VGFlicks: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Intrepid Reporting

Tim and Detective Pikachu now must find a semi-godly Pokémon hiding in the wilds. No sweat! Good thing they know just the right person who can help. They meet Lucy Stevens at the coffee shop. I guess I should mention that, just like Howard Clifford, Lucy was created for the movie; though in her case, rather than being a wholly new character, she is a composite of two different reporters from the game. Lucy still tries to play the part of the mysterious reporter from a noir, but again, her attempts are a complete failure. Giving up on the act, she reveals her discoveries. Turns out, she’s a great journalist! She investigated her boss Roger Clifford’s files for anything that could help the case. Her find? A research lab called PCL, which does genetic experiments on Pokémon. It had a major incident and had to shut down the previous week, with no media from Ryme City reporting on the event. And yet, that happened on the same night that Detective Goodman went missing.

She’s doing most of the work for them. So much for Pikachu allegedly being a detective...

Psyduck is enjoying this a little too much.

They next morning, they embark in Lucy’s sardine can of a car (what else could she afford with an intern’s salary?), with Pikachu in a baby seat and Psyduck sitting next to him. Pikachu really has a bone to pick with the ‘duck and his (literal) explosive migraines. The avian takes advantage of the rodent’s fear of a blow-up, tricking the mouse into a webbed foot massage. “Do it or I’ll explode”, yeah, totally not under duress or anything.

As she drives everyone to the lab, Lucy discusses her other discoveries: The lab was helmed by Dr. Ann Laurent (probably from Kalos), who was basically a Pokémon neurologist. Well, that’s the nice way to say it; actually, her experiments were a bit more on the “mad scientist” side, looking for ways to control the minds of Pokémon. This was frowned upon by the scientific community, no duh.

Greninja may be one of the Pokémon in the film that's made
more unsettling by the extra detail, entirely on purpose.

They get to the lab and the quartet breaks onto the property. Inside the main building, they see a couple of the experiments being done on Pokémon there. Scary stuff. Greninja being made stronger, Torterra being made bigger... The tone of the movie shifts into slight horror here, with a handful of PG-friendly jump scares. And an Alien reference. Unbeknownst to the heroes, Roger Clifford is aware of the break-in, and is on his way to PCL. Because things weren’t already tense enough, he uses his computer to open the genetically modified Pokémon’s hatches from a distance. Uh oh.

Now, talks about experiments on Pokémon is nothing new to the franchise, it’s been there since Gen 1 – the journals in the Pokémon Mansion on Cinnabar Island, the existence of Mewtwo... but even then, it was always implied, or heard about from papers, hardly if ever shown directly. The players might deal with the aftermath, but always in classic turn-based fashion – so it felt like a bold move to not only show the experiments in the movie, but also emphasize how dangerous the Pokémon become as a result. Horrible accidents, deaths even, shown explicitly.

Nature in Action

Again, those holograms are impressive. It's like Tim and
Pikachu are really there. That's some advanced tech.

Tim and Pikachu activate the archival recordings, watching a holographic recreation of the events. A handful of archives show Mewtwo, in the capsule, with a purple substance being taken from its body. The infamous R they’ve been dealing with, the extract that makes Pokémon go insane for a moment.

(Like a LOT of other details in the movie, this is inspired by the games... sort of; when inspecting Cerulean Cave in Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, you can find an item where Mewtwo used to stand. The item, known as a Berserk Gene, causes permanent confusion to the wearer in battle, but increases its attack. Sounds a lot like the R, doesn’t it? There are tons of similar little details that can be spotted by avid fans of the franchise.)

I'd say "That had to hurt", but I doubt it hurt for long.

Later recordings show the lab mass-producing the R, and the final day shows Dr. Laurent creating a device described as a neural link, to be worn on a human’s head. However, something goes awry, confinement measures get weak, and Mewtwo breaks free. It exploded the containment capsule from the inside, sending glass shards all over the place. The explosion was powerful enough to send Dr. Laurent flying into a round steel door which, when the holograms dissipate, is shown ripped out of its hinges. Holy Arceus, I know Mewtwo is no stranger to killing scientists, but damn – five bucks says that woman died a very family-unfriendly death. (Though it’s a fate that is left ambiguous enough for the sequel...)

Tim and Pikachu go all the way back to the first recorded day, which shows Dr. Laurent giving a mission to Harry Goodman. Not any mission, either: Catch Mewtwo. Which, no matter what you may think of the guy so far, means he goddamn succeeded. We don’t know how (Master Ball maybe?), but damn, that’s one Hell of an achievement in-universe. For bonus points, it’s outright stated that Mewtwo escaped from the Kanto region 20 years prior, meaning it’s the exact same Mewtwo from Pokémon Red/Green. Or maybe the one from Pokémon: The First Movie. ....Yeah, holy crap, I know, right?

Not really visible: The assaulting Greninja. Not pictured:
Psyduck having a fucking PANIC ATTACK. I never related
so much to a duck.

Our duo ends up rescuing Lucy and her Psyduck from the released Greninja. The four run away through the Torterra enclosure, with the ninja-‘Mon hot on their trail. Good thing Psyduck has been accumulating stress the whole time, and is further goaded by Detective Pikachu into having its migraine. You know, the explosive one. And damn, what an explosion. It was enough to knock the ninjas away, and cause the terrain to crack, break, and split!

We've taken a turn into "disaster movie".

Oh wait, no, it’s something else entirely. What, did they piss Groudon off or something? What’s happening now? The topography itself seems to hate their presence. In the next sequence, one of the best scenes in the film, Tim, Lucy, and their partner Pokémon make their way through a gravity-shifting, deadly forest. Tim even jumps between two ledges, one several floors lower than the other, and survives. The team barely makes it out alive before realizing... that’s no forest. They’re on the backs of kaiju-sized Torterra. These things put Dynamaxing to shame. The lab wasn’t kidding about growth experiments.

Sheesh, did we land in Galar by accident?

Meeting Mewtwo

Having a live-action character hold an animated one is
always a tricky effect to pull off. Practical effects can help,
but it doesn't always translate well. This film doesn't do it
perfectly every time, but it was done well here.

Following this discovery, Pikachu is struck and KO’d by a falling stone, and the team falls into the waters below. When they get to solid ground, Tim realizes that his partner needs to be healed, right now. Remembering what he learned from Pikachu, that Pokémon can understand human emotions much better than human speech, Tim manages to get his point across to a wandering Bulbasaur that his friend is in critical health and needs help. The Bulbasaur returns with a whole group of its kin, directing Tim and Pikachu to a healer Pokémon. (Though they won’t let Lucy and Psyduck follow them.)

I never thought of Bulbasaur as super-cute...
...until this goshdarned movie came around.
Baby.

Chansey wasn't available, we'll take the next best thing.

The pack takes Tim a little further down the path, and a group of Morelull (one of only two Gen 7 Pokémon in the movie, the other being Comfey) shows him where to lay down his wounded friend. The natural Pokémon leave, and a voice that sounds like a combination of male and female tones is heard; the genderless Mewtwo has shown up. It blasts Pikachu with energy, curing the little rodent’s ailment. After Pikachu realizes he’s back to good health, he is thanked by Mewtwo for “bringing the son”. Uh oh...?

A quippy villain would gladly look at this and go
"Not so powerful now, are you?" Too bad Roger
isn't the quippy type when he got the glasses on.

The Legendary Pokémon projects a flashback in Tim and Pikachu’s minds; the reason it could escape the lab is that Pikachu short-circuited the place’s system. The next moment they’re shown is Mewtwo floating over the crashed car, beginning a discussion with Harry’s partner about humanity being evil... However, the flashback is interrupted when Mewtwo is captured by a set of white round drones that would make Doctor Robotnik proud. Over them, looking from atop the cliffside, Roger Clifford, bearing large sunglasses, smirking at his new catch. The Legendary is taken into a containment truck.

Not like our heroes could have done much, all shaken that they are by the potential reveal that Pikachu saved Mewtwo, as if to help it strike back against humans. Yikes. Watching this movie with full knowledge of the coming twists is a fun ride, don’t get me wrong. But I had to watch this movie several times to write this review, and I must nitpick. I get that there was an intention to keep the audience guessing up until the end (even if one of the film’s twists is super easy to guess), and this meant revisiting the opening scene with a little more information each time. First the scene as we know it; then, the doctored version shown in Howard’s office, with Pikachu’s memory and Harry’s body taken; and now, Mewtwo’s flashbacks implying Pikachu was aiding in some nefarious purpose.

Gotta have that second-act misunderstanding/betrayal
followed by a third-act return to action.

I get the intention, is what I’m saying, and I don’t know if it’s because of the repeated viewings, but the way the twist is kept hidden feels very clunky now. Some sentences spoken by Mewtwo exist solely to misguide us or add plot elements that aren't necessary. "Humanity is evil", it says; later we know it then adds "but not all humans are bad", which in-context feels unnecessary and completely fails at its attempt to sound serious. "Bring me the son", it also says, but it's never said why Mewtwo would ask this, much less why it needs Tim around to do something it's later shown to be able to do without any similar restraints. The story would have benefited from explaining that bit a lot better. The movie has some extra twists that it handles much better in comparison.

Oh, I tried to get a screenshot of the moment where Tim
gets electrocuted. None was all that satisfactory.

When they leave back through the same fence they came through from, a distraught Pikachu tries everything to distance himself from Tim, the Pokémon thinking he’s the reason Harry is dead/gone and that he keeps hurting everyone around him. Even when Tim tries to grab ahold of his friend, he gets electrocuted. Dunno if Pikachu’s electric powers came back thanks to Mewtwo’s healing or the spur of the moment caused them to return – either way, he further thinks he should stay away before causing more damage. Unable to reason with the fleeing ‘Chu, Tim returns to Lucy and Psyduck and tells them what he saw.

Detective work, at last

In the back there, now that's a Gengar how I like them;
not realistic at all.

The three return to Ryme City just as it’s preparing for the long-announced Pokémon Parade, with huge balloon floats being inflated for the event. Watching this film multiple times, I got to notice that plot elements are referenced multiple times, often in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scenes. The Parade is discussed when Tim first visits CNM, the local news channel, and Howard Clifford is filming a promo for it with his son Roger; however, even before that, we can see it as one of the stories on the newspaper Tim reads on the train to Ryme City. That same newspaper also has a story about a Pokémon going crazy, foreshadowing the R as well. The worldbuilding is consistent, and that helps make the presented universe feel complete.

Tim  instructs Lucy to report on what they’ve found. Considering her own boss is involved, that might be tougher than expected. Not that he gives her much of a choice, as he heads off to Clifford Industries to speak with Howard about their discoveries. She manages to get her hands on a microphone, stealing the place of another CNM reporter on the scene.

I'm supposed to believe that shuriken made of ice and
water could flip a whole car... eh. Pokémon logic has
given us much weirder.

In the meantime, Pikachu, who has pushed everyone away and remains alone in the wilderness (even singing the anime’s first theme song), stumbles upon the original scene of the car accident. He investigates and quickly finds a Water Shuriken where the impact happened. Therefore, the cause of the crash was the Greninja, and not Mewtwo. And, therefore, Mewtwo was trying to protect Harry and his partner. But then... It would mean that Howard used his holograms to lie to them. Which means that the real villain ain’t the one they thought. I feel like Detective Pikachu doesn’t do enough deduction work, for a character whose full name has “Detective” in it. This is one of the few correct conclusions he reaches on his own. Maybe if he spent less time quipping at everything and more time advancing the plot with logic and deductions, it wouldn't feel like his detective skills are an informed attribute!

When Tim walks into Howard Clifford’s office, though, he finds the man wearing the neural link... and looking more like a supervillain than ever before. Uh oh.

Yeah, this oozes "bad guy energy". By now it's not just a
smell, it's a straight-up stench.

Well, we’re at the climactic scene, let’s keep that for a Part 4, shall we?