This past weekend I went to see Detective Pikachu. i was really looking forward to watching the movie as its the first live action Pokemon movie and the trailers have looked very reasonable. I was both happy and disappointed with the full movie.
Does it live up to all the hype? No. The movie has a convoluted plot backed by a script that sounds like it was put through Google translate several times. Much of the acting (outside of some small moments with the main protagonist and Pikachu) is forced and feels ridiculously fake. This isn't helped very much by the script which stresses plot points as many times as possible in order for Pokemon's younger fans to keep up with the needless plot twists that can be seen coming from a mile away. With the unique cast of characters we already know and love in the Pokemon universe, it feels weird that we see none of them in this movie. Sure it's probably a good idea to keep Ash and gang quarantined in the anime world, but there are many evil teams that have cooler (and more understandable) objectives than the villain of this movie did. Additionally it would be cool to see nods to popular characters from the video game franchise. In particular an appearance of the mythical Pokemon trainer Red would be a perfect inclusion as he is rarely talks in the games but holds a special place in many of the series' fans' hearts. Despite all of these setbacks, there are many hidden gems in this movie. Whenever Ryan Reynolds seems to have been given a little more leeway in the script, the resulting jokes are funny and land a lot better. The relationship between the movies' main character and Pikachu is well developed and the scenes where we just get to see them interact are some of the best in the entire movie. Finally the animation is frickin' beautiful. The movie is honestly worth the watch simply for the live action Pokemon world it creates. The few sweeping shots we get of this world are breathtaking. I can feel the young child in me yearning to live in the world of Pokemon. Whenever we see Pokemon in this film they don't disappoint. Their reactions are equally life-like and unique. I simply wish the movie was longer so we could spend less time on the terrible plot and more time on the cool visuals of the world. Overall a terrible movie but an enjoyable experience. -Watching Detective Pikachu -Problems in the movie -Enjoyable parts of the movie -Final thoughts
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Recently Warner Brothers came out with a trailer for their new movie, Detective Pikachu. This movie is going to be based of off Nintendo's detective Pikachu game which came out in March of this year. This isn't the first movie based off a video game. Movies like this have been coming out for years to mixed success. It isn't even the first Pokemon movie. The first Pokemon movie was release all the way back in 1998. In the past many of these movies have flopped. The recent World of Warcraft movie died in the box office and most of the recent animated Pokemon films haven't even gotten that far.
However, I have reason to expect that Detective Pikachu will be different. For one, it's live action. No Pokemon movie has ever been brave enough to leave the animated style of the kid's cartoon TV show. This is important for several reasons. The biggest of which is that it creates a more adult feel in the Pokemon universe. This shows that Warner Brothers is thinking about the actual content they're creating. If you want to make a Noir style detective film, you shouldn't be using the happy-go-lucky animating style of a children's TV show. In the trailer we see them making great use of this medium too. The Pokemon themselves are rendered stunningly and show a maturity that any old fan of Pokemon can enjoy. The reason I'm excited for this movie is that it looks to be clearly aimed at original Pokemon fans. The people who originally grew up with Pokemon and are adults now. This movie looks to be tailored to give those fans a kick of nostalgia with a minimum of the cheesy childhood humor that these movies normally employ to keep younger audiences entertained. Will it be good? No one can truly know at this point. But, I'm optimistic and you can be sure I'll be there as soon as it opens in theaters. -Detective Pikachu the Movie? -Why it's different -Why I think it'll be a success -Some closing thoughts |
AuthorSamuel Henry is a Senior at DSA in NC. He has 3 years of prior experience in the game design pathway and he's looking forward to becoming a great game designer. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools Categories
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