Detective Pikachu

[Negrek]

It's Pokémon's first live-action film! How are you feeling about it? Do you want to see it? And if you've already seen it (you people are so FAST, how), what did you think?

I haven't been to seen the movie yet and probably won't for a couple of weeks, but all of the positive hype definitely has me excited! I'm looking forward to seeing all the pokémon designs on the big screen. I wasn't sold on the CG pokémon initially, but while I still don't care for all the designs, there are some that look really cool and from the trailers I think they look like they work surprisingly well for playing alongside live-action human actors. I'm so glad that initial reports seem to be that the movie at least isn't godawful and most people seem to have enjoyed it pretty well.

 

[Chibi Pika]

how have so many people here seen it already *sobs*

I'm so heckin' excited to go see it you have no idea. Gonna see it tomorrow night!

 

[NonAnalogue]

I saw it last night, and it was wholly rad. It was a giant love letter to fans, and the target demographic seemed to be people who got into it earlier and wanted a slightly more 'adult' story and setting. I'll be honest, now I not only want a mainline Pokemon game that feels as alive as this world does, I want this team to do more Pokemon movies. I think they'd do a great job.

Mew-child adaptation plz

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

Man, it was a fantastic film! I loved how real the pokemon looked. Bulbasaur was beautiful. Those eyes! And as for Pikachu, they made him look so real. Even when he was wet it just looked so realistic.

I legit started crying the second Mewtwo showed up. It was such a nostalgia trip without being particularly GenWunny. They incorporated so many pokemon from the various generations, and given I've been heavily into Pokemon for around 20 years, seeing animals that originally started out as pixels in such crisp, amazing CGI was mind-blowing. It also catered to non-Pokemon fans. My husband isn't a massive fan, he only knows as much as he's learned from me (and from watching a handful of the animated movies). He's tried playing Gen 4 and didn't really like it. But he really enjoyed Detective Pikachu, so if someone who knows very little about Pokemon can enjoy it, that says a lot imo.

It's definitely a 'watch again' movie for me. When my sis gets back from her holiday, I'll try to see it with her. We both grew up with the games, and it would be awesome to have a 'sister day out' and see it again!

Reviews on it are apparently mixed. So... it just goes to show that you can't necessarily listen to the critics.

Also Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu was a fantastic decision! XD He played that part so well.

 

[Negrek]

Sooo I finally got to see this movie! I had intended to go ages ago, and then it ended up not happening, but then I saw they were going to be having screenings at the World Championships and got pretty hype.

...unfortunately, they were showing the Blu-Ray commentary version, which literally covers up the dialogue of the main film with "making-of" bits that are mostly the actors giggling and goofing around on the set. So, in the end, I feel like I only got to see about 25% of the movie, and it's lucky that I'd already played the game and therefore had some idea of what was up with the plot. A great way to make me not want to buy your deluxe edition Blu-Ray and really disappointing overall!

But I did at least get to enjoy seeing all the pokémon designs, which as pretty much everyone has said, were fantastic. In general they did such a wonderful job on the world of this movie--it really gives you the feeling of a place where pokémon live together with humans, a world not too far off our own. Plus the Scottish highlands are gorgeous, even with a fifteen minute voice-over explaining that we're in the Scottish highlands now (the ENTIRE escape-from-the-lab sequence, I swear).

I wish we'd gotten to see more of the Hi-Hat Café, though! It had a much larger role in the game, and from the movie trailers I thought it would be pretty big in the film, too. Pablo and Ludicolo are great, and then they only show up in the movie for, like, 30 seconds.

Spoiler

Also, I was super tickled by the human-turned-ditto twist, especially the fact that you can recognize a transformed ditto by the beady ditto-eyes, since I used a very similar plot device in one of my old stories.

Anyhow! I really will have to try and catch this and see it properly if it goes up on Netflix or something. I was incredibly skeptical when I first hear they were doing a live-action Pokémon movie, and while the story was pretty eh in places this still way exceeded my expectations. I'd love to see them do more! With more mons we haven't seen yet, of course!