Rod and Karen review the live action adaptation of Pokemon Detective Pikachu. We also discuss trailers and your feedback for Avengers: End Game.
Spoiled Reviews: (Protected Content)
SMR 240: Pokemon Detective Pikachu
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I was more out of my depth than me not enjoying this film. Detective Pikachu is not a bad movie & has enough for diehards of the series, it’s just that once it’s over, it’s over. Ryan Reynolds becoming Pikachu made sense, but it didn’t feel like the quasi-parody I was expecting. Rod, I do agree that the movie had some tone issues. One scene depicts moments of fun & light, while others go into some mustache-twirling evil shit that feels borderline PG-13, at times. Justice Smith was much better here than he was in Jurassic World 2, but I didn’t his chemistry with Kathryn Newton, which I blame more on the script than I do the two of them. They were trying to conjure up a friendship, I just didn’t buy it. She was overacting, at times; &, he was kinda just not able to sell their portrayal. It’s colorful, which is a Pokemon trademark, I just shrugged my shoulders through most of it. It’s an OK Video Game adaptation, but that’s all it is.
I love the movie. I understand that your review is largely based on the fact that you guys are not Pokemon fans, which is a absolutely fine.
But I do want to provide context about the trepidation you had with the darkness of the movie. Pokemon (the video game, not the anime) has expanded to 7 generations of Pokemon, which an eighth coming out this November on the switch. Since about generation 3, the story of Pokemon has been very dark. For Ex. Gen 3 had two different villain teams trying to either Flood the Earth or create permanent drought that would suffocate and burn everyone. Gen 6 had their own Thanos and wanted to eliminated all species to essentially start life over. And finally, Gen 7, the villain basically abandoned her own children just to combine with an legendary Pokemon, then after losing, her insanity wanes and she is comatose for the rest of the game.
The Pokemon video games has been dark for a long time, which is why I disagree with Kriss in saying Detective Pikachu is more of a video game movie than an anime movie, especially with the story being completely divorced from Ash Ketcham. Also, in the video games, the main character you play with, except in gen 3, the father is rarely mentioned, or does not exist. Only the mother is present throughout the games.
Sorry about the long comment, but I thought I should provide that context just in case you didn’t know.