Detective Pikachu Movie Discussion Thread

[Kutie Pie]

That's a fan-made image of what a live-action Pichu could look like.

Oh yeah? Fooled me good, it looked like it could've been in the movie. I dunno, I expected it in

Spoiler

the flashback of Harry getting out of the car after news of his wife's passing and Tim hiding upstairs. He looked like he was hiding something in his jacket, and so I kinda expected a Pichu to try to cheer up Tim, though Tim would've recognized Pikachu, probably. Don't think he knew Harry had a Pikachu until he got to Ryme City.

 

[nel3]

A bit late for me to comment off this, but first of all, the game itself had people of different backgrounds in the game. Most of the characters looked Caucasian to me, but that may be the art style.

Second of all, I don't know too much of Justice Smith's background off-hand*, but its implied that he's half-black in the movie.

Edit*: Looked on Wikipedia, Justice Smith is also half black in real life.

Spoiler: Tim's family

His deceased mother looks black in the portrait and his dad turns out to be Ryan Reynolds.

And while white washing can be annoying, I don't think this movie is particularly guilty of it.

yeah the white washing wasnt really that prominent but it did irk me a tiny bit

 

[shoz999]

You know as strange as this may sound. I still think a lot of the animated Pokemon films are better than Detective Pikachu. As cool as Ryme City's noir-style is, I still prefer the more "magical" artstyle featured in the anime and Adventures manga.

 

[Kutie Pie]

It's not all that strange, honestly. I think this film could've worked out just fine animated because it still feels like a Pokémon movie, but I really do appreciate their efforts into making this world as real as could be in a different medium. Just like how the new Pokémon film this year is going to be entirely in CGI for the first time, a live-action Pokémon film was new testing ground for the franchise, and I think it's succeeded for the most part. I still hope for more films in the future of this caliber, or better, but baby steps. Gotta ease us into it.

But I'm also biased and think it's one of the better Pokémon films within the last few years, least in terms of enjoyment. Also Mewtwo was treated a lot better here than the last time there was a Mewtwo movie, so......

 

[shoz999]

It's not all that strange, honestly. I think this film could've worked out just fine animated because it still feels like a Pokémon movie, but I really do appreciate their efforts into making this world as real as could be in a different medium. Just like how the new Pokémon film this year is going to be entirely in CGI for the first time, a live-action Pokémon film was new testing ground for the franchise, and I think it's succeeded for the most part. I still hope for more films in the future of this caliber, or better, but baby steps. Gotta ease us into it.

But I'm also biased and think it's one of the better Pokémon films within the last few years, least in terms of enjoyment. Also Mewtwo was treated a lot better here than the last time there was a Mewtwo movie, so......

For me, the last movie didn't really bothered me that much because the Mewtwo in Pokemon Adventures made quite a great re-appearance later on. Although for me personally, I still think the best movie is Pokemon Spell of the Unown. If you literally took out all the Pokemon stuff from it, it feels like a Miyazaki film that deals with complicated subjects and has breathtaking art and animation that really paints a different range of moods. Personally, I'd like to see that Pokemon movie not only re-made because there are some flaws that could be scrapped like Team Rocket pretty much doing nothing but also become canon in both the Pokemon anime and Pokemon manga because Molly is easily the best antagonist of the anime series just in-general but she's not some evil generic villain but just a little girl who appears to have lost her parents and tries to cope her loss through Entei and Ash's mother which proves to be a major driving point for Ash which is much better, more believable that gets the kids rooting for him then the basic "chosen one" plot.

 

[Bguy7]

That's a fan-made image of what a live-action Pichu could look like.

Are we talking about the same thing? I'm referring to a preview image of an official trailer. Why in the world would they use fan art? Or is there something I'm misunderstanding about all this?

 

[shoz999]

Are we talking about the same thing? I'm referring to a preview image of an official trailer. Why in the world would they use fan art? Or is there something I'm misunderstanding about all this?

Your talking about Pichu right?

Yeah this image is a fake.

 

[Bguy7]

Your talking about Pichu right?

Yeah this image is a fake.

Looks like what I remember. Okay, so now the question is, how did it end up as the preview image for an official trailer?

Kutie Pie, I believe it was you who first brought up the Pichu. Perhaps the video you saw it in wasn't an official upload? Any clue?

 

[shoz999]

Looks like what I remember. Okay, so now the question is, how did it end up as the preview image for an official trailer?

Kutie Pie, I believe it was you who first brought up the Pichu. Perhaps the video you saw it in wasn't an official upload? Any clue?

It's most likely an upload by an unofficial channel. I know this because I've seen such trailers before posted by unofficial channels featuring Pichu in the thumbnail.

 

[WildHennaCharizard]

I haven't opened mine yet. Did you get any good ones?

I got Detective Pikachu and Snubbull. There was only two in my theaters pack so it was probably just promo pack. To get all the cards you would have to get the regular boosters.

 

[Shadow_Flare]

Pokemon is the biggest brand in history. People shouldn't have to lower the bar when it comes to framing how successful it is - "best outing by a video game franchise" isn't that impressive when it only slightly edged out that dumb Tomb Raider movie from 20 years ago.

Consider that Disney took a bankrupt comics company's geeky IP, used its second tier assets (because the good ones had already been licensed away) and built out the most successful movie franchise ever. Pokemania's prior success showed that "Japanese" and "anime" and "video game" were not barriers to making a culture-defining blockbuster. Heck, GO was a worldwide phenomenon in its own right, and was the biggest app in history when it launched. The lesson from GO was that Nintendo/Game Freak holds back their own IP. In the capable hands of a company that knows what it's doing like Niantic/Google, Pokemon absolutely has the potential to rip Disney a new one.

Warner's star has fallen a bit since GOT 7, having been bought up by AT&T, but it's still flush with talent. It should have lofty expectations and then surpass them. That Detective Pikachu hasn't given the marketing thrown at it is cause for an inquiry as to "what went wrong".

I never believed it would surpass Endgame in gross recipts, but it should have beaten out Endgame in its third week. It's only downhill from here since the next round of obnoxious Disney movies are coming. The word-of-mouth isn't strong enough for Detective Pikachu to buck normal declines in the coming weeks.

Sadly this. Nintendo/Game Freak is just so hesitsnt to innovate with the franchise and when they do; it somehow leads back to nostalgia pandering.

The fact that it still cant beat Endgame at its 3rd week along with all the upcoming Disney releases is what was worriying me overall.

 

[BCVM22]

That’s definitely not what you should be taking away from the box office numbers. That’s the wrong read, completely.

 

[Shadow_Flare]

That’s definitely not what you should be taking away from the box office numbers. That’s the wrong read, completely.

Right, my bad. Was just following up from that other user's post.

 

[BCVM22]

Which was itself riddled with errors and bias, which is why I wouldn’t worry about it either.

Again, to anyone else worried about the box office numbers solely on that basis, save yourself the stress and don’t be. They’re just one piece in a much larger puzzle AND they aren’t even that bad! Films have done a lot worse than to gross $20 million more than the production budget on opening weekend. Don’t worry about Pikachu being unable to defeat the Avengers all by himself, because that was never going to happen anyway.

 

[Mr Dragon]

The Box Office figures are probably better than they expected. Doing so well going up against the third week of the biggest film of all time should be viewed as a victory given that video game films don't do well at all typically.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

While I don’t mind the movie’s plot holes, there’s one little factor that I can’t figure out:

Spoiler

If Mewtwo can transfer people’s souls in & out of pokémon on its own (without having the pokémon going feral), why did Howard need the R drug in order to do it? I know it’s a plot element from the game & Howard at least needed R to control Mewtwo, but I don’t think he needed the drug for anyone else. From the looks of it, Mewtwo had no problem transferring souls on its own since it was able to put Harry’s soul into Pikachu without having Pikachu going feral first. So why was R necessary for any other pokémon besides Mewtwo?

 

[Lady Umbreon]

While I don’t mind the movie’s plot holes, there’s one little factor that I can’t figure out:

Spoiler

If Mewtwo can transfer people’s souls in & out of pokémon on its own (without having the pokémon going feral), why did Howard need the R drug in order to do it? I know it’s a plot element from the game & Howard at least needed R to control Mewtwo, but I don’t think he needed the drug for anyone else. From the looks of it, Mewtwo had no problem transferring souls on its own since it was able to put Harry’s soul into Pikachu without having Pikachu going feral first. So why was R necessary for any other pokémon besides Mewtwo?

Spoiler

I think a fully-conscious Pokemon can resist the transfer. Pikachu wanted to save Harry's life, so he knowingly consented to it and thus didn't need to be drugged.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

Spoiler

I think a fully-conscious Pokemon can resist the transfer. Pikachu wanted to save Harry's life, so he knowingly consented to it and thus didn't need to be drugged.

Spoiler

That makes sense, & it ties into what Tim’s friend said he tried to catch Cubone about how a pokémon has to want to be caught in order for a capture to work

 

[Monster Guy]

Spoiler

That makes sense, & it ties into what Tim’s friend said he tried to catch Cubone about how a pokémon has to want to be caught in order for a capture to work

Spoiler

If Pokémon have to want to be captured, then why are we weakening them and forcing them to be captured?

 

[Bguy7]

While I don’t mind the movie’s plot holes, there’s one little factor that I can’t figure out:

Spoiler

If Mewtwo can transfer people’s souls in & out of pokémon on its own (without having the pokémon going feral), why did Howard need the R drug in order to do it? I know it’s a plot element from the game & Howard at least needed R to control Mewtwo, but I don’t think he needed the drug for anyone else. From the looks of it, Mewtwo had no problem transferring souls on its own since it was able to put Harry’s soul into Pikachu without having Pikachu going feral first. So why was R necessary for any other pokémon besides Mewtwo?

In addition to what Lady Umbreon said:

Spoiler

It's possible Pikachu was already in an extremely weakened and emotionally compromised state, given the car crash and its dying partner. This might have been enough for the transfer to work without R.