This is a movie which was pretty intriguing to me. I heard about a live adaptation of this popular character from popular TV series & game. It was played by so many people (including me and my wife) and we got to know some (not all) the Pokémon (Pocket Monsters). Anyway those who have knowledge about this game or had seen the animated series years ago would probably love that very cute monster named Pikachu which happened to be the main cast in this movie. So obviously we were interested in seeing how fun this movie would be. Well let us get on with it then.
Brief Story Line
Tim (Justice Smith - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom etc) was a young man who was one of the rare people that did not really enjoy the company of Pokémon. But when he got news from Lt. Yoshida (Ken Watanabe - The Last Samurai, Inception etc) about his father's accident in the city of Ryme where Pokémon were partners with humans, he had to adapt a bit. He found a talking Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds - The Hitman's Bodyguard, Deadpool 2 etc) who claimed he would be able to help Tim find out what happened to his father.
Tim also got the unlikely help from a young reporter named Lucy (Kathryn Newton - Blockers, Big Little Lies TV series etc) who was accompanied by a Pokémon named Psyduck. She worked in the media owned by Clifford Enterprise under the leadership of Roger Clifford (Chris Greere) and his father Howard (Bill Nighy - Love Actually etc).
So what actually happened to Tim's father? And how would the story unfold? Find them in this fun and enjoyable family friendly movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Finally, we were able to see what the live version of those cute Pokémon looked like. And My God the special effects were absolutely fantastic. The Pokémon looked very realistic and we could picture them as real cute monsters (as usual my wife would be saying she wanted to own those Pokémon LOL). All through the movie, we would be shown countless diferent Pokémon especially when Tim reached Ryme city where the Pokémon were partners with people and could roam the world freely.
The main attraction of this movie was definitely the adorable Pikachu with its wisecrack comments and remarks as voiced brilliantly by Ryan Reynolds. To be honest, at first I was a bit skeptical with his voicing, cause I thought it would be more suitable if Pikachu was voiced by a young kid to match with his cuteness. But apparently Ryan Reynolds characterization was totally magnificent and suit him with sometimes fun sometimes fatherly advising Tim.
Apart from the endless cuteness and nostalgic + admiration feeling of seeing those Pokémon brought to life, the story itself was actually pretty nice. It was not too heavy as the mysteries were not that difficult to predict and though there might be few twists (like in any mystery films), it should not be too hard to guess. At least my wife and I were able to sort of feel/guess what happened. However, the ending was something that did surprise us. Btw, there were also some elements of science fiction in here which may or may not affect the opinion of audience on the movie itself. My wife and I did not mind it too much, even if it made us think a bit.
I personally like the interaction between Tim and Pikachu which was fun to see. The combination of the youthful and skeptical Tim combined with the "seniority" of Pikachu was entertaining. I thought they got nice chemistry. There were also other characters in the movie, whom I thought were generally OK. Although I thought Ken Watanabe was given too little screen time. There was also a minor appearance by Suki Waterhouse (Billionaire Boys Club etc) who you would not have guessed. But frankly, without the 2 main characters, the movie might be a bit dull.
The music from this movie was good. There was one nice Japanese song played during the end credit scene (which did not have any mid or post scene). There was even the Pokémon theme song funnily sung towards the end. The sound effects though, were somehow not really that great to my opinion, coz the explosion sounds were not awesome enough. It might have been better if we were able to see this in Dolby Atmos theater, but alas it was not shown in here. Oh before I forgot, Detective Pikachu was actually a spin-off Pokémon game and this film also had some elements from the hugely popular animated series and Online Reality game Pokémon Go (you would know what I mean if you had played the game and seen this movie).
Overall I thought this was a wonderful and entertaining Pokémon movie. It got drama, adventures, some mystery solving, some emotional moments and a lot of fun stuff. We would be able to enjoy seeing many Pokémon came to life and in a good way with amazing special effects. Fans of the game (or maybe the series) should be able to enjoy the movie. But if you have not watched the animated series or played the game at all, you would still be entertained by the story and the great effects. Personally I enjoyed this one better than the previous movie that we saw Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! simply because it gave a delight feeling of watching life Pokémon. I also felt this movie was family friendly and did not have too violent scenes for children. So if you want to see the realistically made Pokémon in a movie or just good old fun of two unlikely partners solving a mystery, then this should be a good option.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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