Pokémon Detective Pikachu

Pokémon Detective Pikachu – Yes, I actually saw this last night. I've never seen, read, or played anything to do with Pokémon before, unless you count reading Brandon Sanderson's Codex Alera which, fan lore has it, he created as a stunt to show that he could combine the two stupidest fantasy memes of all time (Pokémon and Lost Roman Legion) into a thrilling epic. I can definitely see the resemblance between the furies of Sanderson's conception and the Pokémon (which I believe is derived from an Engrish expression meaning "pocket monsters") that live alongside humans in the city depicted in this movie. Outside that city, Pokémon are hunted, captured, and trained to fight each other in cockfight-like combats in which each breed's unique abilities are exploited. In Ryme City, humans bond with their Pokémon partners to live as equals – although no one can understand the gibberish Pokémon speak.

Along comes Tim (played by Justice Smith of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), a young man from another city who was obsessed with Pokémon as a child, but who has a mysteriously tragic track record when it comes to partnering with them. His dad, a detective with the city police, has supposedly been killed in a car wreck, but his body is missing and Tim isn't sure he's really dead. Adding a blend of tension, laughs and cuteness to the picture is his dad's Pokémon partner, a Pikachu (you know, one of those adorable, fuzzy Pokémon that have a crooked tail and a talent for hurling lightning bolts), who has no memory of anything from the accident forward and whom Tim, for some reason, can understand even though nobody else can. Adding more tension, comedy and a touch of romance is an ambitious cub reporter (played by Kathryn Newton of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) who is after the truth. The picture also features Bill Nighy, Ryan Reynolds and Ken Watanabe.

Overall, I found this flick refreshingly lightweight and full of uncomplicated fun. It has good special effects, gorgeous scenery – the effects in the scenes depicting life in the streets of Ryme City must have cost an emperor's ransom – and the humor, action, and mystery hit all the right marks. As an introduction to the world of Pokémon, it gives me an idea of why so many people find the anime/video game/trading card creatures so engaging. But even understood as a free-standing fantasy film, it came across really well, I think.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Pikachu gets injured in an accident, and Tim's concern for him becomes quite tender. (2) Tim enters Pikachu in a fight against another creature in the hope of squeezing some information out of its trainer – but the little guy can't remember how to use his powers. (3) The hero group's visit to the creepy lab where Mewtwo (a clone of the Ur-Pokémon) escaped the night Tim's dad disappeared. Lots of weird creatures! Fantasy ideas stretching quirkiness to the edge of the bizarre! People blithely accepting the patently ludicrous going on all around them! What fun, eh?