Despite being at the right age when Pokémon really heat its cultural peak in the late 90s, I never fully latched onto it, though I certainly tried. That makes it all the more surprising that the adaptation of the Detective Pikachu video game piqued my interest so much. Granted, it’s not in the sense that I’m excited to see Pokémon brought to live action as much as the general curiosity of seeing such a bizarre take of the material being the first live action Hollywood treatment when I’m sure most would be far more interested in seeing the adventures of Ash and his friends from the show.
Either way, for better or for worse, this is what we’re dealt with. It follows Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a former aspiring Pokémon trainer who now works in insurance. He’s called to Ryme City, where he is told about the presumed death of his estranged father. He struggles to grieve for a father who wasn’t there for him as a child, but it’s interrupted when he comes across a talking Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who believes he can help in uncovering the real truth behind what happened to Tim’s father.
There is a lot to admire with this film. For one, Rob Letterman – who is best known for directing the first Goosebumps – clearly has an affinity for both the source material as well as the film noir genre, which heavily informs the aesthetics of the film. Many scenes early on are taking place in dark locations, with lots of shadows, seedy areas, and wet streets colored by the neon lights. Family movies have often looked cheap, even when dealing with bigger budgets, but there is definitely some care put into the look of this film, as well as the world, which really brings Pokémon to life in a way that brings a certain tangibleness and practicality to their presence.
It’s also a very funny film. It’s mostly consistent enough with the jokes that land, and much of that is, naturally, due to the presence of the titular Detective Pikachu, sporting the trademark observational, sarcastic snark of Reynolds. If you find his style funny, this should work for you as it did with me. Not all the jokes land, but most of them do. Even when dealing with serious situations, the film knows to keep a light touch, and it does a solid job of creating that balance without tipping into parody or self-seriousness.
And if I’m being honest, the thing that impressed me the most about this is the fact that it didn’t seem to have any concerns with hyping up a potential franchise or setting up sequels. It builds a compelling and engaging world, and it tells a complete story. Considering the huge multimedia conglomerate behind this property, it’s almost astonishing that they aren’t trying to actively setup a whole universe like many studios have tried in the past due to Marvel Studios’ success when it could’ve done it so easily.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find the film as a whole to be particularly great. It’s the kind of film that assumes you have at least a passing knowledge of the world of Pokémon and how it operates. As someone who only knows the bare minimum through cultural osmosis alone, I felt just informed enough to not be a confused mess throughout the film, but if this is something you go into completely blind, I don’t think you’ll have a good time. There are attempts to put in some exposition, which is helpful, but many things are also present that are hard to understand the significance of if you haven’t seen or heard anything of this property.
I was also disappointed in how the film slowly lost commitment to the noir look and feel, which heavily informed the first act. As it goes along, we get more scenes during the day, more action, more convoluted plotting, and way more spectacle. By the time we hit the climax, I wasn’t particularly engaged anymore as it got into the big action sequence. It kinda lost focus, away from the characters and the heart of the story. Speaking of, the actors all do a solid job here, even when they have to speak some really stilted dialogue, but as the film got more into the plot, our investment in the characters ended up suffering, making certain emotional beats toward the end not land as hard as it should.
For a while there, especially in the earlier scenes, I was almost convinced that Pokémon: Detective Pikachu was going to be the first genuinely great video game movie. I liked the look, the style, the humor, how unabashedly weird it was, the setup for the characters and story were gripping, if a tad generic, and yes, Pikachu is unfathomably adorable. But as the film went along, it began to play a bit more fast and loose, indulging in things that took the focus away from what was most important. It’s not even that it’s bad, it’s a perfectly serviceable romp for kids, especially if they enjoy the source material, but it did squander some of its potential.