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#712 – Twisted Pair (2019)
Twisted Pair (2019)
Film review #712
Director: Neil Breen
SYNOPSIS: Cade and Cale are twins that were abducted when they were children by aliens and given superpowers to save the human race. Cale’s methods were deemed too extreme and violent and he was dismissed from the program, but now as adults, the two twins clash as they try to stop an evil corporation using A.I. and other scary concepts…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Twisted Pair is a 2019 sci-fi film by Neil Breen. The film centres n two brothers, Cade and Cale, who were abducted by aliens and given super powers to save humanity from greedy corporations that use scary buzzwords. Cale is abandoned as his methods of dealing with corporations and CEOs is deemed too excessive (apparently), and now that they are grown adults, Cale is working as a secret agent bringing the evil corporations down, while Cale kidnaps CEOs and tortures them, setting up the two against each other when they finally reunite. Whether you are a fan of Breen’s anti-establishment, no budget endeavours, or detest his over pretentious allusions to being the second coming of Jesus, you’ll either love or hate the fact that Breen, aside from directing, writing and producing the film as usual, also plays the two main characters, so you get double the Breen for your buck. The only real difference visually between the two being that the evil Cale has a beard, utilising the typical “Evil Spock’s beard” trope. The iconography is about as subtle as being hit by a truck going the speed limit, with Breen stroking an eagle and narrating about artificial intelligence being evil (he’s not entirely wrong, but he’s not actually making much of a case or interesting story with his weak script and bland delivery).
The plot of this film is the usual Breen stuff: evil corporations are doing evil things, using evil Buzzwords like ” artificial intelligence” and “nanotechnology” to do bad things. Breen’s character himself (or themselves, I guess) are the sole ones capable of saving humanity from itself, and are the only bastion of good in the world free from the grip of corporations. Also adding in the mix of aliens and Breen’s character having allusions to being Jesus, you’ve got the typical Breen formula. There’s nothing new or unique to really highlight in this film. You can appreciate Breen’s seemingly genuine desire to be independent and not bound by any corporate interests, but would it hurt to get extras that can actually act, or maybe learn how to do effects that are not just cut and pasted from in front of a greenscreen? there’s also the typical habit of Breen’s character dating women quite a bit younger than he is, which is questionable at best. there’s no real evolution in Breen’s filmmaking, thought or writing: it’s just the same recycled stuff over and over, for better or worse.
The only real thing I can say about this film is that if you love Breen or you hate him, there’s twice as much of him in this film. Do with that information what you will.
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#702 – Synchronic (2019)
Synchronic (2019)
Film review #702
Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
SYNOPSIS: Two paramedic workers, Steve and Dennis, increasingly have to deal with patients that have take a new drug called “Synchronic,” which allows the user to experience powerful visions through time. As Steve discovers he has an incurable brain tumour and Dennis’s daughter Brianna goes missing after she uses the drug, Steve begins to experiment with the drug itself and discovers it actually allows the user to travel through time. Steve believes that Brianna has disappeared somewhere in time, and is determined to work out how to find her before it is too late…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Synchronic is a 2019 sci-fi film. The film centres around two paramedics, Steve and Dennis, are having to deal with a host of new patients using a new drug called synchronic, which allow the user to experience strange hallucinations, particularly around travelling through time. Steve is diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, and Dennis’s’ daughter Brianna goes missing after using the drug. With little time left, Steve decides to experiment with the drug himself and figuring out how it works to allow someone to travel through time, concludes that Brianna must have got stuck somewhere in the past, and tries to find a way to rescue her. the first thing that springs to mind about this film is that it’s somewhat dense and difficult to get into: the drug producing these bizarre effects makes it difficult to grasp just what is happening and how real all of it is. The film eventually settles down and becomes a bit more defined with regards to it’s objectives, but it takes a while to get there. The other thing which holds the film together is the relationship between the two leads, and this is done quite well throughout, providing a solid tether in an otherwise unstable narrative. The latter half of the film is a lot cleaner, as Steve learns about how Synchronic works and we learn alongside him. It’s a bit literal, and feels like it swings too far the other way from the overly dense to the overly exposition-based, but it sets up the stakes and the motivations for the characters, and you can follow the plot well enough.
I’m not too familiar with the directors other films, but it seems to fit in with their cinematic style, so if you like those, you’ll like this one. It’s weird, stylish and dramatic, giving you a good amount of things to experience and consider. Given that the time0-travel concept is used, it inevitable throws up some plotholes and things which are difficult to make sense of, but that’s par for the course. It is strange how the film starts off very odd and explores its concept in a more abstract and surreal way, before settling on a very straightforward premise of rescuing someone for the finale. Certainly not a bad film that tries to push the envelope a little, but fails to balance it with a sharper script and purpose.
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#694 – Vivarium (2019)
Vivarium (2019)
Film review #694
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
SYNOPSIS: A Young couple view a house to buy in a strange suburbia, but when they try to leave, find they cannot. Eventually a box arrives with a newborn baby in it, and a note saying to raise it and be released. The couple have to put up with the rapidly growing child ads they try to adjust to life in this surreal, empty neighbourhood.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Vivarium is a 2019 film. A young couple, Gemma and Tom, are looking for a house to buy and are shown a house in a suburban district by real estate agent Martin. While viewing the house, they find that Martin is gone, and when they try to leave the suburbs, they are unable to do so, always returning back to the house. After many days of trying to escape, they awaken one morning to a box with a newborn child, and a note that says they will be released if they raise the child. The child quickly grows up, causing friction between the couple as it imitates them and acts in an inhuman way. The plot mixes surrealism with a downbeat atmosphere whose message seems to be the cruel repetition of life and how we all repeat the same mistakes and are easily replaceable. Yes, it’s all a bit miserable and futile to be honest. I think the main issue with the film that is often pointed out is that it is simply too long: the whole film could have been easily condensed into twenty or thirty minutes and have been better for it. Stretching it out to ninety minutes adds in so much empty space, and also undermines the theme of repetition by not bringing the whole story back around quickly enough. So much of the film is padding out that throws the characters around every which way, making them, and fails to allow them to develop a coherent response to their situation.
There really feels like very little to break up the misery and futility in this film, which I suppose reflects the theme of the film, but I also feel like as a comment on life it needs a little something to counterbalance the drudgery. There’s one scene where the couple’s car starts working again and they dance to the music to give them a brief moment of joy, but that’s it. It doesn’t really add anything or provide the characters with anything. Again, so much of the film feels like padding. The surrealist aspect of the film also is vastly underutilised; it comes into play near the end when Gemma chases the grown-up Martin through the various instances of the suburb, along with different couples all experiencing the same sort of situation. It does, however, feel like a missed opportunity to explore this with more depth, as so much of the film is just very plain by comparison. It’s never really explained what the whole suburb and child raising element is composed of: whether they’re all aliens or something, and I don’t think that really matters. The whole film is not especially bad; it obviously has a message and theme, but it’s very nihilistic and empty. As mentioned, this could have been a much better short film that had a tight loop and made it’s point more effectively. As it is, Vivarium is far too lose with it’s story and characters, and fails to really lean into the more interesting parts to make it worthwhile.
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#658 – Paradise Hills (2019)
Paradise Hills (2019)
Film review #658
Director: Alice Waddington
SYNOPSIS: Uma wakes up in a strange room with no memory of how she got there. It turns out she is on an island called Paradise, where she has been sent by her parents to become a more obedient and refined member of society. Trapped there with a host of other women, she plots her escape, while attempting to uncover the mysteries of the island…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Paradise Hills is a 2019 film. The film centres around Uma, a young woman who wakes up on a mysterious island known as Paradise. She, along with the other women there, have been sent their because they have been disobedient and unrefined, and are to be treated to become better members of the elite upper class of society. Uma makes friends with some of the other ‘inhabitants’ and uncovers the dark truths of the island as she plots her escape. The premise is simple enough to follow, and we are immediately thrown into this strange world that feels full and expertly crafted: the highlight of the film is the sets, design and costumes that ooze complexity and elegance, yet have a certain strangeness about them, obviously leaning into an Alice in Wonderland aesthetic. We don’t really get too much of a glimpse of the world outside of this island: we only know that there is an extreme class divide between the rich and poor, although we only ever see the rich side of things. This is not really an issue though, as it is enough to go on for the most part. The main issue with this film is the story never really goes anywhere: it sets the scene and some bits and pieces, but is too poorly paced in exposing viewers to new secrets of the island and raising the stakes at the appropriate times.
Uma builds a relationship with the other inhabitants of the island, whose motivations and personalities are well defined. The trouble is that these relationships never really cohere into something strong and worthwhile which the film wants them too. Uma’s relationship with Amarna becomes a promising cornerstone of the film and the glimpse of hope amidst the gloom of the island’s machinations, but it never approaches a critical mass where it becomes something substantial. hen Amarna disappears halfway through the film, that cornerstone also disappears, and the film becomes even more lost. There is something that is meant to be substantial about someone leaving and having their absence felt, but it’s not really dealt with in the story.
The film takes a sharp turn at the ending, as all the loose ends are complicated even further with even more threads in the finale, and a confrontation with the Duchess (Milia Jovovich), who turns out to be a half…plant? I don’t know, it didn’t really make any sense or fit in with the film in any way. Also, the relationships with the characters Uma bonds with essentially amount to nothing, and a character introduced in the last twenty minutes instead becomes the focus and solution to everything: it just so often feels like the most important aspects that the film built up really matter. The film really needed a better script to bring everything together, and Alice Waddington in her directorial debut unfortunately is not able to wield the loose ends she has been handed. Paradise Hills has a strong look and feel, while offering some interesting characters, but lacks almost any direction in the plot, or any notion of how to tie anything together. This culminates in an ending that leaves you wondering just what any of what was built up mattered.
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#652 – Color Out of Space (2019)
Color Out of Space (2019)
Film review #652
Director: Richard Stanley
SYNOPSIS: Nathan Gardner moves his family to a remote farm after his Wife’s cancer surgery. One night, a strange meteorite crashes near their home, exhibiting a strange colour. Over the coming days, the family begin to experience strange events that leave them bemused and suffering as their reality slowly unravels…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Color Out of Space is a 2019 film based on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Color Out of Space. Retold in a modern setting, the film follows Nathan Gardner (Nicholas Cage) moving his family to his late Father’s farm after his Wife’s successful surgery. A meteorite crashes near the house and starts to affect everything around it, leaving the family to try and survive the psychological nightmare they are in. As the minds of the family members unravel due to the warping of reality around them, we are subjected to a host of horrors and strange events, combining gruesome body horror reminiscent of The Thing with the psychological unravelling of the inhabitants of the house. With both of these themes swirling around, there is a lot going on in the film that assaults the senses from multiple directions. I did feel that the film didn’t really flow and progress in a natural way as reality slowly degraded, but you could argue that was the point. The film doesn’t really lead anywhere, and the characters are mostly left to be subjected to the meteorite’s bizarre influences, which again, you can argue is the point. The otherworldly use of colour is pretty cool at points, but I can’t help but feel it had a lot more potential in wrapping itself round the events that happen throughout.
Another thing which might either help or hinder your enjoyment of this film is the acting: the characters all have their own quibbles and quirks that come out when things get weird, but there’s no real character arcs to get stuck into. Nicholas Cage brings his typical unhinged acting into his role as his character slowly unravels, and you might find this distracting or appropriate considering the weirdness that’s going on. The family rarely act like a family given their disparate characters, and it doesn’t really come together on that point. There’s hints about the past of some of the characters and their trauma, but it’s never fleshed out or dealt with. The other characters, such as hydrologist Ward and squatter Ezra (Tommy Chong) are quite nebulous and only really serve exposition or an outsider narrative view.
There’s definitely an attempt put in to capture the weirdness and otherworldly aspect of a Lovecraft story. Color Out of Space does its own interpretation, blending psychological horror with physical gore that is made very well, and showed off just enough to capture the imagination. It is unsettling, and it aims to be unsettling, so I think it works in this respect. This does lead to a lack of coherence in the plot, as there’s little direction or progression, and the acting is all over the place. I personally found this very hard to get into, but appreciated some of the effects; it’s just a shame they didn’t cohere around a cleaner narrative.
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#641 – Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra (2019)
Film review #641
Director: James Gray
SYNOPSIS: Following an energy surge originating from Neptune that disrupts electrical systems worldwide, Roy McBride is given a mission to travel to the planet, where a top secret project lost contact with earth many years ago, and headed by Roy’s Father. Believing Roy’s Father is still alive, he is tasked with sending a message to his father to try and re-establish contact, and begins a perilous journey across the Solar System to reach him…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Ad Astra is a 2019 sci-fi film. With a surge of energy causing global chaos, astronaut Roy McBride is assigned a top-secret mission to send a message to a secret project sent to Neptune, and led by Roy’s Father, who is believed to still be alive. Thus begins Roy’s (Brad Pitt) journey through a perilous solar system to reunite with his Father. Following in the vein of psychological sci-fi films such as Gravity, Moon and of course 2001: A Space Odyssey, we get a journey through outer space as well as the human condition. Where this film shows it’s strength is in its audio and visual design: the spatial structures and sets are detailed, special effects are nice, and you get a good sense of scale of the vast emptiness of space that compliments the emotional space within Roy that his Father left. The audio design is also pretty solid: noticeably, the film attempts, to some degree, to recreate the sound or lack thereof, in space: action scenes that take place in the vacuum are devoid of sound or very limited, which again reflects a sense of solitude and emptiness that the film is aiming at. Where the film falters is a spotty script that feels a bit chopped up as you move from one location to the next, distracting from the experience to constantly remind you that you’re in a film with scripted action scenes and dialogue that are paced out in a timely manner.
Brad Pitt pulls in a good performance as the lead Roy McBride: masterfully embodying the quiet undertakings of a man who has to not display emotion for his job, and also grappling at the emptiness within him. Pitt makes it look effortless, but not in a way that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The rest of the cast play their parts well, but don’t really stand out, which again is important because the film centres around the protagonist’s relationships or lack thereof. One stand out is Donald Sutherland’s character who is leaned on distinctly in the first act, but doesn’t seem to serve the film in anyway, which makes his disappearance not have the effect it wants. The film’s payoff at the end throws a curveball, but it fails to really hit properly. What it gives us isn’t what we expect, but opens up new possibilities. the trouble is I don’t thin that is really what the film is about, and just giving us something completely different at the end doesn’t reflect on the journey in anyway.
While I praised the sound earlier for at least trying to simulate how sound might be heard in space, there are quite a lot of scientific liberties taken with zero gravity and whatnot. If the film wanted to be a psychological sci-fi epic, it should have really gone all in and put as much effort into the science as they did the audio and visuals. As it stands though, the story comes across as vague, and the need for awkward action scenes that forego the necessary scientific rigour leave it in a middling ground between epic and blockbuster, with only a few elements (again, the visuals and audio design) to stand on. Ad Astra is very much a style without substance film that fails to fully invest in what it wants to be. While it’s style is certainly noteworthy, it’s not enough for the whole film to revolve around.
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#633 – I Am Ren (2019)
I Am Ren (2019)
Film review #633
Director: Piotr Ryczo
SYNOPSIS: Renata is living with her Husband Jan and their son Kamil. Jan returns home one day to find their house a mess and Renata collapsed on the floor. They go to a counselling retreat for Ren to recover, and she tells the psychologist that she is Ren, an android that is suffering from a malfunction, and is fearful that she is going to be replaced…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: I Am Ren (Also known as The Glitch) is a Polish sci-fi film. Renata is found collapsed one day at home by her husband Jan. They and their teenage son Kamil go to stay at a counselling retreat to try and cure Renata, but she believes that she is an Android that is malfunctioning, and she will be shut down and replaced because she is defective. The central theme of the film is seemingly whether Ren is telling the truth: that she is an android, or she simply believes she is, and is part of a big delusion. That’s the point anyway, but the major problem with the film is that I just didn’t see that conflict. The film clearly shows that she is meant to be an android; from the opening where something moves under her skin voluntarily, to the barcode on the bottom of her foot, and her overhearing conversations about how she might have to be shut down, there’s not really much room left for ambiguity on this central point. you could make the argument that all of these things are simply delusions based on whatever mental illness she is experiencing, but again there’s no space to really question her experiences.
A lack of any emotional depth really compounds the issues described above, and it’s difficult to tell just what anyone is thinking and feeling in response to the situation. For example, there’s a lingering question over whether her son’s injuries were caused by her, or inflicted on him by her husband, and the film tries to avoid giving away whether he is concerned for her, or being emotionally manipulative and abusive. The lack of emotional depth in the performances lends itself to this ambiguity, but also flattens any tension and drama, and just ends with me not really caring about what’s happening. The film is composed mostly of scenes of dialogued whispered between characters, and it’s easy to get bored with nobody just speaking properly, or giving any of said dialogue emotional weight.
The ending again, undoes the ambiguity that the film is trying to convey, and while you might expect it to provide an answer, it just tells you what you already know: Ren is an android, and there was never really any reason to doubt her, particularly when everyone else was acting suspiciously throughout the entire film. With a runtime of seventy minutes, at least the film doesn’t drag on too long, but it still feels like it runs out of ideas long before the credits. There’s really not much to recommend in I Am Ren: it’s a simple idea that should be easy to implement, but fails to build the necessary framework to explore it’s ambiguities. Dull performances, stretched out dialogue, and a sameness in all of the scenes provides very little that stands out.
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#616 – D-Railed (2019)
D-Railed (2019)
Film review #616
Director: Dale Fabrigar
SYNOPSIS: A murder mystery event takes place on board the train, and the guests find themselves caught up in a robbery, as what is real and what is performance starts to be called into question. The train derails into a lake, where a sinister monster is waiting in the waters ready to pick the survivors off…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: D-Railed is a 2019 horror film. Starting off with a murder mystery event being held on a train, the participants get on board and are introduced to the event, and from there, things quickly spiral out of control, as a robbery takes place aboard the train, and the line between what is real and what is part of the event quickly blurs. Honestly, or a low budget affair, the opening act is pretty interesting: the question of what is part of the act and what is real becomes impossible to discern as the action moves pretty fast. Perhaps the characters could have questioned what was real and what was not a bit more, as they just suddenly swap from one to the other, but as viewers, it certainly has a least some intrigue that pulls you in.
Eventually, the train derails and lands in a lake, where a monster starts picking off the survivors. This is where the film itself starts to literally derail as well: the whole blurring of what’s real and what is dropped, and instead we just get a monster coming out of nowhere that starts picking people off quickly, with no real time to make the deaths meaningful. The monster itself is not established in any significant way: there’s no deep lore, mythos, origins, or reason for it to exist, so it doesn’t have much presence as a character. The film’s premise (based on the trailer anyway) is that the characters are trapped on a railway carriage in the middle of a lake as a monster lurks below the water. However, this forms the basis for about ten minutes of the film, as it feels like it quickly runs out of ideas of what to do on a railway. They also rather quickly establish that the shoreline isn’t too far away, so it makes it much less of an issue when they can just swim to the shore.
The survivors make their way to an abandoned house or something, where they’re all picked off by the monster until one remains, who manages to escape back to railway station where the train departed, asking one of the attendees for help. However, in the final twist, it turns out (spoiler) that the murder mystery event actually took place one hundred years ago, and there were no survivors, so the attendee saw a…ghost or something? Here’s the main problem with this film: absolutely nothing is explained or justified. We don’t know anything about the monster, the survivor, anything. In some films you can leave things up to interpretation, but this is not one of them. It explains that the murder mystery event actually took place one hundred years ago and…just stops, expecting us to be satisfied with that. There is no payoff to sitting through this jumbled mess of a film.
The sets are clearly all constructed from plywood, and the monster design isn’t really that convincing. CG effects too are lacklustre, and all this jus adds up to a jumbled mess of a film. I stand by that the premise of the opening act is at least intriguing, and handled well in terms of pace and editing, but the film quite literally derails when the train itself does, rushing too quickly ahead and burning itself out before trying to tie everything together at the end with a barebones explanation that goes nowhere far enough to justify the viewing. Train wreck.
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#585 – The Big Step (2019)
The Big Step (2019)
Film review #585
Director: Antonio Padovan
SYNOPSIS: Mario heads to the countryside to deal with his estranged brother Dario, who has been arrested for arson. Dario is released into Mario’s care, as he struggles to deal with his brother’s confrontational and weird nature, and his big secret: building a rocket to fly to the moon…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Big Step (Il Grande Passo) is a 2019 Italian film. Mario, who owns a hardware store in Rome, has to drive out to the Italian countryside to take care of his Brother Dario, who has been arrested, and must be released to another family member. Mario learns that Dario has been trying to build a rocket to fly to the moon, and the two brothers must try to get along after being estranged for so long. The film is essentially a drama film that focuses on these two brothers, as Mario tries to keep Dario out of trouble. It’s a fairly simple film without any bells and whistles, but does what it does well thanks to some good acting, writing, and accompanying musical score. The different lives of the brothers provides enough conflict to provide both drama and humour, and although the film ties all the little things together nicely, the ambiguity of the ending might be a little unsatisfying, and some things are left a mystery (such as the identity of the two men following Dario, the “creepy” guy at the store).
Overall, I don’t think there’s too much to say about this film: I could probably sum it up as “charming.” There is a familiarity in it that feels like you’re watching a story you’ve seen plenty of times before, but it’s always a comfortable watch every time you see it. There’s no big “funny” moments, but the ending is heartwarming, and the film as a whole flows nicely; it just doesn’t deliver a stand-out moment to make it memorable.
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#371 – Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
Film review #371
Director: Rob Letterman
SYNOPSIS: When Tim Goodman gets news that his Father has been killed in a car crash, he travels to Ryme City where he worked as a police detective, to collect his things. While there, he finds a Pikachu who for some reason he is able to understand. Tim also learns that this Pikachu was his Father’s pokémon partner, and he has had his memory wiped. Tim decides to team up with Pikachu to help him regain his memories and carry on the case that he and his Dad were working on before he seemingly died…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a 2019 film based on the successful video game franchise, and loosely follows the 2016 game Detective Pikachu. The film starts off introducing Tim Goodman, a 21-year old insurance salesman who gets news that his father has died in a car crash in Ryme City. Tim heads to the city to collect his father’s things, but while in his apartment finds a Pikachu that Tim can understand when he speaks. Not only this, this Pikachu was his father’s pokémon partner in his job as a police detective, and has lost all his memories, so Tim gets caught up in this curious mystery that he teams up with Pikachu with, to try and work out what happened to his father, and what happened to Pikachu’s memories. The plot of the film is focused on unravelling this big mystery, which impacts on each of the characters, but becomes tied into the fate of the city as a whole too, meaning it has lots of facets and interesting avenues to head down. Nevertheless, the story is fairly simple to follow, while also offering some decent twists along the way. The different elements of the plot perhaps don’t weave together enough though, as scene-by-scene it focuses on either story, action or emotional aspects, and they don’t overlap too much. With this in mind the villain’s big plan can feel a little muddled, especially in comparison to the much more interesting mystery concerning Pikachu and Tim’s father.
It should be noted that you don’t really need to have an extensive knowledge of Pokémon to enjoy this film: it is easy enough to follow the mystery without knowing what all the pokémon are. Nevertheless, the film is clearly aimed at fans of the franchise, and there’s a ton of little references that will satisfy the hardcore fans, and they will be the ones who get the most out of this film. Every pokémon has their own personality and comes alive on the screen, and while the human characters sometimes do not possess that amount of presence, they have their own specific roles that they play out well. Overall the film is easy to follow, and offers plenty of entertainment tailored to the pokémon themselves.
One of the most noted aspects of the film are the pokémon visuals: they have a unique aesthetic that maintains the original designs, while also making them more ‘believeable’ in the real world, such as accentuating the fur on Pikachu and others. Altering and adapting character designs is always a challenging task to pull off, as any alteration will no doubt anger fans and purists. However, Detective Pikachu seems to have struck the perfect balance with it’s designs: it makes the pokémon more ‘real’ looking, while also keeping the proportions and feel of the original designs, which went over well with the significant majority of fans. Sometimes the CG lets itself down (particularly with regards to Mewtwo), but on the whole it is pretty solid. The pokémon are also full of character, and their facial expressions (especially Pikachu’s) really bring them to life. Ryme City itself has its own unique aesthetic as a mix of London, New York and Tokyo, while also bringing in its own original elements to give it a feel of something new and also as a distinct place in the pokémon universe. Overall, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a success in translating the franchise into a live-action setting for the first time: it offers something new without deviating so much that it is unrecognisable to fans. The story is easy to follow, and the characters are entertaining, and the negatives don’t detract too much from the overall enjoyment. I think the film really is intended both for die-hard fans and (equally) also for those who were only into the franchise when they were a kid many years ago, and will appreciate the nostalgia trip. Even with all the new pokémon they would have never seen before, there’s still plenty of classic pokémon they will recognise and enjoy seeing again.
