{"id":42823,"date":"2019-05-14T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=42823"},"modified":"2019-05-13T19:46:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T23:46:25","slug":"pokemon-detective-pikachu-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/05\/pokemon-detective-pikachu-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon: Detective Pikachu Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\nshould start off by saying that I\u2019m not a fan of \u201cPok\u00e9mon.\u201d I have never found\nthe game or its creatures to be cute, funny, interesting, or worthwhile. Except\nfor Squirtle the Turtle, who I just \u201cget\u201d because of my love of turtles. But I\nfeel that it\u2019s important for you to know that this review is not coming from a\nplace of fandom. If you or someone in your family is indeed a fan of Pok\u00e9mon,\nthey will probably like this movie more than I did. I\u2019ve been told that many\npeople who don\u2019t like Pok\u00e9mon do in fact like this movie (it\u2019s currently\nsitting at a 63% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the best-reviewed\nvideo game adaptation of all time), but I am not one of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And\nI tried to give this movie a chance, I really did. I was looking forward to a\ngrittier Pok\u00e9mon movie where cat-thing Pikachu\u2019s incessant repetition of his\nown name was replaced with Ryan Reynolds smart-aleckry. Deadpool trying his\nhand at a children\u2019s franchise was something I had to see. I knew he couldn\u2019t\nbe too crude in this PG-rated movie (though a surprising amount of smutty jokes\nmake it into the film), but I was looking forward to seeing how his general\nattitude would translate. Sadly, \u201cPok\u00e9mon\u201d dopiness wins out over \u201cDeadpool\u201d\nirreverence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\nmovie takes place in Ryme City where humans and Pok\u00e9mon live side by side.\nSupposedly they\u2019re equals in contributing to society, but I didn\u2019t see the\nPok\u00e9mon bringing many skills to the table, with the unsurprising exception of\nSquirtle, who can put out fires. Tim (Justice Smith) is the estranged teenage\nson of detective Harry (whose casting is a surprise), who has to travel to the\ncity when he learns his father\u2019s been killed. At Harry\u2019s apartment, Tim runs\ninto Pikachu, who was apparently Harry\u2019s partner, though a recent bout of\namnesia has left him unclear on the details. Also, Tim can hear Pikachu\nspeaking in Reynolds\u2019 voice, where everyone else just hears \u201cPika Pika.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Pikachu\nbelieves that Harry is still alive somewhere, and that solving a case they were\nworking together will help reunite him with his son. Tim and Pikachu form an\nuneasy alliance and team up with aspiring reporter Lucy (Kathryn Newton) to\ninvestigate Ryme City\u2019s seedy underbelly. They wind up in front of founder\nHoward Clifford (Bill Nighy) who believes that his son (Chris Geere) is\nperforming illegal experiments on Pok\u00e9mon and that Harry was about to thwart\nhim. The son is clearly not sharp enough to be the movie\u2019s Big Bad, and I\ngritted my teeth waiting for the obvious \u201creal\u201d villain to be revealed. The final\nshowdown occurs during a sloppy mass panic where even Ken Watanabe (who made\nthe film seem respectable in an earlier scene as Harry\u2019s captain) can\u2019t maintain\nhis dignity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\naction scenes are lame, Tim and Lucy are shoddy human protagonists, and the\nworldbuilding is a knockoff of \u201cWho Framed Roger Rabbit\u201d without the legendary\nchemistry. On top of that, we get a last-minute twist that makes Tim look like the\nleast-cognizant person on the planet. A lot rides on what Reynolds can bring to\nthe table, and of course he\u2019s the best thing about this movie (I even found\nmyself quoting some of his dialogue at work the next day), with my favorite bit\nbeing a tearful version of the \u201cPokemon\u201d theme that he sings while wallowing in\nself-pity, but he\u2019s not enough to save the movie as a whole. I\u2019d recommend\ncrossing \u201cPok\u00e9mon: Detective Pikachu\u201d off your list of suspects for which movie\nto see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPok\u00e9mon: Detective Pikachu\u201d is rated\nPG for action\/peril, some rude and suggestive humor, and thematic elements. Its\nrunning time is 104 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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