Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019)

[mfunk9786]

Detective Pikachu, which will almost certainly make around 1 trillion dollars in worldwide box office

[domino harvey]

Sometimes I feel I missed out on my age group just missing Harry Potter, but it also means I missed Pokemon, so we'll call it a draw

[knives]

I can't help, but be interested if just because I like the idea of exploring a Pokemon world even if this doesn't look to be the best representation of that.

[mfunk9786]

Pokemon is much more malleable in its creative possibilities and more charming than Harry Potter, especially now when joyless spin-offs have been made of the latter that are drab excuses for a past-his-prime Johnny Depp to play dress up, while a (good!) trailer like this shows that the surface of what Pokemon could be has barely been scratched. Plus, there are no 30something wonks who've never read any other books spending their time making tiring political comparisons between Pokemon characters and our president or whatever, and that's a big plus

[domino harvey]

I mean, isn't this just Who Framed Roger Rabbit? reversed?

[mfunk9786]

Totally, but the games it's based on are about kids who travel the world using these little creatures to battle one another - i.e. the creatures themselves are ubiquitous and beloved enough that you can put them into any number of scenarios that have nothing to do with the origin of Pokemon and make something that people will want to see. I'm not sure Detective Hagrid would land with the same sort of splash.

And yes, I do realize the above reads like

[knives]

Pokemon is much more malleable in its creative possibilities and charming than Harry Potter, especially now when joyless spin-offs have been made of the latter that are drab excuses for a past-his-prime Johnny Depp to play dress up, while a (good!) trailer like this shows that the surface of what Pokemon could be has barely been scratched. Plus, there are no 30something wonks who've never read any other books spending their time making tiring political comparisons between Pokemon characters and our president or whatever, and that's a big plus

[domino harvey]

I don't choose you

[Big Ben]

A dril tweet being used to describe the film is par the course (And I very much approve) for something like this. The movie at least seems to be aware of how ridiculous it is. This is contrary to the Pokemon films of my youth in which all manner of insane things happen.

[Murdoch]

I've only played one of the Pokemon games (X on the 3DS), but the world of Pokemon is rather fascinating in its references to Shintoism and how the various creatures' abilities revolve around the elements. This doesn't look very good from the trailer, and I've come to find Ryan Reynolds incredibly irritating as a performer, but I'll wait on what the invested fans I know say upon release before I judge it too harshly.

[domino harvey]

Reynolds was funny in Two Guys and a Girl (and so was everyone else), but he's definitely an actor with exactly one mode, and I don't feel too pressed to venture further beyond his sitcom days