Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

Yeah, that was actually fun, and even respected the source material (to the best of my recollection at least; haven't really touched Pokemon since the Red/Blue days).

So, for those playing along at home, that now brings the list of video game-based movies that are fun and respect the source material to:

Detective Pikachu
Mortal Kombat

At this rate, maybe good video game movies will become a regular thing in a decade or two.

Randin said:

Yeah, that was actually fun, and even respected the source material (to the best of my recollection at least; haven't really touched Pokemon since the Red/Blue days).

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The film is extremely faithful to the source material, even going as far as to expand on some concepts that were never fully-fleshed out in the game and maybe set things up for future games.

Ya good movie, fun and reasonably well written and acted.

I enjoyed this more than Endgame, it's a fun movie. It even made me pickup Pokemon Go again.

As my daughter was watching it, I kept telling her that Pikachu is Deadpool. She was completely baffled by that.

It was good and the ending caught me off guard. Not sure why everyone said the very last scene was predictable. Pokemon were great, surprised there wasnt a lot more time on screen with certain ones.

Mewtwo being the first Pokemon on screen was odd since it was always the last Pokemon in the game but it worked. Definitely a good video game movie.

Can't figure out what the movie lacked since I enjoyed it, i give it a 7/7.5 on it's own legs, it's a 9 or higher if you compare it to the competition

The predictable seen, for me at least...

Kriptini said:

The film is extremely faithful to the source material, even going as far as to expand on some concepts that were never fully-fleshed out in the game and maybe set things up for future games.

Spoiler: Short List of Lore and Easter Eggs

• The R gas is obviously a reference to Team Rocket, but what's more interesting about it is that it's not some sort of plot device that was inexplicably created for the purpose of telling the movie's story, there's actually evidence in Gold/Silver to suggest that Mewtwo's DNA has the ability to make other Pokemon go crazy. Near the collapsed Cerulean Cave you can find an item called the Berserk Gene, which can be held by a Pokemon to raise its Attack stat two stages, albeit with the drawback of confusing the holder. Since the item is found outside Cerulean Cave, it's speculated to be extracted DNA from Mewtwo.
• Ryme City might be a location we can visit in the upcoming Sword and Shield games. This is sort of a stretch, but Ryme City reminds me quite a bit of London and we know that the Sword & Shield games will take place in a region based off of the real world British Isles. This would be the first time that a city from a spinoff Pokemon game appears in a main game, but I think it could be possible (remember that Detective Pikachu came out as a video game last year).
• Magikarp's evolution into Gyarados wasn't plot magic. In game canon, Magikarp evolves when it's exposed to a very stressful situation (the in game example is in Gold/Silver when the annoying radio frequencies cause all of Magikarp in the Lake of Rage to go crazy). Being thrown in front of a rampaging Charizard outside of water would qualify for that.
• In the final act, Pikachu uses Volt Tackle to knock Mewtwo into a building and faints for a short time afterwards. Volt Tackle is a move that deals "recoil damage" to the user, and the recoil modifier is so large that it usually makes the user faint if a decent amount of damage is dealt.
• A lot of building signs are references to other things in the Pokemon universe. Harry's apartment complex is called "OTK," which is a reference to the competitive term "OTK/OHKO" (One Turn Kill/One Hit KO). There's another building called Mist which is a reference to Misty from the show. I can't remember the other ones off the top of my head but I remember seeing a lot.
• When Tim and Pikachu first meet Howard Clifford, there's an Eevee that evolves into a Flareon. Pokemon usually can't evolve on command, but Eevee is an exception - you just have to give it an elemental stone. So it fits with universe canon that Howard was just chilling with a Fire Stone in his hand to make his introductory monologue more dramatic.

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There's loads if stuff like this, its so faithful to the source material.


First act is great seeing all the Pokemon. Second act is cliche. Third act jumps the shark multiple times.

I really liked it, will definitely buy it and it will be one of those comfort movies you just throw on. It couldve been better, but for a Pokemon movie it had all it needed. Some of the twists were pretty silly, but thats in line with the pokemon universe. Its always been silly. I felt it was as faithful as it could be. Much like Into the Spider-verse, its quality shows that the creators were fans.

One thing that surprised me was that it wasnt as kid friendly as I thought. Not bad for kids, but it didnt really seem all that aimed at children outside the cuteness.

The nonsensical over the top plot is basically straight out of the handheld games. If you actually pay attention to the Team X plot in each game, pretty much every single one is a major world-shattering event...that ends up being stopped by an unsupervised 10 year old and his/her squad of battle slaves.

Pretty fun.

What I liked the most was how the reporter intern character was dressed, she looked like a character class from the games. Same with bow the ditto lady and Red were dressed.

More of that! Most were dressed like normal people.

a_skeleton_02 said:

So detective Pikachu is a movie based off the video game "detective Pikachu" that came out last year.

Rhyme city is already a location in that game they didn't expand on anything they just used the source material from the game.

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Wow didn't realise the game was that close in its plot. Looks like they mostly just changed the ending.

a_skeleton_02 said:

So detective Pikachu is a movie based off the video game "detective Pikachu" that came out last year.

Rhyme city is already a location in that game they didn't expand on anything they just used the source material from the game.

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That doesn't prevent them from connecting it to Sword/Shield though.