‘Detective Pikachu’ is much better and a lot more fun than it really should be

Posted on May 17, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Did you know Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise? Since its inception in 1996, the video game, trading card game, anime behemoth has earned an estimated $90 billion. By comparison, “Star Wars” is at $65 billion, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at $32 billion and “Harry Potter” is at $31 billion.

With something like 800 different Pokémon now, featured across countless video games, some 20 seasons of the anime and more than a dozen animated films, it was only a matter of time before we got a live-action “Pokémon” movie. The only surprise is the fact that the new film, “Detective Pikachu,” is an adaptation of one of the franchise’s least-known installments. And frankly, that’s the brilliance of it, and why the film itself is so entertaining.

As we’ve seen over the past few years, the only worse thing Hollywood can do than ignore a favorite franchise is to adapt that franchise in a way that upsets the detail-obsessed fanbase supporting said franchise. And, that’s exactly what would happen if they had tried to adapt the anime, which has run for 20-plus years. As for the main games, let’s face it. There really isn’t much of a story to them aside from trying to be the best Pokémon trainer you can be. And that doesn’t get into the idea of turning the cute animated Pokémon into live-action creatures and then having 11-year-olds order them to fight.

Instead, “Detective Pikachu” has a true story behind it, with a beginning, middle and end, and amazingly, the film doesn’t go out of its way to set up a franchise. I talk often about the lack of quality video-game adaptations, but here we have one. The story gets a little too convoluted for its own good at times, and there are probably a few too many twists, but overall, this is a much better film than it has any real right to be. And there will be no complaints from me about that.

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