So! This is a half spoiler, half non spoiler review? I'm gonna have a read more where I discuss spoilers, but for the initial round if you haven't seen it and are reading to decide if you shoud you should be fiiiine.
Anyway, I'mma be real with you all. I thought live action Pokemon couldn't work. They already had inconsistent results getting the Pokemon world to work in the more flexible world of animation (as much as I think the anime's actually not bad, I swear) and fan attempts at blending real humans with CGI Pokemon just looked... Gross. When I heard there was a bidding war for the Western movie rights to Pokemon and Legendary won I had several concerns. Then trailers started dropping, and I was unironically fascinated. I thought this movie could be good. I WANTED this movie to be good. And hey, it was! It wasn't perfect, and I'll get to why, but it... it was fun, the same sort of cheesy fun I think the anime has but refined and honed for a western audience and it somehow worked? What helps is that Tim and Pikachu have this amazing dynamic, with Pikachu's quips bouncing off Tim in an entertaining manner, and that helps makes certain scenes comedy gold - like the Mr. Mime scene. The female lead is fun as well - a neglected intern that tries to mask her issues by being a perky reporter. Also Psyduck. For only having 50-60 Pokemon on display there was an excellent variety of them. A good chunk of them aren't even G1, and the non-G1s get to have some cool or funny moments. Video game movies routinely have a problem of not feeling like their source material, being off in just the right ways. This number feels like a goddamn Pokemon movie - it's spiritually similar to both the game it's based on and the animated Pokemon movies, and that's mostly a good thing! It bodes well for future live-action Pokemon movies and live-action video game movies in particular. Overall if you're a Pokemon fan and are considering seeing this movie please do. It's got some spoiler bits that are bit head-scratchy or eye-roll worthy (plus it's got a couple instances of -groan- toilet humor) but it's a good time overall. Heck, maybe if Pokemon is only a fringe thing for you - I went with my family and they were cracking up the whole time. (also for those in a certain RP with me the whole thing is very WAAPT and that is hilarious) Okay now we talk spoilers. TURN AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET. -------------- Okay so what I say is the biggest flaw of the movie is the villain, Howard. He kinda feels like one of the more bog-standard villains of the animated movies and as much as the animated movies are cheesy fun for me and some of them even go further beyond that into being personally important and formative experiences... the villains tend to not be strong points. His actual PLAN is cool and one of the many more WAAPT-y things about the movie but how he gets there makes... no sense? Also the fact that he's supposed to be a plot twist but you can guess he's the villain so easy it'd make a mid-2010s Disney villain blush. (I liked Hans and King Candy for very specific and weird personal reasons but most peeps after that sheesh...) It's more insulting that it's so easy to guess since they actually bait and switch you from the original game, where his son was the original villain but just gets done dirty in this movie. On the more positive end, Howard's literal partner in crime is his Ditto. And his Ditto is SO COOL. The beady eyes are a brilliant and lovely touch and it's genuinely a good opponent for our protagonists in the climax. The twist that Detective Pikachu is Harry and his partner Pikachu merged into one entity is handled noticeably better, even if I could also guess it pretty early on. It's genuinely well foreshadowed! And also apparently based on stuff in the original game! Pikachu's issues are such an excellent mirror for Tim's and it adds to their dynamic and makes you go "wait a fucking minute here" One of my favorite scenes was the fight club scene since we get to see actual Pokemon battles going down and then there's the bit when the Magikarp evolves into a Gyarados and the Charizard's R wears off and Charizard has these huge panicked puppy dog eyes and oh my God it was hilarious. Speaking of the R! I like how it's heavily implied to be derived from the Berserk Gene like in the original game. Very nice mythology gag. Mewtwo was cool in general too, just wish it got more time to shine. Also. THE TORTERRA GARDEN. I got such a kick out of that scene and I'm not entirely sure why. But yeah the movie was good. Not perfect but really fun and very much a step in the right direction for video game movies. I assume you have already seen it if you are reading this section of the review, so tell anyone who hasn't to go see it for me.
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AuthorYou'll find lots of fantasy, sci-fi, video games, and animation here. Especially Pokemon which is somehow all of these things. Archives
May 2019
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