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★★☆☆☆
3 May 2019
A movie review of POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU. |
"You feel it in your jellies, don’t you?" Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds)
This is a batsh*t movie. And not in a good way. When a film uses a phrase like "the Ancient Mew", and doesn't bother explaining it, you suspect the experience is not aimed at you. I felt like how a granddad must when watching BATMAN V SUPERMAN (maybe not just the retired when it comes to the theatrical cut?). I kept asking myself during DETECTIVE PIKACHU: Why is any of this happening?
This is a batsh*t movie. And not in a good way. When a film uses a phrase like "the Ancient Mew", and doesn't bother explaining it, you suspect the experience is not aimed at you. I felt like how a granddad must when watching BATMAN V SUPERMAN (maybe not just the retired when it comes to the theatrical cut?). I kept asking myself during DETECTIVE PIKACHU: Why is any of this happening?
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Who is this aimed at? There is so little tension, surely only the youngest of audiences will be satisfied? Having heard of the Pokémon phenomenon, but not engaged with it, I am a newbie dropped into the proverbial deep end. Few contextual buoyancy aids are proffered. I watch about 600 movies a year from all over the world. I relish engaging with non-obvious stories. With DETECTIVE PIKACHU, it was impossible to fight the questions welling inside, and just roll with the narrative, as the plot made so little sense.
The audience finds itself in, one assumes, a parallel universe. Supernatural creatures, Pokémon, have existed alongside humans since at least ancient Egyptian times. However, over millennia our two species have never weirdly bridged the linguistic gap. Communication is intuitive-ish. Pokémon are used by humans throughout most of the world in gladiatorial battles. Does that make them slaves? If so, grim.
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We are told that Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) has created Ryme City, a bit like Zootropolis, where the two species can coexist in harmony. Humans and Pokémon partner up. A bit like dæmons in 'His Dark Materials', but no way as interesting. Why do they partner up? What do the Pokémon get out of it? They seem like pets.
DETECTIVE PIKACHU opens on a lab escape. A powerful creature breaks out and upends a car. Later you'll kinda find out why, but not really. Just about everyone's motivations are laughably nonsensical. Sporadically guffawing at a movie barely counts as entertainment.
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In that initial car crash, a detective is said to have died. His estranged son, Tim (Justice Smith), arrives at the city to tie up his father's affairs. Something though is rotten in Ryme, and a neon-soaked Poké-noir unfolds. The look is vibrant, from production design to costumes. It is not enough. At least there is a diverse cast, which is still an aberration in Western cinema.
Tim accidentally sprays himself in the face, after opening a vial containing purple gas. (Why touch anything looking like a test tube where you do not know the contents?) Turns out it gives him the ability to speak to Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who has broken into his father's apartment. Why just the two of them with mutual comprehension? They team up, but Pikachu also has Jason Bourne-like amnesia. I kid you not! After some buddy cop inter-species cliché friction, they learn mutual respect. Groan! Throw in a plucky female reporter and we have staid genre trappings, which are scarcely enlivened by the unusual world.
Non-Poké-aficionados will be pulling out their hair after the climax. What was the point of any of it?!
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