Current Film Reviews- Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

        Back when I successfully turned my October horror reviews from short reviews done on my Facebook to full reviews here, I experimented with other sorts of review series to do. One of those was "Pokecember", where I did reviews of the Pokemon movies every December. Since they reliably come out each year with the anime, I could hypothetically do it for a while. I successfully finished off the six films before the Advanced Generation, but after Jirachi Wish Maker, it tapered off. I was in Freshman year of college, and a lot of stuff got in the way of doing another. Ultimately, I never picked it back up, but have since started other series to pick up the slack for slow months. However, with this film bringing Pokemon back into the public consciousness, I might bring it back this December, so watch out for that.

     Based on the 2018 video game of the same name (part of the multimillion dollar franchise created by Satoshi Taijiri), the film follows Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), who gave up his dreams of being a Pokemon trainer in favor of being an insurance adjuster. He is forced to go to the non-region specific Ryme City, founded by billionaire Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) as a place where humans and Pokemon can interact peacefully, without any of that battling nonsense, when his policeman father is reported dead from a severe car accident. However, while searching his father's apartment, he finds a Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who talks! And has his father's hat, meaning he was his father's companion. This leads to the conclusion that his father might still alive. This leads Tim and the Pikachu to become an unlikely team to investigate his death, with the help of intrepid reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) and her Psyduck, and eventually unravel a conspiracy involving Clifford's organization and the legendary Pokemon Mewtwo.

     I loved that the Pokemon are the right amount of realistic. They look like they exist in the real world, and their presence against living breathing humans isn't jarring. However, they still look like their game counterparts, and still have the traits of them. (The designs were apparently helped by  This sufficient level of realism really cements the respect the makers of this film have for the material. They take it seriously enough that it never becomes too camp or dumb (like some of the weaker anime movies tend to get), but it still has the right amount of fun, humor, and absurdity that the franchise has always had. The filmmakers were not embarrassed by the source material, and use its creativity and wonderful creatures to build a new story and setting to explore underappreciated parts of the franchise (like how Pokemon are integrated into human society). As a lifelong fan, I really appreciated all the little nods and references they make throughout and all the cameos that I can name, but I feel that it is still accessible to a general audience, especially the target audience of children. All that aside, this was just fun to watch. A real thrill that keeps you interested and intrigued throughout, it manages to use the standard three act hero's journey to great effect. I especially liked the twists (no spoilers), and how they are generally built up as you see the film, and makes you reconsider what you saw before. It also had one hell of an exciting climax.

    I had a massive problem with the pacing of the film. It feels like it goes too fast at parts, especially in establishing the relationship between Pikachu and Tim. They just start investigating the crime almost immediately after meeting. I wish a little bit more time had spent on their relationship, and how it grows throughout the film. Not to say there wasn't any time dedicated to this, but that there needed to be a little more time to allow it to be cemented. There are also parts that are underexplained, and feel like they are shown in cut scenes. It makes for an occasionally confusing viewing experience. I think they were hoping the viewer is intelligent to figure, but a little explanation.

    As I said, I am a big fan of Pokemon, so my opinion of this film is colored by that. Normally, the flaws that are in this would lower its reputation, but I was so enthralled by the world they create and how well they managed to make the Pokemon world feel like a real place, I choose to ignore those and just sit back for the ride. And really, when the good stuff is that good, I can easily forgive the small things. So, yeah, this is a definite recommendation for Pokemon fans. If you aren't (which is likely), I think it works well enough in its own right, but I also largely would recommend it for kids, who'll enjoy it. I should know, if this came out when I was a kid, this would've been my stuff.

  Next on the docket, I explore the reputation of Ishtar in another Dailles and Nightlies  

Current Movie Reviews- Ghost in the Shell

      To prepare for the viewing of this film, I re-watched the original 1994 anime, because, while I enjoyed the movie back when I watched it several years ago, I didn't quite remember the plot (This movie had an entirely different plot anyway, so that was unnecessary). I still enjoyed it as a philosophical cyberpunk story on the nature of technology, humanity, and life. In this franchise, I've only seen the first movie, and not anything else (the anime, the manga, the second movie). I know that several elements of this film were derived from those sources, but as I am unfamiliar with them, I can't comment on them or state their fidelity to the source material. I only have the first film to compare it to. So, I essentially went in with a moderate knowledge of this franchise, not really knowing whether it would actually be good. This movie has been in production for many years, and it has been cited as a prominent example of a live-action anime adaptation being stalled. Having now seen the film, perhaps they should've kept in there longer.

    Based on the manga Mobile Armored Riot Police (or Ghost in the Shell over here in the states) by  Masamune Shirow and the media franchise that spawned from it, the story is set in futuristic Japan, where people have reached such a point in transhumanist and cybernetic augmentations, where they could now create whole bodies which could work from the human brain. Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), the lone survivor of a plane, is one of those people now stuck in a robotic body. Despite the protests of the attending scientist to her creation, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), Cutter (Peter Ferdinando), CEO of dystopian megacorp Hanka Robotics decides to utilize her as a solider. Sure enough, a year later, she is working with government anti-terrorist unit Section 9, along with Batou (Pilou Asbæk). She foils a terrorist plot at a Hanka building by disarming a geisha bot (apparently an element from the second film). She learns that the geisha was hacked remotely by a mysterious figure called Kuze (Michael Pitt), who is attempting to take down Hanka Robotics. As she and Batou investigate this terrorist, she begins to question her own identity, as her memories are at best incomplete, and her investigation will turn up some stunning implications for both her and everyone around her.

     This film looks stunning. It captures the look of the anime setting very well, and uses the strong influence Blade Runner had on the original to great effect. It is a great visual film, and has an interesting soundtrack, which also stems from the original 1994 film. (which actually was also a problem, as I'll explain later). The people who created this movie clearly love the source material, and try to bring it to live-action to the best of their ability. It also flirts with some of the more cerebral ideas that the anime dealt with in terms of memory, AI, the relationship between humans and machines,and how far we can lose ourselves into the machine. The fact that the 1994 film went on to heavily influence films like The Matrix was actually less distracting than I thought, and it doesn't really feel like it's directly ripping off any other film in particular.

    This is my main problem with this movie: It is incredibly boring. I normally don't feel drowsy or distracted during a movie, but I almost fell asleep in the seat watching this film, and I kept checking my phone. It's really monotonous and slow. I'm fine with slow movies. My favorite film of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey. But this is slow without the weight to justify it. In the good parts, I said "flirts with", because aside from bringing it up, it never really delves into the ideas of the original, or utilizes it well in the context of the story. It's merely hinted at, rather than explored in detail, and the movie doesn't really make you think the way the original did. The action scenes feel less energetic and dull compared to the fight scenes in the original movie, where they have a lot of tension and suspense. It also inserts music, which also lowers the tension, and makes it into a generic action movie scene. The acting is uninvolved from everyone involved. Only Michael Pitt (seeming to be doing his interpretation of  "James Franco as Max Headroom") is trying, and even his performance doesn't really illicit any real emotion from me.  I was debating whether to address the issue of Johansson's casting in this film. Having seen the film now, (and this is a minor spoiler), when we learn more about Major, the fact that the actress wasn't Japanese is actually egregious, and is very distracting once you learn this fact.

    Even taking the original film out of the equation, it's still a mostly tedious, pretentious film, which fails to have much impact or memorable elements to it for the audience. If you've only seen the first movie, like I have, you might not get much out of this as you had the original. You won't get much even you've never seen the first one or just want an action romp. Bigger fans of the franchise have said they disliked this movie for botching up the parts of the franchise which made it work. So, by all accounts, I can't recommend this movie. Not awful, but could've been much better.