Pokémon Detective Pikachu Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Incredibly Boring Human Characters

Detective Pikachu
Warner Bros.

This isn't terribly surprising, but yes, the human characters in this movie are almost universally dull, bringing little to the table beyond the basic, perfunctory "in" to the world of Pokémon for the audience.

Justice Smith may not be the unbearable screeching banshee that he was in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but as protagonist Tim Goodman, he's near enough a total flat-line.

He fails to make sense of his character's emotional arc throughout the film, and is basically pretty charmless.

Kathryn Newton is more appealing as female lead Lucy Stevens, though there isn't much more to the character than her being a) attractive and b) a journalist (and the film prioritises them in that order, sadly).

Newton plays the part like a classic film noir dame, basically, which is fun for a few moments, but becomes grating pretty fast.

Elsewhere Bill Nighy is summarily wasted as Ryme City creator Howard Clifford, Ken Watanabe shows up for a cup of coffee as Detective Hideo Yoshida, and Rita Ora's cameo as a doctor working for Clifford is more cringe-worthy than amusing.

Though the feature attraction is decisively the Pokémon themselves, the humans drag the film down at almost every turn.

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Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.