"Detective Pikachu" is the first work of Pokémon to enter the real-life film industry . Although the film is adapted from the game of the same name on the 3DS rather than the familiar animation, it is enough to look at the cute appearance of Pikachu in the trailer. People look forward to it.
So, what kind of movie is "Detective Pikachu"?
Pokémon Universe
"Detective Pikachu" is not an ordinary movie.
Long before this film was released, foreign media had reported that the filmmaker was planning to create a "Pokémon Movie Universe" . In other words, "Detective Pikachu" was the pioneering work of this universe.
After all, since the fire of Marvel heroes, anyone who has the ability to build a movie universe will basically not miss this good opportunity.
Since Pokémon was born in 1996, although it has only gone through more than 20 years, due to its extremely comprehensive multi-field development, although the background is not as good as Marvel's nearly 80 years of comics history, there is absolutely nothing to build a movie universe with its resources . question.
We all know that the first film of a movie universe is very important. If it is done well, it will be like "Iron Man" in the Marvel Universe, which can directly gain popularity; if it is poorly shot, such as "The New Mummy", it will lead to The movie universe was cut in half.
Therefore, "Detective Pikachu" is of great significance , and discussing this film cannot just focus on the film itself.
Building a world view
As the first work of the movie universe, the first job is to build the entire world view to facilitate the launch of other subsequent works.
The first half of "Detective Pikachu" went straight to the point. First of all, the protagonist and his friend used a pokeball to capture a Kara, but the result failed.
Because the main location of the movie's story is Lyme City, where humans and Pokémon coexist, the Poké Ball is useless in the plot.
But the Poké Ball involves capturing Pokémon, as well as related competitions, competitions, and the training of Pokémon by trainers, etc. If it is not mentioned in the pioneering work, it will undoubtedly have an impact on subsequent works . Outside of Mu City, the settings of the Poké Ball are still preserved.
From this detail, it can be known that "Detective Pikachu" was indeed shot to build a movie universe.
Later, when the protagonist went to Lime City, all the main elements of the Pokémon series were displayed in a semi-narrative manner. Obviously, the underground arena in Lime City has a lot of room for development in the future.
In addition, the appearance of Chao Meng is also a highlight, because as the strongest Pokemon set in the plot, Chao Meng's attitude towards humans will directly affect the development of the entire movie universe.
If Mewtwo hates humans, it will eventually evolve into a race war between humans and Pokémon; if Mewtwo likes humans, then if someone uses Pokémon to cause trouble, Mewtwo can solve it directly.
So this movie directly establishes Mewtwo's neutral attitude towards humans.
"Humans are evil, but they also have a good side."
There is no doubt that the idea of Mewtwo is the most conducive to the development of the movie universe.
On the one hand, it admits that human beings will have a good side, so it retains the possibility of helping humans again in the future.
But on the other hand, he also knows that humans are evil, so even in some cases it is excusable to choose not to interfere with human affairs.
In the movie, Mewtwo is limited by some special devices, which also shows that this strongest Pokémon can be defeated in some cases. The setting is not 360-degree powerful without dead ends. In fact, it leaves more possibility.
As the pioneering work of a movie universe, "Detective Pikachu" is undoubtedly quite successful in the construction of the world view, and it has left a very broad development path for other subsequent movies.
Pokémon and Humans
Specific to the movie itself, "Detective Pikachu" has one thing in common with movies such as "Godzilla" or "Transformers", that is, their protagonists are not only humans, but also Pokémon/Godzilla /Transformers etc.
In other words, their coordination is more important when it comes to the distribution of scenes.
One of the advantages of "Detective Pikachu" is that the theme of Pokémon originally focuses on the relationship between humans and pets and uses this as a key element to advance the plot. Humans and Pokémon are complementary and indispensable points, and Human scenes like "Transformers" can even be completely deleted without much impact.
Therefore, in terms of just playing time, Pokémon is absolutely sufficient in this film. Especially setting the main adventure location in Lyme City, where humans and Pokémon coexist in a near-equal attitude, is undoubtedly a wise choice.
The performance of the Pokémon is remarkable, not to mention Pikachu, the absolute protagonist, with plenty of scenes and all kinds of cuteness and sales. Presumably the effect will be better.
Although many of the remaining Pokémon have a relatively short playing time, most of them can leave a deep impression on the audience within a limited time. Not only the frog seeds, fat Ding and other cute things, but also similar water arrow turtles. The "big bosses" of the battle system with fire-breathing dragons.
In terms of human beings, the heroine ’s appearance is outstanding, and the male protagonist is black, but his skin color is more than mixed, which makes this movie very successful in terms of “viewability”. You can see a lot of cute things when you watch Pokemon. Looking at humans and beauties is generally very seductive.
Of course, at the end of the movie there is a human who steals the spotlight, which is very unexpected to the audience.
weak script
Although "Detective Pikachu" has done a good job in building a world view and playing Pokémon, it still has a lot of flaws, that is, the script is quite simple and the logic is weak.
Although the name of this movie has the word "big detective" hanging on it, the actual plot has nothing to do with the so-called "detective" or the like.
In other words, there are very few detective elements. What drives the protagonists to find the truth is the guidance of some foreign forces, including the behind-the-scenes BOSS and Mewtwo...
As a result, quite a few characters have become extremely face- to-face , and even become tool characters that purely promote the development of the plot.
In addition to the flaws in the character design, "Detective Pikachu" lacks what the audience most wants to see, which is the fierce battle between Pokémon.
One of the most attractive aspects of the IP of Pokémon since its inception is the duel between various Pokémon.
But there are basically no exciting battles in this movie. Pikachu, the absolute protagonist, is in a state of amnesia most of the time, and he can't even use his skills; the second-largest actor, Da Duck, clears the scene with one big move.
As for the rest of the battles of Pokémon such as Fire-breathing Dragon and Water Arrow Turtle, they are all very short and pure cutscenes.
In the final battle, because the boss is a super dream whose consciousness has been invaded, the difference between the strength of the protagonist group is too great, so there are many "plot needs" , such as the boss does not make up the knife when he dies, and the attack that can be avoided obviously stays in a daze, etc. ..
In other words, the look and feel of the decisive battle is rather awkward.
In fact, the simplicity of the script is not a bad thing, especially the theme of Pokemon, and it is the first work in the movie universe, but if the logic of the story is weakened, it will obviously deduct points.
Overall, "Detective Pikachu" as the first work of a movie universe is undoubtedly passable.
But since the script is too weak, it is a movie with obvious advantages and disadvantages.
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