Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

“There’s magic that brought us together. And that magic…is hope!”

Pikachu

I’m going to start off with the disclaimer that I’m not the biggest Pokémon fan. I played “Pokémon Go” for a couple weeks, and I’ve seen a small handful of episodes from the show. It’s just never really been my thing, I can recognize quite a few of them, but I could only tell you the name of maybe four or five. Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the movie!

Detective Pikachu is a fun little mystery story as we follow Tim and Pikachu on a mission to figure out what really happened to Tim’s father or if he’s even still alive to begin with. Tim is played by Justice Smith, and Pikachu is Ryan Reynolds, I thought Smith did really well in this movie considering he was my least favorite character in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but he also didn’t get that much screen time in that movie either. Ryan Reynolds, as almost always, is hilarious in this movie. He’s loaded with several tongue-in-cheek moments which I was surprised but wasn’t complaining about being in a PG movie, they’re vague enough where they’ll go right over kids heads. Although there are several points in this movie where he steals the show, and he gets several very tender moments as well, I’m grateful he wasn’t the main focus of the film as it gave the other actors and actresses a chance to shine.

The mystery solving in this movie isn’t as in depth as maybe Murder on the Orient Express, but I wasn’t able to figure it out right off the bat. Being a kids’ film, I understand why it couldn’t be too complicated. There are also very fun moments in this movie, that I probably would’ve enjoyed more if I had more knowledge of the franchise, but that’s not the movie’s fault.

The VFX were really great and colorful, it was awesome seeing these creatures that I’ve only really seen as 2D figures being brought to life and most of them looking very good. The powers of each Pokémon I thought were well played out, as again being someone who has never really been to involved was able to follow along and not get confused.

Overall, Detective Pikachu gets a 7.5/10 from me, not the greatest kids movie I’ve ever seen, but it was still really good. That might’ve been different if I was a huge fan, I for sure missed out on a lot of fan service/Easter egg moments, but again that’s not the movie’s fault, it just wasn’t made for me the same way that Star Wars isn’t made for some people. If you saw the movie and have always loved Pokémon, how does your opinion differ from mine? Please let me know in the comments, because I probably missed out on a lot of opportunities this movie had to offer.