Review: Pokemon Detective Pikachu

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Historically live action video game movies have all been bad starting with the Super Mario Bros film that came out way back in 1993.

Since that time we've had numerous other video game movies and none of them have been really good.

Fast forward to 2019 and now we have Pokemon Detective Pikachu? Is this the video game movie we've been wanting to see for decades?

Well the first thing I can say about Pokemon Detective Pikachu is the fact that this movie is visually impressive.

The CGI in the film is great as all of the Pokemon characters look realistic.

This is not a film that could have been possible twenty years ago and I'm glad they wanted this long until the technology was available to make it.

The best looking Pokemon in the entire movie is Pikachu because he looks cute and fluffy.

There is even a scene in the movie where he gets his fur wet and you can see the water dripping all over his body.

Another Pokemon that looks very impressive in this movie is Charizard as you can see his scales and fiery breath.

While visually Pokemon Detective Pikachi is great, sadly I think the movie itself is mixed.

The trailer made this movie look like it was all-out comedy thanks to the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu.

However, the movie is more of a detective story since Pikachu and the main character Tim Goodman have to find out what happened to his father.

While the story is serviceable for a kids movie, I wasn't all that impressed with the plot.

The main villain's plan is so cliche as the movie has a similar plot to The Amazing Spider-Man film from 2012. Also all of the big reveals at the end of the movie fell flat for me.

Another thing I don't like about the movie is that it felt very slow and boring in the first half.

Justice Smith is not a very charismatic actor and he's quite boring to watch by himself. It's not until he finally meets Ryan Reynold's Pikachu character does the movie get slightly better.

I also did not laugh as loudly as I thought I would have while watching this movie.

Don't get me wrong there are a few funny moments in the film, although the rest of the movie wasn't really a comedy as advertised in the trailers.

There's a lot of talking and not much action that happens in the first few acts of the entire film.

However, the movie gets better near the end and I'm glad the film stays true to the source material.

This isn't one of those horrible video game adaptations where they change everything for no reason just to satisfy the Hollywood executives. This looks and feels like a proper movie based on the Pokemon franchise.

Anyway, Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a passable movie although I feel the film could have been much better.

I feel the movie could have benefited more if there was more comedy and action scenes. Not to mention they should have chosen a better actor to play Tim Goodman because Justice Smith isn't an exciting person in the role.

Verdict: 2.5/5 stars

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Warner Bros.