dex14

I got an alert last night that there is an AMC Premiere Early Screening on Thursday. Most seem full at this point, but couldn't hurt to look or get on waitlist.
https://gofobo.com/index.php/main/blp/QU1DUERQaWthY2h1

asianxcore

San Francisco, CA Event is full

Not surprising as the Metreon is the theater that hosts most of these Early Screenings in the city.

dex14

Reviews, currently at 74%: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pok...ective_pikachu

dex14

Bump for the release. I don't think I'll be able to see this until next week, which may preferable to avoid the amount of kids.

RichC2

Expected to make $50 - $55m this weekend.

Deftones

That seems kind of low.

Brack

story

Just got back from a matinee with my 5-year-old. We really liked it, didn't love it. Once I figured it what kind it is - a by-the-numbers detective story aimed at 12-year-olds - I relaxed and enjoyed it more.

Great:
1. World-building. This is a fully-developed world where humanity and Pokémon live in a completely integrated society. It's believable, beautiful, and makes everything else that happens work.
2. Animation. Every creature works in this "real world"*and is recognizable for who they are from usually being presented in animated form, they're great. I wasn't counting and I have no idea how many there are now, but I'd say there's over 100+ Pokémon types in this easy, maybe lots more. Only a couple shots where the Pokémon clearly aren't there. I have a bad habit of looking for terrible background acting and I saw several scenes where people really did well "acting" with their Pokémon. Wonder if they worked with them more.
3. Sound. Maybe it was the Dolby Atmos but it was awesome.
4. Lots of clever uses of Pokémon and their powers. My favorite was Magikarp, a rare funny moment in the movie, too.

Good:
1. Acting was decent, though delivery across the board is a little over-the-top. Like many kids movies, the actors over-emote so the kids get what's going on. I was with a kid who needed this so I give this a pass and appreciate it.
2. Heart, and lots of it. Ultimately, a father/son story. My kid picked up on it easy. Heart goes a long way with me, especially in a kids movie.

Fair:
1. Fight scenes are a little confusing but that's the CGI standard, these days.
2. Ending wasn't telegraphed but also not surprising. When it happened, it happened. Not a letdown, it just... is.
3. Some people may be disappointed by how many of the most popular Pokémon are mere cameos.

Meh:
1. Comedy is sparse. It really isn't very funny at all. Bummer.
2. Ending is weird for any sequels, not sure where they'd go, which is an odd choice.
3. It doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be.

It's not a comedy, it's not film noir, it's not aimed at adults, and it's not for little kids. Our 5-year-old liked it, but the ending battle was too intense. As seen in the trailer Mewtwo is in this and when its eyes light up in the climactic battle, plus a deep, rattling voice in Dolby Atmos, she started crying and we had to take a break. That's not usual for her, and I'd say the ending battle is intense for your little ones. If there was some humor along the way, that could've helped, but instead it's pretty serious the whole time.

Truly, it's a by-the-numbers detective movie for tweens. Clues, red herrings, who to trust, double crossing, this time it's personal, hiding in plain sight, and big schemes foiled. So to that end, it is right in line with its title and if you know that going in you'll probably enjoy it more. And yet, even though I have two young kids who like Pokémon, I have found memories of the early days of Pokémon, and my wife plays Pokémon Go everyday, I'm honestly not sure any of us are the target of this movie. That's weird and disappointing.

And even with all that said, we liked it, the rest of the family will see it, I'd buy it on Blu-ray for under ten bucks, and if they made another I'd watch it, though I'd maybe wait for Netflix.

Draven

Brack

Orbi-Wan Techno

From my review page ORBI-WAN GOES TO THE MOVIES:

POKEMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (PG) - An interesting vision of the Pokemon world that is surprisingly serious at times, but with dashes of comedy and lots of action

I suppose I must fess up before I can proceed, if for no other reason than to establish a little street cred. For a time in 2016, I was an enthusiastic participant in the Pokemon craze, spending hours a week walking and catching the little critters all around the region I live in. When I traveled, I always took time to visit the hotspots of wherever I happened to be in hopes of capturing something rare and elusive. During an airplane flight, I was even seated next to a gentleman who claimed to be a guest developer with the online game. I’ve played in Virginia, Texas and Florida. And I will stand by my claim that I did it for the exercise. I also think it means I am at least minimally qualified to offer my comments on this ambitious bit of fantasy noir.

Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is on the cusp of 21, but has been dealing with daddy issues ever since his mom died when he was 11, and his father took off for Ryme City to pursue his job as policeman in a world where humans and Pokemon creatures live in peaceful coexistence - no hunts, not battles, every human finds a Pokemon to partner with and share their life with. Living with his grandmother, he has never bothered to find a Pokemon partner, feeling that his father left him behind because of the cute, empathetic creatures.

Things change when Tim receives word that his father has been killed, and his dad’s friend Yoshida (Ken Watanabe) sadly tells him his father’s body was never recovered. While going through his father’s apartment, Tim encounters an amnesiac Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds, doing a very cleaned-up version of Deadpool-style patter), who was Dad’s Pokemon partner, and who is not convinced that Tim’s dad is actually dead. Turns out, neither does spunky intern/reporter-wannabe Lucy (Kathryn Newton), who suspects Tim’s dad was on to something big when he disappeared. Tim, Pikachu, Lucy and her Pokemon partner, the potentially explosive PsyDuck, join forces to figure out what’s behind mysterious vials with an R emblazoned on them, that seem to be tied to Dad’s disappearance.

Let’s take a breath here as we begin to realize - although Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a PG-rated CGI-enhanced fantasy action-adventure, there’s nothing is what I just described that just screams “comedy”. And in fact, this movie really isn’t a comedy, it is more of a full blown crime mystery whose plot kinda takes a couple of cues from, wait for it, Zootopia! That doesn’t mean that there is not humor throughout, because there is. Pikachu’s comments and asides are pretty funny, there are some great characters that come and go that will have you chuckling, and the entire interrogation scene with Mr. Mime is comedy gold. Plus the fact that, with the exception of Pikachu, most Pokemon only speak or sing their own names aloud a la Groot is fun.

What this movie does have in spades is action, and just a bit of suspense. We do see some Pokemon fighting each other. A visit to a science lab has some jump scares, and a very frantic escape leads to a “ground-breaking” scene that would not be out of place in the next Godzilla movie. It actually had me panting and out of breath along with our heroes. Some of the other action scenes are touched on in my Notes For Parents.

Overall, I enjoyed Pokemon Detective Pikachu. I didn’t get lost in the lingo, I understood most of the jargon and evolution stuff, and I did laugh out loud a few times. The effects were great and yes, there are a lot of cute and cuddly critters and scenes throughout. I think kids 7 and up who understand the whole Pokemon thing would rather enjoy this. For me, I am giving Pokemon Detective Pikachu 3.5 out of 5 lightsabers.

NOTES FOR PARENTS (Mild Spoilers): Pokémon Detective Pikachu is rated PG for action/peril, some rude humor, slight innuendo and themes dealing with grief and loss. “Hell” and “d**n” are uttered once or twice, and Pikachu yells “Oh, My God!” several times while being chased in one scene. A science facility explodes and it’s implied the staff are killed. Tim’s dad is presumed dead after we witness an explosive car crash at the beginning of the film. A purple mist causes Pokémon to lose control and threaten Tim and Pikachu, and then later, others. We see Pokémon battling in illegal cage matches. Pikachu gets knocked around a bit during this. While investigating the destroyed science facility, Lucy and PsyDuck are briefly captured by enhanced Pokémon with long tongues. There is one jump scene during this part of the film. Tim, Lucy, Pikachu and PsyDuck must run for their lives as a series of mountain ranges seem to come alive. The primary villain tries to disrupt the harmony between human and Pokémon using the purple mist. Mewto and Pikachu battle, as Tim and a shapeshifter fight as well. These fights get a little intense.

MID- AND AFTER-CREDIT SCENE: There are no mid- or after-credit scenes.

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milo bloom

Took the wife and kid for a matinee today, smallish theater but was pretty full.

It was not what I expected, it was a more serious take on the subject matter. There was still some humor: Pikachu being addicted to coffee is a movie cliche, but it works here, as is him trying to set up the lead character with the female lead. It was a little darker than expected, but still within the norms of what has been in some of the other Pokemon movies.

As someone said above, when Mewtwo starts wrecking shit, it gets a bit intense. I think some of the smaller kids in the theater weren't expecting that, but my 11 year old was okay with it.

It seems to be it's own timeline, it pulls from all the games but I don't think it fits into any existing Poke-verse.
(And maybe it was all the neon, but it also felt like it could sorta fit into the BladeRunner universe too).

I expected the Godzilla trailer but it wasn't there (there was one for a dog movie, that was basically Quantum Leap with dogs, looks pretty cheese-a-rific).

Orbi-Wan Techno

We got the latest Godzilla trailer, A Dog's Journey, The Sun Is Also A Star, and a special Mother's Day trailer for Angry Birds....

Obi-Wanma

The dog movie that you're talking about is "A Dog's Journey", which is actually a sequel to 2017's "A Dog's Purpose", which made $200M worldwide on a $22M budget. So there is an audience for this kind of cheese. It's also about reincarnation, so it's not really like Quantum Leap. So it's for people who want to see the same dog die over and over (and really, who doesn't?)

milo bloom

Kvrdave, please see the mods about multiple accounts.

Tom Banjo

Obi-Wanma

This is the second weekend. It was packed when I took my daughters last weekend.

DaveNinja

Took the kids to see this saturday night. I had a beer and a reclining seat. I nodded off for a short amount of time during the final battle. I'm not sure why something happened the way they did; seemed like Mew 2 could have found an easier way.
I think my kids liked it. They dug out old Pokemon games and DSs and started playing them again.

Mike86

fujishig

The villain's plot was mainly nonsensical, as was the hand-wave resolution, but they didn't really have time to throw much else out there in terms of villains or motivations. That was probably my main complaint about the movie, the plot isn't that great, there's a lot of leaps that need to be made to keep the plot moving and pretty much no detective work at all. Also the villain was really, really stupid, it was almost like a video game cliche so that the hero has a chance at the weak point. But seeing pokemon in a live action movie pretty much covered its flaws for me and my kids.

My daughter brought a stuffed into the movie with her, so that made things interesting.

Not sure how they get a sequel out of this, but perhaps something else in the same universe?

dex14

Yup. The plot and villain were really lame.



I didn't care much for this. Seeing some of the Pokemon in action was cool and I appreciated the world building, but it just didn't all come together in the end. I would think people who really wanted to see a live action film for the first time were not happy that they didn't get a battle type movie.

Obi-Wanma

This should help you with the plot and the villain's motivation.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooisvdBHuP8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

fujishig

Like I mentioned when the thread first started, it made no sense because when the movie was announced, the Detective Pikachu game hadn't even been announced as coming to North America (in fact, it finally came out in like March of 2018). And then they didn't even promote the game at all when the actual movie came out, no switch release, no pokemon release at all, nothing.

But yeah, the plot is a dumpster fire, though it's probably the cgi masking what is a kid's movie. Detective Pikachu had like one job to do, except he has amnesia, and if you look at the steps he takes to accomplishing it, which includes convenient pro-tips from the female anime character, it just doesn't flow at all.



I really thought they were going to do a James Earl Jones Vader esque body/voice switcharoo at the end there, just because of the ethnicity thing, but oh well.