Detective Pikachu had an amazing first two acts. Honestly, the visuals were stunning and the acting was quality if a lot cheesy. One hour into the film and I honestly was thinking, this isn’t an enjoyable bad movie, it’s an enjoyable good movie.
Then the villain’s plot is finally revealed.
How could someone script something so close to great and then have the mastermind make no sense. This is Pokemon, I wasn’t expecting a lot, the villain wanting to steal a Pikachu would be accepted.
Somehow it’s more convoluted and with no benefit than the worst plan Team Rocket ever applied in the cartoon. And this is a villain that already has everything he could want but risked it all by attacking the city he already had full control over.
The last act of Detective Pikachu was disappointing because the rest of the movie was golden! The special effects were on point, the Pokemon all looked amazing, and the world just felt like what I saw the world of Pokemon as when I was a kid.
I have to still recommend seeing Detective Pikachu just for the visual spectacle. Honestly, I judge the ending of the movie more harshly because the beginning was so good.
Detective Pikachu Vs The Five Bs Of Enjoyable Bad Movies
Blood
No… no there isn’t any blood. This may be a cheesy B movie, but it’s a cheesy B movie for kids you monsters.
There is a fair amount of violence for a movie geared towards kids. The movie even starts with a fatal car crash. But you can’t really take points off a kids movie for not having gory gobs of gopher guts.
Babes
Kathryn Newton does an OK job of being a love interest but while she’s conventionally pretty she doesn’t make it all the way to “babe”. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The girl next door is still a nice look.
Then there is the mysteriously silent Suki Waterhouse whose bright pink hair fit the setting of Pokemon to a T… though when those glasses come off.
Baddie
Bill Nighy is a damned good actor. It’s really too bad that I have to say that he is the worst part of the movie. Not completely his fault, I think it had way more to do with the script than him.
He’s played decent villains before. Davy Jones in the second two Pirates of the Caribbean movies was chillingly good. Here though? Any worse and it would be comically bad.
Boom
Here is where Detective Pikachu shines. The Pokemon fights are all amazing and just seeing wild Pokemon walking around seemed almost seamless. I loved every moment of just looking at wild Pokemon.
There are explosions, car wrecks, chase scenes, and violent Pokemon battles. It’s probably close to everything you could ask for from a live action Pokemon movie.
Bad Acting
Justice Smith does a decent job of performing in a buddy cop comedy movie with an electric mouse. You have to give him credit for that. Everyone else felt like they were competent but not committed to the bit besides Ryan Reynolds himself.
The voice acting by Ryan Reynolds carried the movie. Every joke landed, except for maybe a jab about “climate change” which will date the movie. Ryan Reynolds weepily singing the original Pokemon theme song had the theater I was in laughing over the movie.
