By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I babysat the niece and nephew tonight, so Steve and I went to see POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019). I thought the trailer kicked ass and though I’m not a huge fan of the series or card game, I most definitely played the Nintendo games back in the day. I kicked ass on them too. Recently, my only fascination with POKÉMON is the character Mimikyu. Mimikyu is a Pokèmon that dresses like Pikachu because he’s insecure about his looks. He hates Pikachu because he gets so much love but dresses like him because he wants love. He’s my favorite. I love him so much. I have a stuffed Mimikyu and he came to the theater with me. I’m happy to say he enjoyed it.
The film opens with Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) being sort of lost in life. All of his friends are moving away. He still lives with his grandma and his job is not a fulfilling one. As a child he wanted to be a Pokèmon trainer, but when his father seemingly abandoned him for being a detective in Ryme City where Pokèmon and humans are treated equally and battles are non-existent.
Ryme City was created by Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) who is confined to a wheelchair. He wanted Pokèmon to be able to achieve their full greatness without being submissive or subservient to humans. Tim doesn’t step foot into Ryme City until he gets a call notifying him that his father has died. He goes to his father’s apartment where he meets Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds). Pikachu has amnesia and only arrives at the apartment because it’s the address on his hat. They surmise that Pikachu was the partner of Tim’s father and start thinking that Tim’s dad is still alive.
The two become a reluctant team looking to find out what happened. They end up finding a huge conspiracy within the city and have to determine what’s going on. Clifford and his son Roger (Chris Geere) seem to be in the middle of whatever is happening. Helping Pikachu and Tim is reporter intern Lucy (Kathryn Newton) and her Pokèmon Psyduck.(Koduck).
The end culminates in Pikachu and Tim learning some serious truth and battling the villain in an amazing battle sequence.
Overall, this film was fantastic. All four of us (five including Mimikyu) enjoyed it. The CGI was fabulous and the pace was perfect. The action scenes were fabulously done and the conclusion though not entirely surprising was brilliantly executed.
This is a great film for the whole family whether they are familiar with Pokèmon or not. It’s a film avid fans can enjoy and novices can understand. I highly suggest this as a theater watch as the big screen adds so much more to the experience.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10
