So I just watched Detective Pikachu, and it’s pretty much just a fun kids movie. Nothing terribly amazing or anything, but if you like the games you’ll probably get something out of it.
The plot is kind of a hyperactive jumble of cliches and blatantly obvious plot twists, and if you haven’t played the games or watched the anime, you’ll likely think it’s an incoherent mess since it never really tries to explain many of the concepts all that well. I kinda stopped caring about the main plot during the climax, but I think as a switch-your-brain-off kind of movie it works.
I guess pointing this out is kind of a spoiler, so:
If you think you already guessed the big twist at the end, congratulations, you got it
It mostly carries itself along with the antics of Pikachu and all the other background pokemon. Most of the jokes are of the variety of “that pokemon with the tongue did a thing with its tongue”.
The aesthetic tone of the movie never really felt completely right to me. The Blade Runner vibe to the city feels like they based that solely on the fact that it’s an American movie based on a Japanese property. And the funky colours and non-stop overload of things happening on screen felt a little like a tonal whiplash from the games. Like if Hollywood made an adaptation of say, Animal Crossing but made it come out feeling more like Scott Pilgrim.
Also it feels a little weird seeing Hollywood actors saying the word ‘Pokemon’ without it being some kind of pop culture gag. And after having been to Tokyo last year, it’s funny seeing that weird glass pinecone building being center stage for a lot of the city shots.
I think my least favourite part of the movie was in the editing, where it definitely felt like they had shaved off a second or two from every shot to make sure the pacing matched their focus-tested analytics of how long can a talky scene go before the kids get bored, etc. It reminds me a bit of advertisements on Chinese Television.
After the Friendly Fire Podcast I had to seek out The Key (1958). I loaded up itunes I failed to rent it 4 times took 40 minutes to update itunes and then I couldn’t figure out how to download my rental because itunes is the worst. But eventually it started playing. My first pay digital rental.
it was as fucking great as they said it was. What a watchable film. A+
Detective Pikachu is a pretty good movie but the Mr. Mime interrogation scene is so good that it’s real disappointing that the rest of the movie isn’t working anywhere near the same level of manic energy, dark comedy or strong performances
if there isn’t a full version of Ryan Reynolds singing the first Pokemon theme song depressingly, I will cry
Avengers: Endgame
I intentionally waited until it had been thoroughly spoiled before seeing it, which was an interesting experience. It felt like I was rewatching it.
The only surprise was Thor just kinda murdering Thanos. I had heard Thanos dies early, but I hadn’t heard how it played out.
Tessa Thompson is in this looking beautiful as ever.
Thor + The Guardians of the Galaxy is more interesting to me then either of those things alone.
managed to see detective pikachu AND burning in one day
burning is…fucking fantastic. slow, tense adaption of a murakami short story that somehow is both an existential meditation on youthful ennui AND a simultaneous indictment of both the gentrifying forces driving masculine rage and the rage itself?
it’s fucking gorgeous? I’ve totally bought in to steven yeun at this point? fuck
Yeah burning is great. I kept thinking about it for like 2 weeks after I saw it. All its mysteries kinda dig into you. It did stink a bit of murakami bs at first but it grew into something so much stronger
I enjoyed Detective Pikachu! Its plot is dumb as hell and its premise barely makes sense, but it respects the source material a great deal and it’s breezy and fun throughout. Some great fanservice moments. I was hoping they would do a magikarp evolution joke and they did.
hey ya’ll whats some good turn of the century japanese movies to watch? specifically j-horror because i missed out on that whole thing. so far i’ve seen audition, pulse. suicide club, uhhhhhhhh, i think that’s it. also the battle royale movies ofc (the first one is a Cassie Favorite)
What keeps coming to mind beyond those core touchpoints is going back a ways from turn of the century, hmmmm
If you haven’t seen Versus yet, it’s a violence heavy, near-post Matrix, gangsters n zombies fest. Dark and hammy over the top action. If any of that sounds appealing, kind of a must watch.
fittingly for mother’s day i watched dark water. i liked it but towards the end it gets a little silly. also felt like it could have been… shorter… even though it’s already only an hour and a half
Marebito is not that great but there’s something about it that sticks in my head. It really nails that 2000’s Japanese lonely horror vibe. Some of the most intense alienation I’ve felt evoked in a movie.
forgot to mention but wow is everything in the movie so fast. they cut all the time! i kinda wanna see wolf warrior 2 to see If this editting is common to super high-budget mainland-chinese films or if it’s because the wandering earth is based on a novel
