Since the movie releases at different times in different countries, the Detective Pikachu movie released today in France, but fortunately I was able to see an early screening yesterday night. Now is finally the time to give my impressions on whether Detective Pikachu truly lives up to the hype or ends up just being another mediocre commercial movie adaptation of a videogame.
Now, I feel like since the movie offers some pretty good story twists, I will not spoil anything regarding the plot as I think that since it is pretty loosely based on the game while only keeping the main themes, the plot is pretty different from the original version. So therefore, I will only start discussing spoilers following the release of the movie in the Americas on May 10th. I will also add a poll on this day so that you will be able to give your brief impressions regarding the movie. Basically, you would rather want to go in completely blind regarding the story so make sure that you don’t spoil yourself too much if you’re going through some reviews of the movie.
So on to the movie, was it really any good or was it just average ?
Well, after 7 months of hard patience, here’s what I have to say about this movie, from someone who isn’t much a fan of Pokémon :
At last, we’ve come a long way since the questionable but rather interesting live-action adaptation of Super Mario Bros released over three decades ago, but Detective Pikachu has finally managed to break the infamous “ videogame curse “ to bring over what has been missing to gamers for a long time : a good movie. Detective Pikachu is an example of how to do a movie adaptation based on a video game right. Because the filmmakers behind the adaptation didn’t just adapt the videogame, but they’ve completely appropriated themselves the universe of the videogame of the same name in order to take a new approach to the videogame, and the least I can say is that they’ve nailed it.
Here’s a brief review of some of the aspects of the movie that I feel worth pointing out :
Regarding the story : I’ve seen most critics criticising the plot for being over-convoluted, but honestly, the story wasn’t even that hard to understand. I’ve been able to understand the entire plot and even if it does offer some out-of-reach twists at one point, the story never really gets meaningless and manages without leaving any plot holes behind. I’m even surprised at how the background story, based on the themes of father-son relationships and persons who aren’t really what they want you to think, is treated with such maturity. It is quite a challenge to cram up 12 hours of story from the videogame into a 1-hour and 40-minute long feature film, but Detective Pikachu brilliantly manages to offer a more simplistic, but not devoid of depth, story plot that will still manage to speak up to those who’ve played the original game, and for those who’ve never played the game.
Regarding the acting : no surprise here, Ryan Reynolds is just on par as a humorous talking Pikachu who’s always up for some pretty funny moments based on his addiction to caffeine that pops up throughout the movie. Justice Smith’s performance as Tim Goodman surprisingly manages to offer an emotional weight to the story.
Regarding the worldbuilding : honestly this is some of the best world-building I’ve seen lately in a feature film. Ryme City makes we want to actually imagine what it would be like to live with Pokémon in the everyday life. Although the idea of living with Pokemon in the real world doesn’t really click out to me since I usually don’t care about them, it would certainly feel weird and kind of amusing of having to share our life with fictional yet adorable creatures with two wholly different worlds that collide together. Pokémon fanatics ( if there’s any here on GAF ) will definitely feel in heaven if a place like Ryme City existed in real life.
Regarding the soundtrack : I honestly think that Henry Jackman did a superb job at remixing many classic Pokemon theme songs from the games to give them a new feel that actually fits very well to the modern look of Ryme City. Props to him honestly.
Regarding the Pokémon themselves : one thing that I usually don’t like about the Pokémon is that they are too child-friendly looking. While most of the Pokémon in the movie look remotely the same as their original form, the idea of making them all furry-looking makes them fit extremely well in the real world. Heck, a few Pokémon has been granted a more mature yet terrifying new look and if you’ve seen the movie... you’d know what I would be talking about. To make it simple, I largely approve the live-action look of the Pokémon, it offers a much needed change to a usual design formula that was starting to get tiresome.
So yeah, you’ve probably seen it by now, but overall I left the theater pretty satisfied of the screening. While I still think that Wreck-It-Ralph is the best videogame-related movie ever made simply because it managed to talk about videogames as a whole while also fantastically treating of a more interesting theme based around self-acceptance, Detective Pikachu is arguably the best movie based on a specific videogame franchise, and it’s pretty impressive considering the long track of mediocre at best Hollywood adaptations of videogames we had in the past. You can feel that the movie was made with passion, that it was made for Pokemon fanatics as much as Pokemon neophytes in mind.
While the movie isn’t perfect and has its flaws, it still manages to bring something that, and that’s perhaps the greatest achievement of the movie, will bring several audiences ranging from the usual viewer to the usual gamer, passing by the Pokemon fanatics to the Pokémon neophytes. There clearly is something for everyone to look forward to in this movie. However, Pokemon fanatics will definitely enjoy this movie the most than neophytes as they should expect a flood of easter eggs and sweet references to the Pokémon franchise as a whole, who nevertheless will also enjoy the movie thanks to a solid plot with lots of humor, great soundtrack, stunning visuals, and of course Ryan Reynolds’s charming performance as Pikachu which makes itworth alone. You should definitely see this movie as an affordable and family-friendly entry to the likes of “ Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? “ and “ Blade Runner “. Obviously, Detective Pikachu isn’t as remarkable as these movies, but it has the merit of having used interesting sources of influence to give an actual proper meaning to the universe of “ Detective Pikachu “ that simply wouldn’t have established all of its potential into a simple and obscure videogame from the 3DS.
I give this movie : 8/10
Now, I feel like since the movie offers some pretty good story twists, I will not spoil anything regarding the plot as I think that since it is pretty loosely based on the game while only keeping the main themes, the plot is pretty different from the original version. So therefore, I will only start discussing spoilers following the release of the movie in the Americas on May 10th. I will also add a poll on this day so that you will be able to give your brief impressions regarding the movie. Basically, you would rather want to go in completely blind regarding the story so make sure that you don’t spoil yourself too much if you’re going through some reviews of the movie.
So on to the movie, was it really any good or was it just average ?
Well, after 7 months of hard patience, here’s what I have to say about this movie, from someone who isn’t much a fan of Pokémon :
At last, we’ve come a long way since the questionable but rather interesting live-action adaptation of Super Mario Bros released over three decades ago, but Detective Pikachu has finally managed to break the infamous “ videogame curse “ to bring over what has been missing to gamers for a long time : a good movie. Detective Pikachu is an example of how to do a movie adaptation based on a video game right. Because the filmmakers behind the adaptation didn’t just adapt the videogame, but they’ve completely appropriated themselves the universe of the videogame of the same name in order to take a new approach to the videogame, and the least I can say is that they’ve nailed it.
Here’s a brief review of some of the aspects of the movie that I feel worth pointing out :
Regarding the story : I’ve seen most critics criticising the plot for being over-convoluted, but honestly, the story wasn’t even that hard to understand. I’ve been able to understand the entire plot and even if it does offer some out-of-reach twists at one point, the story never really gets meaningless and manages without leaving any plot holes behind. I’m even surprised at how the background story, based on the themes of father-son relationships and persons who aren’t really what they want you to think, is treated with such maturity. It is quite a challenge to cram up 12 hours of story from the videogame into a 1-hour and 40-minute long feature film, but Detective Pikachu brilliantly manages to offer a more simplistic, but not devoid of depth, story plot that will still manage to speak up to those who’ve played the original game, and for those who’ve never played the game.
Regarding the acting : no surprise here, Ryan Reynolds is just on par as a humorous talking Pikachu who’s always up for some pretty funny moments based on his addiction to caffeine that pops up throughout the movie. Justice Smith’s performance as Tim Goodman surprisingly manages to offer an emotional weight to the story.
Regarding the worldbuilding : honestly this is some of the best world-building I’ve seen lately in a feature film. Ryme City makes we want to actually imagine what it would be like to live with Pokémon in the everyday life. Although the idea of living with Pokemon in the real world doesn’t really click out to me since I usually don’t care about them, it would certainly feel weird and kind of amusing of having to share our life with fictional yet adorable creatures with two wholly different worlds that collide together. Pokémon fanatics ( if there’s any here on GAF ) will definitely feel in heaven if a place like Ryme City existed in real life.
Regarding the soundtrack : I honestly think that Henry Jackman did a superb job at remixing many classic Pokemon theme songs from the games to give them a new feel that actually fits very well to the modern look of Ryme City. Props to him honestly.
Regarding the Pokémon themselves : one thing that I usually don’t like about the Pokémon is that they are too child-friendly looking. While most of the Pokémon in the movie look remotely the same as their original form, the idea of making them all furry-looking makes them fit extremely well in the real world. Heck, a few Pokémon has been granted a more mature yet terrifying new look and if you’ve seen the movie... you’d know what I would be talking about. To make it simple, I largely approve the live-action look of the Pokémon, it offers a much needed change to a usual design formula that was starting to get tiresome.
So yeah, you’ve probably seen it by now, but overall I left the theater pretty satisfied of the screening. While I still think that Wreck-It-Ralph is the best videogame-related movie ever made simply because it managed to talk about videogames as a whole while also fantastically treating of a more interesting theme based around self-acceptance, Detective Pikachu is arguably the best movie based on a specific videogame franchise, and it’s pretty impressive considering the long track of mediocre at best Hollywood adaptations of videogames we had in the past. You can feel that the movie was made with passion, that it was made for Pokemon fanatics as much as Pokemon neophytes in mind.
While the movie isn’t perfect and has its flaws, it still manages to bring something that, and that’s perhaps the greatest achievement of the movie, will bring several audiences ranging from the usual viewer to the usual gamer, passing by the Pokemon fanatics to the Pokémon neophytes. There clearly is something for everyone to look forward to in this movie. However, Pokemon fanatics will definitely enjoy this movie the most than neophytes as they should expect a flood of easter eggs and sweet references to the Pokémon franchise as a whole, who nevertheless will also enjoy the movie thanks to a solid plot with lots of humor, great soundtrack, stunning visuals, and of course Ryan Reynolds’s charming performance as Pikachu which makes itworth alone. You should definitely see this movie as an affordable and family-friendly entry to the likes of “ Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? “ and “ Blade Runner “. Obviously, Detective Pikachu isn’t as remarkable as these movies, but it has the merit of having used interesting sources of influence to give an actual proper meaning to the universe of “ Detective Pikachu “ that simply wouldn’t have established all of its potential into a simple and obscure videogame from the 3DS.
I give this movie : 8/10
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