Ryan Reynolds voices a small yellow creature in a deerstalker hat, and that is the whole pitch of Pokémon Detective Pikachu. The 2019 film, directed by Rob Letterman, drops a talking Pikachu into a city of pocket monsters and asks a boy to solve a mystery beside him. The tagline says it plainly: “Partner up!”
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Justice Smith Plays Tim Goodman
Justice Smith plays Tim Goodman, a young man who meets a Pikachu he can somehow understand. The creature wants to be a detective. That is the engine of the plot, and it is a strange one for a franchise built on collecting and battling.
The world here is one where people gather Pokémon to fight. Letterman keeps that rule in place, then breaks it with a single talking animal. It is the right break. A movie that only staged battles would have nothing to say.
Kathryn Newton plays Lucy Stevens, a reporter chasing the same case. Bill Nighy is Howard Clifford. Ken Watanabe is Lieutenant Hide Yoshida. The cast is deep for a film about a yellow mascot, and it knows it.
Reynolds Supplies the Voice
Reynolds is the draw, and the film leans on him hard. His Pikachu talks like a man with a job and no patience. The joke lands because the body does not match the voice, and the film never explains that away.
Smith has the harder part. Tim is the straight man in a city of oddities, and he carries the emotional weight while the creature gets the lines. The pairing works because Smith underplays it.
Chris Geere, Suki Waterhouse and Rita Ora fill out the edges. None of them get much room. This is a two-hander wearing a large ensemble.
A Mystery With a Thin Case
Pokémon Detective Pikachu runs 105 minutes, and it uses them. The mystery is thin, but the film moves. It is an action, adventure and fantasy picture that knows its audience and does not waste time on setup it cannot pay off.
The design is the real achievement. The creatures sit in the frame like they belong there. For a film built on a game about catching things, that matters more than any plot twist.
The weakness is the script. Five writers are credited, and it shows in a story that never quite decides how serious it wants to be. The detective angle is a hook, not a mystery worth solving.
What the Film Earns
This is a better film than it had any right to be, and a thinner one than it wants to be. Reynolds and Smith make the partnership work. The world holds up. The case does not.
At 105 minutes, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a clean, likable ride that never reaches for more. It earns its audience and asks little of it. That is not a knock. It is a limit.
KEY FACTS
– Title: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
– Director: Rob Letterman
– Runtime: 105 minutes
– Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
– Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe
– Score: 6.9/10
6.9 of 10.
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