Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019) · 2:47am May 15th, 2019
So back in March I did a series of stupid things apparently. The problem is that I'm not sure which one of them caused the problem I'm dealing with currently. See it could be because I kicked a large heavy object when it fell toward me. It could have been the hole in the yard that I stepped in. Heck it could be a couple of other things that ... frankly I'm baffled how they would hurt a knee but if you can sneeze and paralyze yourself I can wonder if that was what caused it.
Suffice it to say I have not and will not be very mobile for awhile. Oh, I still get up and do my job which admittedly means I'm pulling or lifting a lot of heavy stuff on a daily basis but by the end of the shift I'm pretty much ready to get the buck saw out of my garage and take my leg off. Instead I prop it up and listen to music or mess around with something or other. Mostly though I just zone out until eventually I wake up in my chair the hobble off to the shower and bed.
Now I have had an MRI on it. I've got the CD and yet ... nobody from where I'd had the images transmitted to had anything to say. I called them and they said they'd call me back. They didn't. I'm probably going to just take the CD to some other knee cutter and say, "Okay I know it's old but it still aches can you see anything on this scan?" They'll probably take more money too and want to do more scans and ponder over this or that. It'll be a real expensive mystery that will undoubtedly sideline me from any convention attending. Maybe I don't need a doctor to solve this issue. Maybe I need a detective.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a movie based off of a game of a similar name. Based off of the titular video game, the movie follows insurance auditor Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) as he ultimately tries to solve the mystery of his missing but presumed dead father, and just what it was he was looking into that led to his disappearance. Early on he's joined by a talking Pikachu who apparently was his father's. Oh and if you haven't seen the preview the yellow rat that can shoot electricity can talk and sounds like Ryan Reynolds. It even has his mannerisms too. Does this mean that Goodman has ties to The Green Lantern? Well, I guess you'll just have to watch the movie and find out.
The movie gets a lot of things right. The acting is solid enough, there's some okay humor in it too. The special effects are good and we aren't forced to hear the various monsters constantly say their names through most of the movie which is also good too. If I had to live in a world where every creature just screamed its name in my general direction I would have deafened myself at birth.
Detective Pikachu zips along at a lightning pace which honestly is impressive for a one hour and forty something minute movie. Plot point to plot point are reached at a pretty quick pace which actually is a huge problem from a story, character development and even a humor perspective. In fact it's pretty easy to spot the villain from near the start of the movie and figure out just who did what to who.
To be fair the movie does attempt to give the Goodman character a couple of emotional moments and a backstory via flashback but the presentation is lacking. I think the writers here would have been better served looking at a movie like Hot Fuzz or something to at least see how you can blend some zany comedy, action and a well paced plot that shows our characters grow. It can be done and honestly, if they would have cut out this "earthquake" section of the movie and done some more character stuff you could have reached a similar place but with better characters and relationships.
The movie also has this combination of Ryan Reynold's humor and the very direct and basic plot that honestly is kind of weird. That's not to say the Pikachu isn't funny but his jokes run out before the third act. In fact the third act is in a lot of ways the third act of Tim Burton's Batman just less fatal.
I dunno. This is one of those movies that I liked it well enough that I didn't feel like I got burned by it. Truth be told there have been a lot more terrible movies based off of video game properties than this. It's got some fun things in it and chances are you can park the third graders and up in front of it for a bit and you might not mind sitting there with them. Just don't set your sights too high on this one. It's sort of fun but it could have been better.
The stats:
Dead Bodies: 6-10 (I didn't do a great job at it this time)
Breasts: Insert bird joke here.
1 standard issue plot
multiple instances of "drugs is bad mmkay"
1 standard issued stapler
1 lab explosion
1 office explosion
Gratuitous sad childhood backstory
Gratuitous pants stealing
Gratuitous scene swiping from other movies including its own franchise
Poke Fu
Explosion Fu
Gas Attack Fu
Shoutouts:
Ryan Reynolds as the Pikachu (saying anymore would be a spoiler or something) for saying the line, "Smell my finger."
Justice Smith as Tim Goodman for handling a rather limited script as well as he did.
Bill Nighy as Howard Clifford for not stripping naked and singing a song.
Ken Watanabe as Lieutenant Yoshida for using this movie as a springboard into later this month's Godzilla movie. I hope he brings a big enough ball for Ghidorah.
I hope your knee improves. Or that someone can actually read the MRI. That’s ridiculous that they won’t get back to you.
This past weekend my wife took Oldest to see the good Detective, and fun was had by all. Though I am now somewhat confused yet interested by this alleged pants stealing; I was told of this by the fam as well.
Speaking of cons, any chance you might be at BronyCon?
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I've started calling it the Lebouf Maneuver. Basically it's when any protagonist is assailed by something unexpected and for some reason the attacker just starts taking their clothes off, usually for comedic purposes but in reality nobody really asked to see that.
Right around the time I jacked up my knee I'd actually been invited to BronyCon. Unfortunately, among other things I'd had to purchase a new roof for the house, this happened and I found out around the time of the convention that another two people in my department are going on vacation. One of them is going overseas. So I'm gonna miss out on the last big hurrah.
I hope that you have a ton of fun there though!