Ugh, Pokémon Detective Pikachu was, technically a film.
I grew up with the Pokémon franchise. I spent a significant amount of my childhood playing many of the handheld games and wasted plenty of my parent's money on the cards. This is all to say, I wanted to like this movie.
The film's problems are evident immediately, our main character is basically Eeyore, a wet blanket that constantly sighs in self pity and despite obviously intending to be sympathetic manages to be so utterly lacking charisma that he falls completely flat. There's a reason Eeyore is mostly a running gag and not the main character. What makes this movie unbearable though, is not just that the plot is ridiculous and nonsensical, (Pokemon is not known for good storytelling), no what really hurts this film is how the characters are written.
No one has an ounce of depth, everyone’s character is a punchline that gets mined for the same repeated joke throughout the film. Eeyore is mopey (they try to give this just cause but it's so trite it doesn’t work), Reporter Girl is peppy and awkward, Pikachu is weirdly mature, the villain is an over the top pompous prick. No one's motivations are really explored making everyone feel like the random NPC's from the games where no matter how many times you talk to them they'll regurgitate the two or three lines they're programmed to say. It was impossible for me to ignore that there wasn't a single real character in the film.
With that said, Pikachu as entertainment, isn’t the worst, Ryan Reynolds carries this whole movie with his electric performance of the glorified toy commercial character. He is the only redeeming aspect of the movie, he has all the best lines, and his delivery is the only notable performance in the film.
But what about the Pokémon you heartless monster!? Yea the Pokémon are cool, the animation is extremely well done and it was nice seeing them realized so well in a live action setting, but honestly, they kind of felt like background in this film. After the first few minutes of spotting them dropped into every scene in what felt like a "who's that Pokémon?" exercise, most of them ceased to matter entirely. It was weird because there's this major disconnect between this beautifully realized world that people clearly poured their heart and soul into, and the writing, which barely acknowledges or does much of anything with it.
Honestly, this movie is probably going to be largely inoffensive to most that go see it, especially kids, it's got enough goofiness and Pokémon spectacle to sate the Pokémon fans appetite. But as a film, it leaves a lot to be desired.
4/10 A million Pikachu's at a million typewriters could probably write a better Pokémon movie.
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