{"id":18276,"date":"2019-05-09T13:17:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18276"},"modified":"2019-05-09T13:17:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:17:32","slug":"pokemon-detective-pikachu-benefits-from-a-great-voice-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18276","title":{"rendered":"POKEMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU Benefits from a Great Voice Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Unfortunately, movie adaptations of video games tend to have pretty poor reputations. In the past, we’ve been dealt the less-than-stellar Super Mario Brothers<\/em>, Wing Commander<\/em>, House of the Dead<\/em>, Hitman<\/em>, and Need for Speed <\/em>(read more about all of these pictures here<\/a>). When Lara Croft: Tomb Raider<\/em> and Prince of Persia<\/em> represent the genre heights, that is not a good sign. The bad news about Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu<\/em> is that it is far from a masterpiece that solves all of the issues other films of its ilk possess. However, the good news is that it’s better than the previous titles mentioned, and is amusing enough in spots to earn a modest recommendation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After receiving word that his estranged father has gone\nmissing and is likely deceased, young and reserved insurance agent Tim Goodman\n(Justice Smith) travels to make final arrangements for his parent. He arrives\nin Ryme City,\na unique metropolis in which humans and Pok\u00e9mon characters coexist. Once there,\nhe comes into contact with his father’s Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) and gets a big\nsurprise when he realizes that they can communicate verbally with one another.\nWith this “Detective Pikachu” suffering from amnesia and Tim wanting\nto determine what exactly happened to his father, the pair team up and\ninvestigate, encountering all sorts of unusual beings along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First off, this reviewer knows next to nothing about the\ngaming franchise or its characters. There are certainly attempts made to\nintroduce this strange universe to viewers, but admittedly several elements and\nreferences clearly flew over my head. The creatures themselves are always interesting\nto look at, even if they don’t appear to do much besides chirp and fight. It’s\nunfortunate that these supporting monsters don’t offer much in the way of\npersonality (although even some of the human supporting roles as written are\nclumsy and too exaggerated for their own good). \nIt doesn’t end up making one all that invested in the plight of the\nsupporting characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thankfully, as readers might have already guessed, the\nmovie’s winning element is the inclusion of Ryan Reynolds as the voice of the\ntalking Detective Pikachu. It’s a perfect match, with the cutely designed\nlittle character delivering plenty of sass and funny quips as the investigation\nprogresses. Reynolds’ voice-work also allows the fluff-ball to emote and\nexpress a variety of emotions. There’s a particularly funny scene late in the\nmovie as the dejected Pikachu attempts to sing what is assumed to be the Pok\u00e9mon\ntheme song while struggling to hold back tears. When this character is placed\ncenter stage and is interacting and bickering with Tim, the movie works. In\nfact, it’s a pretty safe assumption to make that without the charismatic voice\ndelivery from Reynolds, the movie would have likely been a mess.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And the visuals also make an impression. The neon-tinged Ryme\n City looks nifty and there’s one\nreally striking action bit that stands out. It involves the protagonists\nsearching for a lead in their case and finding a mountainous environment\nturning and twisting around them (not unlike something you might see in a\nkid-friendly take on Christopher Nolan’s Inception<\/em>). The group are\nforced into trying to avoid being crushed and falling to their demise down\nvarious chasms. It’s certainly the most interesting action sequence in the\nfeature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, there isn’t much to the mystery itself, and the\nvillain’s identity is unlikely to surprise viewers. Still, one can’t help but find\nthemselves enjoying watching the one or two impressive adventure scenes and the\nnumerous interactions between Tim and his sharp-witted partner. For this\nreason, just enough of Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu<\/em> succeeds to recommend\nto kids and forgiving adults curious about this strange video game-inspired\nworld.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, movie adaptations of video games tend to have pretty poor reputations. In the past, we’ve been dealt the less-than-stellar Super Mario Brothers, Wing Commander, House of the Dead, Hitman, and Need for Speed (read more about all of these pictures here). When Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia represent the genre heights, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,785,4883,7283,11393,16097,16203,16204,16205,16206,17485,23774,23775],"class_list":["post-18276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-adventure","tag-creatures","tag-family","tag-justice-smith","tag-pikachu","tag-pokemon-detective-pikachu","tag-pokemon-detective-pikachu-film-review","tag-pokemon-detective-pikachu-movie-review","tag-pokemon-detective-pikachu-review","tag-ryan-reynolds","tag-video-game","tag-video-game-adaptation"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}