The Detective Pikachu movie looks bonkers

[commandercool]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM

Ha ha what

[Edible]

It is a work of genius, and madness

[commandercool]

[Hello Purvis]

I...don't understand why this exists.

What are they thinking they can do in live action that they can't do better and cheaper in animation? Who asked for this?

[Drake]

hollywood

[Tengukami]

I was suspicious until I learn Ryan Reynolds is Pikachu and now I am all over this.

[commandercool]

I...don't understand why this exists.

What are they thinking they can do in live action that they can't do better and cheaper in animation? Who asked for this?

Normally I would agree completely, but there's a certain point where you've tried animation over a dozen times, usually to pretty weak results, and it's time to get weird. I like animation, I respect animation, but I also bizarre bullshit.

[Zengar Zombolt]

The only thing that I can say is that I'm glad that out of all the pokemon media that could be adapted in this style, it was Detectivechu that was chosen. I dunno, it just works.

[hyorinryu]

I was suspicious until I learn Ryan Reynolds is Pikachu and now I am all over this.

I was hoping for Danny DeVito, but Deadpool works too.

[Tengukami]

I was hoping for Danny DeVito, but Deadpool works too.

I hope someone buys you a ticket to Hollywood because that is a solid gold idea. Why not take it all the way, and cast the entire It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia roster to voice various Pok?mons?

Spoiler:

Charlie being Charmander naturally

[Hello Purvis]

There was a literal movement to get Danny DeVito to do Pikachu's voice in the Detective Pikachu game. Which, sadly, fell through. But the drive was alive for a time.

[Deftera Ikari]

I guarantee this would come out in Hong Kong which is where I live

Since Nintendo unified the Chinese names of everything I will never watch this, complete disrespect to us Hong Konger's language and culture

[commandercool]

Just got back from the theater. The movie is cute and good. It's not incredible, but it's solid, and at time borders on really special just through the sheer enjoyment of seeing a Pokemon world that kind of feels like it makes sense as a living place. I've never been a huge fan of Pikachu honestly, but I want to snuggle Detective Pikachu so hard, he's so fuzzy! And Justice Smith is cute, his performance is a little understated but I found him very likeable. Fun movie, I recommend it.

[Jq1790]

This movie, I want more like it.  Not necessarily another Detective Pikachu one for probably obvious reasons, but in the same universe.  The amount of care paid to the franchise and all the callbacks and stuff were way too fun to experience.

Finally, a game-related movie that doesnt make me want to gouge my eyes and ears out.

[commandercool]

I think another one is already in the works. And yeah, I hope it isn't a direct sequel. I really do like the cast of this one but I want to see this universe try different subgenres. I think the followup is rumored to be an adaptation of Pokemon Red/Blue, which honestly could be pretty neat, and I'm also glad they didn't start with it.

[Mеа]

Just went to see it. It might have been my inflated expectations from hearing a lot of people talk about it so fondly, I wasn't too impressed. It was ok.

My favorite moments in the film were those when nothing was really happening, but pokemon were shown just naturally interacting with the world. Which makes me think, yes, this universe can work. The pokemon look fantastic and their portrayal was on point.

My biggest complaint about it was that I feel like the story itself could have been about any monster-creatures in general, not just pokemon. I was hoping for a more low key story about a buddy bonding with his poke-buddy (which I suppose kind of happened) but didn't seem to make much use out of pokemon itself (which may be a plus? More portrayal of training/catching could potentially have been a bit disconnecting in live action). So basically the story didn't interest me much. And can we really even say that he was bonding with a pokemon? Also the thing with me two at the end confused me, why was the son necessary again?

tl;dr it was ok, 5 out of 9, true neutral.

[BT]

Oh shoot there was a thread. Uhhhh I watched this on Saturday and I was grinning like an idiot the entire time.

Go with friends or family if you can, it's better if you can d'awww with someone else. If not you just look like a weirdo.

[commandercool]

My biggest complaint about it was that I feel like the story itself could have been about any monster-creatures in general, not just pokemon. I was hoping for a more low key story about a buddy bonding with his poke-buddy (which I suppose kind of happened) but didn't seem to make much use out of pokemon itself (which may be a plus? More portrayal of training/catching could potentially have been a bit disconnecting in live action). So basically the story didn't interest me much. And can we really even say that he was bonding with a pokemon?

That's a fair criticism that I can't really argue with, but I honestly found that angle, or rather lack of angle, kind of refreshing. That's what every story set in the Pokemon universe is about so I liked that it wasn't the main focus here. But you could definitely argue that it was a weird call to not really focus on a Pokemon-human relationship for the first movie in this series.

Also the thing with me two at the end confused me, why was the son necessary again?

My vague impression is that

Spoiler:

Mewtwo needed to scan another source of Ryan Reynolds DNA to have the necessary information to build him a new, living body.

Go with friends or family if you can, it's better if you can d'awww with someone else. If not you just look like a weirdo.

One of my buddies was audible crying during the

Spoiler:

introduction of the Bulbasaurs.

[BT]

My biggest complaint about it was that I feel like the story itself could have been about any monster-creatures in general, not just pokemon. I was hoping for a more low key story about a buddy bonding with his poke-buddy (which I suppose kind of happened) but didn't seem to make much use out of pokemon itself (which may be a plus? More portrayal of training/catching could potentially have been a bit disconnecting in live action). So basically the story didn't interest me much. And can we really even say that he was bonding with a pokemon? Also the thing with me two at the end confused me, why was the son necessary again?

I wish they did some other stuff with the franchise too, like more of a focus on battling and Pokemon moves, but I feel like it would've split the focus of the movie. I'm glad with what I got. Maybe a different Pokemon movie can take a different approach.

[Mеа]

I wish they did some other stuff with the franchise too, like more of a focus on battling and Pokemon moves, but I feel like it would've split the focus of the movie. I'm glad with what I got. Maybe a different Pokemon movie can take a different approach.

I feel like the battling/training aspect would feel so awkward with live action. For all pokemon likes to gush rhetoric about how pokemon and humans are equal partners, it's kinda sadly apparent that it isn't, and putting that up there on the big screen might feel weird enough for me to not be able to immerse myself in the movie. This movie struck a nice balance though, with having them seem like animals on one end (can't understand speech) and being intelligent, empathic creature/partners on the other (can understand emotions). That entire showing the city sequence at the beginning between the train station and police station was fantastic.

I'm remembering some more things about the movie, so I guess I'll rant a bit more. The one aspect of the plot that did seem to hint at making use of pokemon-specific material is that whole 'humans evolving into a better, stronger version of themselves' thread. I don't know that I would have liked it if they did end up fully exploring that (as I said earlier, I'm fine with a simple feel-good plot of buddies bonding together, in this case, while solving some minor mysteries), but they didn't really end up making use of that idea either. The villain (who didn't even create Mewtwo, Which makes sense now that I think about it, I guess this does technically take place in the pokemon world) just transferred his mind into Mewtwo to acquire a stronger body, which isn't quite in theme with how evolution for pokemon works. 'Humans evolving' was forgotten somewhere and the evil plan became 'merge humans and pokemon together' for some reason (the evil plan sounds great if you get to inhabit a Mewtwo, but would I want to be a Psyduck? no). It also made use of vague psychic powers that Mewtwo never had (I guess Manaphy sort of had soul transfer powers? Not that anyone cares about Manaphy). It takes me back to the whole 'this movie didn't need to use pokemon at all'.

[MewMewHeart]

I'm not gonna lie I loved the movie to bits, that's all I'm saying.