Just got back. Fun movie. A pretty flawed and predictable movie, but there are a lot of timelines where this thing ends up waaaaaaay worse.
The first half was a bit too slow and clunky for me. Tim's arc with his father drives the film, but it was so slow and plodding when it came to establishing his character/loneliness and getting him to the city. But then he'll meet people like the reporter character, who will vomit out her entire character archetype in like a minute, and then go away for awhile. The pacing is remarkably fast for certain plot points. The investigation stuff is pretty dull in general... They want to sell the film like it's a mystery detective film, but there isn't any substance to any of the scenes. They'll just kinda latch onto something at the very end of a scene and whisk us to somewhere else. I understand this is directed at kids, the first half seemed a little confused at what kind of story they were going for.
The second half was great, though. Felt like it settled into being a fun action-adventure movie with big dramatic moments and stuff. Intrigue at the lab, unraveling layers of the mystery, etc. Not sure if the Torterra setpiece worked, that was the one action moment in the second half that felt out-of-place and padded. The fact that they took the time to build up the bond between Tim and Detective Pikachu really helps... That heart-to-heart on the city curb basically gives the twist away, but it did make the emotional low point of the film hit harder than it should've. The emotional core of the film isn't amazing or anything, but I appreciate that it's there.
It was a bit disappointing that they would just have Ryan Reynolds repeating whatever was happening in certain scenes, just clarifying stuff for audience constantly. You can tell the producers were worried about losing the younger people in the audience, so I get it. I think I'm too used to Rocket Raccoon... Was expecting a slightly snappier version of Detective Pikachu. But he still basically carried the film, so don't have too many complaints with his execution.
Also, it was nice they did a self-contained story and didn't open it up for a sequel tease or something. If they want to do a sequel someday, fine. It was cool they just let this story be its own thing.
