak characters I’ve seen on film for a while. The character arcs, while sweet, are a bit of a cliché and the film doesn’t tackle them in a particularly interesting way so, by the end of the film, there’s no feeling of closure, growth, or fulfilment.

Image credit: NBC News

The Pokémon are all very cute, but (inevitably one could argue) fail to seamlessly blend in with the ‘real world’ so it really just looks like a bunch of stuffed toys have come to life.

While I appreciated the reference to the first Pokémon movie, Detective Pikachu afforded absolutely no real pleasure for me, I just found the whole thing to be boring. While I am obviously not the intended audience of the film, I feel that a lot of people are going to share in my experience of cinematic disappointment in that this is a Pokémon movie that isn’t entirely inclusive of all Pokémon fans.

Director: Rob Letterman, 2019

Cast: Justice Smith, Ryan Reynolds, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe, Rita Ora, Chris Geere, Karan Soni, and Bill Nighy