A POKé BOWL OF CHAOS AND CREATIVITY

MOVIE
Detective Pikachu
Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith
Director Robert Letterman
Review Ray Chan

THE concept of Pokemon, the Japanese pocket monsters, became a favourite of my toddler daughter back when it was launched in the mid-90s.
    Ignoring the lure of bananas in pyjamas, purple-hued dinosaurs and a pachyderm named Johnson, she fell in love with the world of teenager Ash Ketchum, who aimed to catch and train as many of the Pokemon as he could and become the ultimate Pokemon master.
    As the suffering parent who had to endure the TV shows, video games and movies along with her, it wasn’t long before I too became more than familiar with the premise of human beings traipsing around and collecting the innocent creatures from their habitats in the wild.
    However, for those not as informed about the critters, the entire Poke-universe can seem befuddling, couched as it is in the abstract thinking of Japanese societal conventions: examples include “animals” which are basically eggs in a nest, others which permanently hold microphones and sing people to sleep, living sand castles and key-chains, and curious characters which only communicate in mime. To add to the oddity, they can evolve into bigger, stronger versions of themselves.
    So one wonders what such viewers will make of Detective Pikachu, the first live-action movie featuring a whole array of Pokemon skittering and swarming, crawling, jumping and flying about with vertiginous abandon, and based on a video game where the player works with the cuddly yellow rodent to solve various mysteries.
    The movie follows the formula set by more than 20 animated Pokemon movies: it’s busy and full of frantic activity, cluttered beyond the eye’s focus, and packed with overlong action scenes typified by chaos, plenty of running and screaming, and a whole lot of falling down.
    It’s exaggerated humour as some cultures love it, reminiscent of Japanese game shows with insane and embarrassing challenges, bright flashing lights, and supremely enthusiastic hosts. 
    How will it fare with Western audiences? Certainly, the first act is interesting enough to hold the viewer’s interest, as we see the Poke-plethora rendered into reality via CGI. The effects are impressive and many of the individuals, even the most absurd, exhibit enough of a lifelike resemblance to sustain intrigue and attention.
    There’s no Ash in this movie, the titular lad around whom all previous Pokemon adventures revolved. Instead, as director Rob Letterman goes for a quasi film-noir visual quality, it centres on Tim (Justice Smith), a young 20-something who’s summoned to the massive metropolis of Ryme City (set somewhere in an Asian country), where Pokemon and humans live in peace, to learn that his estranged detective father Harry has been killed in a fiery car crash. 
    Devastated, Tim vows to uncover what caused the accident, aided by Harry’s pet Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), who has amnesia and can’t explain why no one can find Harry’s body. 
    Donning a Sherlock Holmes cap, “Detective” Pikachu is convinced Harry is alive, which gives Tim hope, although it only draws them into a deeper mystery concerning the nefarious forces behind Harry’s accident. Cue many adventures in which they encounter Pokemon of various shapes and sizes.
    Reynolds, of course, is best known of late as the wisecracking Deadpool, and here he essentially plays a family-friendly version of that cynical superhero. But although he delivers some choice quips (including singing the original Pokemon theme song), much of his dialogue feels improvised, indicating he may have needed to ad lib in order to freshen up a mediocre screenplay, which is credited to several writers.
    Unfortunately, the banter between the two main protagonists is also somewhat lucklustre, and typifies the mystery plot, which is confusing and only occasionally compelling.
    Still, on the whole, while Detective Pikachu misses more than it hits, many ideas are carried out to bold effect, even when they’re mishandled. 
    For the fans of the franchise, catching a glimpse of their cherished Pokemon come to life is reason enough to watch the movie with glee. And in fact, some diehards might even complain that not enough of the Pokemon were shown.
    For the others, it’s a matter of getting acquainted with a unique form of covenance that may seem unfamiliar to them. Like much of Japanese anime, Detective Pikachu displays disregard for logic or physics, sometimes making up its own rules with such confidence that the viewer has no choice but to relent. 
    Because the film zooms along on its own dissonant wavelength, it may leave these viewers feeling indifferent yet fascinated at the very least, if never entirely happy with the final destination.
    Neither a Poke-fanatic nor a stranger to the mythos, I found the journey there to be a suprisingly enjoyable one, with the film reconnecting me with characters and concepts from a happy time gone past when my daughter had not yet even started kindergarten. While she's definitely outgrown her childhood obsession, Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri's legacy continues in the household, with an over-sized Pikachu doll keeping her own toddler son secure in bed at night.

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