Movielogr

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

Directed by Rob Letterman

Family | Mystery | Fantasy

Most recently watched by lordofthemovies, sensoria, CaptainBigTime

Overview

In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent monster who seeks to be a detective.

Rated PG | Length 105 minutes

Actors

Ryan Reynolds | Justice Smith | Kathryn Newton | Suki Waterhouse | Omar Chaparro | Chris Geere | Rita Ora | Karan Soni | Josette Simon | Ken Watanabe | Bill Nighy | Alejandro De Mesa | Max Fincham | Simone Ashley | Edward Davis | Diplo | Ben Fox | Kadiff Kirwan | Ryoma Takeuchi | Rina Hoshino | Kotaro Watanabe | Ikue Otani

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
12/16/2019TVBlu-rayLibrary7 stars
05/10/2019Movie ScreenDigitalTheater7 stars
 

Viewing Notes

Gotta say, this was a treat to see a “live action” (air quotes bc it was all digital) Pokemon movie. Like, I was seriously laughing with an ear to ear grin for most of the movie (mainly the first half). Identifying the different Pokemon was definitely a big part of the enjoyment.

Unfortunately the story leaves a lot to be desired. Pretty obvious it was geared towards 10 year olds because this “mystery” is no mystery. It’s a checklist of basic misdirections and red herrings and McGuffins. I’m totally OKAY with that bc the goddamn Pokemon are so endearing and pure and this mashup world of Tokyo/London is awesome.

Holy shit is Pikachu fucking great. And for a movie to make me actually like Psyduck? Major points in my book. If they had penned a better story/plot than this obvious retread this could be one of the biggest movies of the summer. Sadly, that paper-thin plotting won’t win over anyone and the only fans will be the Pokemon nation.

Final: super impressed w/Ryan Reynolds. You know it’s him yet he totally becomes this character.

Disappointed: no one once uses the term “Pocket Monsters”.

Curious: how did they decide which Pokemon to use out of the hundreds available? Saving for the sequel is obvs but my guess is the cost to develop more digital models. But seriously, there’s only 54 different Pokemon seen. That’s not even the number found in one region.

I will go see this again.

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