Review Detective Pikachu

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I saw this movie this Wednesday, and it was actually better than I expected! The semi-realistic Pokémon designs weren't even close to as repulsive as I thought they would be. And no adult or dirty jokes either. That's a definite plus for me.

Also, all the little Pokélore references here and there show that the creators of this movie knew exactly what they were doing. It wasn't just a cashgrab. This is a genuine love letter to all Pokémon fans.

A special mention has to go to Pikachu saying "Sweet mother of Arceus". Replacing "God" with "Arceus" in a saying is no longer just a fan thing. It's something done in a piece of official Pokémon media.

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

I saw it the Monday after it came out. Here are my thoughts...


What I liked:
• RYAN REYNOLDS. He alone is the main reason to see this movie.
• Justice Smith, Ken Watanabe, and Bill Nighy did a pretty good job. Most of the rest of the human actors were kinda bland.
• The Pokémon themselves look amazing! From what I understand, they actually made physical maquettes as reference material for the CGI models. If so, that would explain why they look so lifelike compared to other CGI creatures that have flailed around on screen for the past 25 years.
• Tons of cute Psyduck moments! If you like Psyduck, then this film is for you!
• Treecko appeared!!! If Grovyle appeared, then that would have been even better.
• Greninja had a big role! Even though it sucked that they made him evil, I’m just happy he appeared at all.
• Just hearing Rachael Lillis voice Jigglypuff again (even if it was archive audio) put a big smile on my face.

What I didn’t like:

• We didn’t get more of Ikue Otani as Pikachu. The trailers implied that the fact that only Tim can hear Pikachu would be a major problem, but they barely even mention it after they first bring it up!
• As I said above, the majority of the human actors were pretty boring.
• Not a big fan of the decision to add a love interest. The character works fine, so I don’t have too much of a problem with it, I guess.
• The big twist where (spoiler alert!) Pikachu turns out to be Tim’s dad was a little too predictable.
• Only 60 or so Pokemon are featured, most of them being from Gen 1. I’m aware that it would have cost a lot of money to render more than that, but, still, they definitely could have included more from the other generations.

Thankfully, the positives outnumber the negatives, so, overall, I’d give this an 8/10.

 

[Myth]

DP just surpassed Tomb Raider as the most lucrative video game-based movie.

Now Pokémon holds two records regarding box office: most successful video game adaptation movie (Detective Pikachu) and most successful anime movie worldwide (Strikes Back).