Pokemon: Detective Pikachu ( Movie )Discussion Thread

[bdt2002]

I've been excited for this movie since it was even announced way before the first trailer November 2018. I'm confident that I've never been this excited for a movie in my entire life up to this point. As we got more and more information, my excitement only grew as I started learning more about the film, and I was truly able to see just how much heart was going into everything. I even found a $5 poster for the film I wanted to hang up in my bedroom soon just last night. Everything seemed great and I even had the opportunity to make plans with some of my friends to see the film on release night.

But there's just one problem.

FREAKING TICKETS ARE SELLING OUT

I swear on everything I believe in, if I and many others are...oh sorry, WHEN we are not able to see this because some stupid movie theaters couldn't prepare in advance for what they know was going to be a smash hit...we're going to have SERIOUS issues.

 

[MegaFlareon]

One thing I like about the pre-release hype on this film is that you could see that Ryan Reynolds is genuinely excited for this film's release. He uploads a lot of trailers on his youtube channel even before Warner Bros. does and you can tell that he really enjoyed promoting the movie on Japan. He even said on a lot of interviews that he is excited for his daughter to see the movie. Not only him, but his co-stars Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton seemed to enjoy filming the movie.

 

[Karxrida]

Joe Merrick (aka Serebii) got invited to see the movie and he really liked it.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1123704273823571968

 

[bdt2002]

One thing I like about the pre-release hype on this film is that you could see that Ryan Reynolds is genuinely excited for this film's release. He uploads a lot of trailers on his youtube channel even before Warner Bros. does and you can tell that he really enjoyed promoting the movie on Japan. He even said on a lot of interviews that he is excited for his daughter to see the movie. Not only him, but his co-stars Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton seemed to enjoy filming the movie.

I read in last month's GameInformer magazine that I get every month in a special section they had about a few of the cast members and the inspiration behind the film. It's really something, and reading it opened my eyes for this movie and just what kind of an impact it could leave on me. I'm not sure how credible this was, but at one point, they were apparently talking to Justice Smith himself, and if everyone was telling the truth, we just happened to have the same favorite Pokémon growing up, being Totodile. I can't put into words how happy I was about that. Plus, given the fact that we already saw a Treecko in one of the trailers, there might just be a chance that I'll finally be able to fulfill one of my childhood dreams: seeing what my precious crocodile Pokémon would look like in real life.

I'm apparently going to see the film on the 10th of May at around 9:30, and if there actually is one of those in the movie...oh, man.

 

[Karxrida]

The review embargo was lifted today. Reactions seem to be quite positive.

Spoiler-free review from GameXplain.

 

[Theorymon]

So here's the current Rotton Tomatoes page for Detective Pikachu: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pokemon_detective_pikachu

It seems like the big issue with this film from what I'm reading is that its too inside baseball, its stuff like critics wondering what the fuck is up with Psyduck and headaches, or if Cubone is supposed to be some sort of weird joke, etc.

Now for us Pokemon fan wankers thats not really an issue, we're gonna get everything and go NUTS over this.

However, I think it is a shame that its looking like this movie is going to settle for being "awesome fan service" than being something more than that. Doesn't seem like this movie stands very well on its own without the Pokemon stuff to prop it up.

Oh well, I still can't wait for the Pokemon fan service, I can't believe Im going to see a fucking hollywood film where a Pikachu says "Sweet Mother Arceus" rofl

UPDATE: Rotten Tomatoes gave their conensous out.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most -- if not all -- of the franchise's fans.

 

[Pikachu315111]

It seems like the big issue with this film from what I'm reading is that its too inside baseball, its stuff like critics wondering what the fuck is up with Psyduck and headaches, or if Cubone is supposed to be some sort of weird joke, etc.

I kind of figured as much. The movie looks to start out by throwing dozens of Pokemon at you from the start that, unless you already know these Pokemon or at least accepting of the concept of Pokemon (these are essentially magical creatures who have replaced real world animals in this world and many have exaggerated biology and/or behaviors), you'll probably feel out of your depth. In addition, with Rhyme City running on rules that are counter to the usual rules of the Pokemon world (such as battling being illegal or that Pokemon are usually carried around in Poke Balls) I can also get people not familiar with Pokemon being confused when one of these situations come up but doesn't really go into explanation (I imagine this happening during that underground fighting ring scene).

 

[Theorymon]

So it seems like Detective Pikachu is probably going to stay fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (though I'm skeptical it'll reach ceritfied fresh). That's a new benchmark for video game movies! I know the bar was low anyways, but I still think it's cool Detective Pikachu is the first well received hollywood video game adaption. Can't wait to see it in 2 days!

 

[toshimelonhead]

Just got back. My three cents:

1.) Ryan Reynolds steals the show.
2.) The plot has times where it makes no sense.
3.) It was entertaining and worth the price of admission.

 

[nui]

if ur a true fan of pokemon u will enjoy this movie a lot. the models are fantastic and i was incredibly pleased to see that warner brothers really did their best to give pokemon fans a movie they'll enjoy. if ur expecting an amazing plot u might leave a little disappointed but i didn't really have high expectations going into it. all and all it's a great movie to watch if u enjoy pokemon and or just want to take ur little siblings out for a movie night. i really hope we get more movies out of this.

 

[lucariomaster2]

I give the movie a solid 7/10. The plot, while overall cohesive, has times where it doesn't make much sense, and some of the acting could certainly be better. That said, the Pokemon animations were fantastic, and Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu alone makes the movie worth seeing imo.

 

[Pikachu315111]

So, with the seemingly success of the movie and it making a nice showing at the box office, who's up for a Pokemon Cinematic Universe?

 

[DreamPrince]

So, with the seemingly success of the movie and it making a nice showing at the box office, who's up for a Pokemon Cinematic Universe?

What would the other films be?

 

[MegaFlareon]

What would the other films be?

There's already a sequel in the making. As for its story, we don't know yet. As a Pokemon fan, I'm really glad the movie's a success.

 

[Codraroll]

They certainly respected the source material and refrained from dumbing things down for the audience. That makes a very good foundation for a movie, even if the plot is a little cookie-cutter and the villain rather generic. And I really liked the extra touches they put on top of that, such as including the Pokémon Theme (both the main game theme and the one from the TV series) or That One Cameo (I don't think anyone ever saw that coming, but oh man what a nice reference). They clearly had fun with the concept of Pokémon while also staying true to it, very refreshing considering how conservative the Pokémon media usually is. This movie went way beyond what the games do, and it's clear that the production had long-time fans in the ranks. I also really appreciate the effort to prominently use Pokémon from every generation, although the Gen V ones stayed mostly in the background.

It might not be the best movie ever, but it seems like everyone agrees it's pretty good at what it does. It's rated 6-7 out of 10 by almost every outlet I've seen. Nobody seems to be heaping praise on it, but there's a consensus that it's decent. Better than average, better than it could have been, and it got a lot of things right. Hopefully, the effort pays off and everybody on board realize what made it work so well. With the way it ended, I'm not sure how well a direct sequel could work, but the general concept has plenty of room for a follow-up. And even if the sequel isn't as good as the first one, at least we now have one good Pokémon movie.

 

[Pikachu315111]

One thing I keep hearing is that the realistic looking Pokemon work very well. Both don't look too realistic it's uncanny/creepy but not too cartoony that they don't look like they match with the human characters. Also they never sya what a Pokemon does but rather let the Pokemon's behavior show off what it does and let people figure it out on their own (like I heard one example being a Lickitung shows up, it licks someone with its giant tongue, and the person it licked calmly asks "who's Lickitung is this?", thus revealing the name of the Pokemon and from what you've seen get what it's about). I feel this is probably the biggest triumph of the movie, I'm joking about the PCU but if they were honestly to do one they needed to land the Pokemon designs and from them most part I heard they landed it.

Second though only by a smidge would be the Pokemon World and they nailed that too. A world where Pokemon live in would be very much be molded around them (honestly I kind of don't get the question "does anyone in the Pokemon world not care about Pokemon" considering Pokemon are versatile creatures that can understand people & have unique appearances that you can use them in pretty much any occupation or base a lot of items off them). Rhyme City is nicely design and represents what a city of its size would look like in the Pokemon world: it's recognizably a modern day city but all over the place you see advertisements, design patterns, and decorations based on Pokemon. Now in a city which is meant to be very close to Pokemon they don't use them for Battles or carry them in Poke Balls this would probably be bumped to an Nth degree so the rest of the Pokemon World may not be this much "Pokemon", but what's important was that, for the first movie into this PCU, we see how Pokemon impact culture.

The plot may be bare bones, but I feel that's alright as this movie is meant to be a bit of a wading pool. It's made for a general audience who may not know what Pokemon are so first wants to get them into the Pokemon world and accustomed to these magical creatures and what they're about. Now that this is done they can maybe going into more the fantastical elements of the Pokemon world such as the Legendaries who control nature, the crazy world-conquering evil organizations, and the colorful trainers who career is training Pokemon.

Not sure where a sequel can go for spoiler reasons, though they can probably BS a reason to get things back to the status quo. It would have to be a mystery probably where it would be really handy if not required to have a human and Pokemon who can speak to each other normally and their respective species so they can gather all the clues.

 

[Mr.E]

For all the talk of how it's mostly fanservice, I just got back from seeing the movie and one of my first thoughts was it's a movie that you hardly need to be familiar with Pokémon to enjoy. Most of the ones in the foreground with any scene relevance are named and the plot is people-centric. The mons are mostly an accessory to what the people are doing. I don't think it's asking much of an ignorant (non-fan) audience to accept the basic idea that mons basically replace conventional animals in that world, the movie opens with Pidgeot flocks flying around and Bouffalant grazing in a scenic pan of a rural area. Knowing the actual species name of those mons isn't really important, I think it effectively gets the point across. You hardly even see a Poké Ball either (though they're iconic enough and the concept is basically explained) and battles only in a context that emulates real-world cockfighting.

I had fun. It's definitely nothing spectacular, it's very inoffensive and honestly kinda forgettable even, but it succeeds as a family-friendly kids movie with splashes of darker comedy for the older crowd and fanservice for the fans. It should be perfectly enjoyable in the moment for most people. Also, Kathryn Newton is hot and I'm a little disappointed her character Lucy just disappeared near the end of the movie once her role in the main plot was finished.

I went with my mom since it's Mother's Day. She liked Psyduck.

Edit: I wish Imakuni? made an appearance in this movie, what a great adaptation to have a cameo of him.

 

[stage7_4]

Even if you don't go see the movie, this little dancing pikachu prank will cures depression.

No spoilers, this is from the "leak" of the movie which was just this dance for an hour and a half.

 

[earl]

Just saw it- it was tons of fun, me and my friend were either laughing our asses off at certain scenes like:

Spoilers

when all the loudred fucking dropped the bass after getting gassed lmao
When pikachu made that totally out of place climate change joke

Or commenting on the sheer amount of flashbacks and plot twists. There was literally a part of the movie where 3 twists are dropped within a minute. Wild

Overall had a great time though. Not a great movie but a really fun one regardless

 

[DreamPrince]

interesting tidbit:

So apparently Mr. Mime is an enigma. When the art directors asked the Pokemon Company what Mr. Mime was, they were clueless. They were even trying to dissuade the directors from using it. In order to make Mr.Mime more kid friendly, they gave it freckles and dodgeball for shoulders, since they wanted to make it kid friendly. Nice details.

Though I must admit, I'm surprised the Pokemon Company doesn't know what Mr.Mime is. You'd think they know because they work closely with GameFreak. Makes me wonder how much power the Pokemon Company has over GameFreak. Can they actually say: GF you can't do that, or GF you must to that? Not to mention the fact that the Pokemon Company doesn't even know what GF bases their Pokemon shows secretive the company is despite being a million dollar franchise.

 

[Rapti]

interesting tidbit:

So apparently Mr. Mime is an enigma. When the art directors asked the Pokemon Company what Mr. Mime was, they were clueless. They were even trying to dissuade the directors from using it. In order to make Mr.Mime more kid friendly, they gave it freckles and dodgeball for shoulders, since they wanted to make it kid friendly. Nice details.

Though I must admit, I'm surprised the Pokemon Company doesn't know what Mr.Mime is. You'd think they know because they work closely with GameFreak. Makes me wonder how much power the Pokemon Company has over GameFreak. Can they actually say: GF you can't do that, or GF you must to that? Not to mention the fact that the Pokemon Company doesn't even know what GF bases their Pokemon shows secretive the company is despite being a million dollar franchise.

I hate you TPC

for those who (somehow) don't know Mr. Mime is a marionette, that's why Mime Jr. looks like a hand puppet, hand puppet -> string puppet
yes it's a clown but look at its joints, look at how its feet look like an old toy's wooden shoes, Mr. Mime is a puppet
also as a living toy Mr. Mime is clearly based on Pinocchio, that's why its part fairy

 

[Pikachu315111]

for those who (somehow) don't know Mr. Mime is a marionette, that's why Mime Jr. looks like a hand puppet, hand puppet -> string puppet
yes it's a clown but look at its joints, look at how its feet look like an old toy's wooden shoes, Mr. Mime is a puppet
also as a living toy Mr. Mime is clearly based on Pinocchio, that's why its part fairy

Which is also something Bulbapedia event mentions:

Mr. Mime appears to be based on a combination of a clown, a mime, and the pantomime of pretending to be trapped in invisible boxes. Its feet also appear to be reminiscent of the various hook-toed shoes worn by jesters. Its jerky animations and jaw suggest that it may also be a tsukumogami of a jointed puppet, dummy, or doll.

Yes, you'd first want to get the information from the creators themselves if you don't know, but when they give a shoulder shrug (did TPC even contact GF to ask them? Seems that would be a quick thing to do) maybe seeing what the popular fansites have interrupted could point you in a direction.

 

[MegaFlareon]

Whatever Mr. Mime is, I think we can all agree that his part in the movie is comedy gold.

 

[Rapti]

What interests me about this movie is the (admittedly vague) possibility that it may leads to a sequel to the Detective Pikachu game
even if it's a sequel by the same team and not a related story I really want to see more of the pokemon world from the perspective of someone other than a trainer because lest be honest, the whole 8 gym spiel is a terrible premise for any kind of story, much less a movie, that's why the stories in the games tend to be subpar
the framing device of "backpacking in an insect fighting quest for... glory?" is not just nonsensical, it is so removed from all other narrative that it undermines the whole thing, it is either superficial to the whole story or makes any other element seem intrusive to your quest
and it takes so long, even when reduced to only the base elements, it's to long for a movie to represent well

but the narrative elements of a point-and-click adventure game? now those are much better, not only do they have a clear narrative by necessity since those games live-and-die by their narrative but any unnecessary gameplay element that would just bloat out the story is usually a puzzle which can be omitted easily with absolutely no fuzz

 

[DreamPrince]

What interests me about this movie is the (admittedly vague) possibility that it may leads to a sequel to the Detective Pikachu game
even if it's a sequel by the same team and not a related story I really want to see more of the pokemon world from the perspective of someone other than a trainer because lest be honest, the whole 8 gym spiel is a terrible premise for any kind of story, much less a movie, that's why the stories in the games tend to be subpar
the framing device of "backpacking in an insect fighting quest for... glory?" is not just nonsensical, it is so removed from all other narrative that it undermines the whole thing, it is either superficial to the whole story or makes any other element seem intrusive to your quest
and it takes so long, even when reduced to only the base elements, it's to long for a movie to represent well

but the narrative elements of a point-and-click adventure game? now those are much better, not only do they have a clear narrative by necessity since those games live-and-die by their narrative but any unnecessary gameplay element that would just bloat out the story is usually a puzzle which can be omitted easily with absolutely no fuzz

I would love a Dectective Pikachu sequel but not for a movie, rather for a game. The movie ended perfectly, there’s no need for a sequel. They should probably consider another spin off series to base on. I think either Colosseum or Ranger series would be pretty good choices since they take place in the same world as the core RPGs.

Honestly, saving the world as always been treated as a sidequest in every game except BW. Whenever you defeat the villainous team, the story resumes and the challenge of being a Pokemon Master resumes as if nothing ever happened.

Interestingly enough, the writers did talk about a Super Smash Bros. Film, and they say it would probably end up like Infinity War. But before that can even happen, they need to have films for other Nintendo Franchises first.