Based on the internationally popular Japanese fantasy video game and television franchise Pokémon first created in 1995 and the 2016 video game also named Detective Pikachu, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a light-hearted and cute family film that will surely delight fans of Pokémon while also appealing to other audiences looking for silly and funny entertainment. It takes place in a fantastical world where Pokémon, adorable creatures with special powers, and humans live together in which most everybody has a Pokémon companion. The movie follows a young insurance salesman named Tim Goodman, played by Justice Smith, who always had the dream of becoming a trainer for Pokémon to fight in battle against other Pokémon. When he learns that his estranged father who is a well-respected detective has disappeared, Tim finds himself in Ryme City where humans and Pokémon live harmoniously together to gather his father’s belongings but eventually is caught up in a mystery to discover what really happened to his father. Unexpectedly, a talking Pikachu Pokémon, voiced by the perfectly casted Ryan Reynolds, appears to Tim at his father’s apartment, and the bewildered Tim discovers that the very sassy Pikachu is his father’s partner. The rest of the film takes the audience on a colorful adventure where we meet a wide variety of Pokémon and evolves into a fairly funny movie with the comedic witticisms of Ryan Reynolds’ Pikachu character. The duo meet up with a young intern hoping to be a reporter named Lucy Stevens, played by Kathryn Newton, who helps them progress in their investigation of Tim’s father’s disappearance. The case leads them to a mysterious scientific lab run by a company owned by the wealthy founder of Ryme City named Howard Clifford, played by Bill Nighy. Overall, I found it to be a surprisingly entertaining and charming movie as a result of the wisecracking Ryan Reynolds performance and the whimsical world of Pokémon enhanced by fantastical CGI.
KEITH on Reels 