Review Category: Movie

WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND: LOOKING BACK AT DEEP SPACE NINE

DIRECTOR: IRA STEVEN BEHR, DAVID ZAPPONE | RELEASE DATE: JUNE 26TH (SELECTED UK CINEMAS, ONE NIGHT ONLY)

As passion projects go, What We Left Behind not only shows the love of the production team but also a steadfastly loyal fanbase who, two decades on, still miss what was one of the great TV shows every bit as much as they did when the final episode aired on June 2nd, 1999. We’ve seen such documentaries before, oftentimes vanilla dips into a film or show, often presented as in-depth but in truth revealing little more than part of the EPK that promoted it on launch. What We Left Behind is far more than that. Led by DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr, the doc celebrates the glaringly obvious love the cast and crew have for the show and each other, but also refuses to look away from the issues that arose during the lifetime of the show. Just like Deep Space Nine itself, it’s real, honest (sometimes brutally so), gritty, and revealing.

To highlight the passion of the fandom for this documentary, raising $150,000 in a day on its way to a $631,000 total says it all, and those funds were put to good use. Interviews with almost all of the primary cast, new special effects sequences, original music by Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner and remastered footage (which looks SO good, remastering the entire show needs to become a priority for CBS, especially given its ‘rebirth’ on Netflix) all combine to make this an essential watch for Niners, Star Trek fans in general, and students of ‘90s television.

There is something else woven into this documentary that highlights the many, many roads that could still easily be taken with the show. Behr also reconvened the writers’ room to develop a script for the first episode of an imagined eighth season, and throughout the documentary, we see animated scenes from this bucket list episode – and trust us, it goes in a direction that you will not have anticipated. If the final episode of Game of Thrones was enough to persuade you to sign a petition to signify your outrage at an unsatisfying ending, then this will probably instigate some kind of nervous twitch. It’s brave, left-of-field, and unexpected – in other words, classic DS9.

There aren’t enough good things to say about this presentation. It gives us a deeper insight into what the actors think of their characters and the relationships which drove the show, the producers and writers who made this near-perfect tapestry of people, Trek history and events, and the fans who so passionately identified with DS9. The fact that the credits roll with the Rat Pack singing over the titles and Ira and Nana Visitor bickering about what they left out only endears us to it even more. For Niners it’s essential, for Trek fans it’s unmissable, and for neutrals, it will persuade you to cue up all 176 episodes for a DS9 marathon. In other words, this is deep space divine.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: CHRIS RENAUD, JONATHAN DEL VAL / WRITER: BRIAN LYNCH / STARRING: PATTON OSWALT, KEVIN HART, HARRISON FORD, JENNY SLATE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

We love it when a film that we’re expecting to be boring and formulaic surprises us, breaking the mould and shows true creative spark and imagination. Movies require a lot of time, energy, and cash to make, and every single feature will have had someone somewhere who put their heart and soul into a project. Dull movies are hard to review, simply because it’s just as un-interesting to be mean about them.

Sadly, The Secret Life of Pets 2 sits up and begs to slated. It’s as tedious as its predecessor. You may be wondering if it says anything that wasn’t addressed in part one. Did the first movie answer the question “What do animals do when their owners are away” successfully? No, of course it didn’t, that would have made for mind-numbingly awful cinema. Instead, it gave us a terrible affair, using old gags and cute moments to distract us from the utter emptiness of the piece.

Pets 2 is very much more of the same, but more so, like staring into an abyss composed of pink candyfloss. Despite the fact that the lead voice actor has been changed between movies, it’s not as if you’re going to notice. Let’s face it, the entire series only exists because movie producers are desperate to make money out of the plethora of cute animal videos that you can find on social media. Create animated versions of popular pets, get some comic talent to do the voice acting, recycle a plot from a more popular movie and you’re done.

The plot, such as it is, centres around a terrier called Max. His owner suddenly has a child (seriously, this is all done in montage) and he has to cope with ‘adulthood’ as he never wanted to be a dad. Meanwhile, his rabbit friend has delusions of awesomeness as its owner keeps putting them in superhero pyjamas. It feels as if at some point, this movie was a heart-warming tale of growing up to one’s responsibilities, understanding your limitations and growing together as a family. Alas, what we get is a bunch of jokes that have been done to death. The character design is nice, though.

You may be thinking that this is a cute film for kids, and that’s unfair on children. We live in a golden age of intelligent and entertaining cartoon features and series. Many of which have daft jokes about bodily functions and squeaky voices, just like Pets 2. This movie is a gaudy greetings card, a facsimile of fun presented to children with the cynicism of an adult who considers kids to be stupid. Children might well laugh, but they’ll be as entertained by a sugary drink and another cookie, both of which are more memorable than this.

ALADDIN

ALADDIN / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: GUY RITCHIE / SCREENPLAY: JOHN AUGUST, GUY RITCHIE / STARRING: MENA MASSOUD, NAOMI SCOTT, WILL SMITH, MARWAN KENZARI, NAVID NEGAHBAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If there’s one thing you can’t accuse Disney of, it’s slacking. As well as the various sequels, relaunches, revisions and reboots there’s the ‘live action’ reimagining of several of their classics, with the latest offering being Aladdin. It’s an ambitious undertaking on a grand scale and one that pays off.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it stars Aladdin (Massoud), a lovable street urchin who falls in love with the rebelliously independent Princess Jasmine (Scott), daughter of the ruling sultan of Agrabah (Negahban).

Aladdin is recruited by the nefarious Jafar (Kenzari), the grand vizier and advisor to the Sultan, to steal a magic lamp that will help Jafar become ruler of Agrabah. After Jafar’s true nature is revealed, Aladdin ends up with the lamp, freeing a genie (Smith) trapped within it who grants his new ‘master’ three wishes. In order to woo Jasmine, Aladdin uses his first wish to become a prince. However his true identity and the plans of Jafar threaten to change everything.

It’s a faithful adaptation of 1992’s animated version and includes the classic songs A Whole New World, Arabian Nights, Friend Like Me and (this writer’s personal favourite) Prince Ali, all of which are brought to life in spectacular fashion. Director Guy Ritchie mixes his trademark action chase scenes with parkour, giving the film more of a Prince of Persia vibe at times.

Massound, Scott, and Kenzari are well cast, despite some initial criticism. Will Smith was always going to have a tough gig following in Robin Williams’ shoes as the Genie, who gets an added subplot that had been envisioned for the original but scrapped. His charisma suits the role, with some Fresh Prince overtones being purposefully thrown in. He’s also no stranger to uplifting musical numbers.

There are some other additions, too. Namely a new character, handmaiden Dalia (Nasim Pedrad), as well as the song, Speechless, sung by Jasmine and showing her more as a leader rather than yet another damsel in distress.

The big downfall with Aladdin, and the live-action movies in general, is that there’s something about the unrestricted world of animation that just doesn’t quite translate into live action. Impressive CGI aside, a little bit of the magic gets left behind on the magic carpet.

Expected: 6/10

THE WANDERING EARTH

CERT: 15 | DIRECTOR: FRANT GWO | SCREENPLAY: GONG GE’ER, YAN DONGXU, FRANT GWO, YE JUNCE, YANG ZHIXUE, WU YI, YE RUCHANG | STARRING: QU CHUXIAO, LI GUANGJIE, NG MAN-TAT, ZHAO JINMAI | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW [VIA NETFLIX]

Chinese cinema attendance now accounts for a massive proportion of the worldwide Box Office take of most major Hollywood motion pictures, and some films which have performed disappointingly or faltered in Western Cinemas have done well enough to earn a sequel purely on the basis of the cash generated from the Eastern market. This isn’t yet two-way traffic, however; we’re still a long way from seeing Chinese cinema being welcomed with open arms in, say the United States, where foreign language cinema, whatever the genre, is still marginalised and offered, at best, a limited theatrical release on just a handful of screens.

The Wandering Earth is a case in point. This dazzlingly spectacular science-fiction extravaganza has earned nearly $700 million in China alone since it was released in February (making it not only China’s second highest-grossing film of all time but also the world’s third highest-grossing film of 2019); that’s Marvel-sized money. It does seem a little disingenuous of Netflix, having secured the film’s global streaming rights, to dump it onto their servers without any sort of fanfare and without making any real attempt to draw their audience’s attention to its existence.

Perhaps it’s because The Wandering Earth, for all its spectacle and bluster, is a damned strange – if not downright utterly demented – film. In the near future, the Earth is coming to the end of its lifespan and is turning into a ‘red giant’. The Earth’s disparate Governments come together and form the United Earth Government and come up with the mind-bogglingly daft idea of fitting the planet with thousands of fusion-powered engines – Earth-engines – which will turn Earth into a spaceship which can be piloted out of our Universe towards the safer climes of Alpha Centauri. The planet’s population is drastically reduced by the after-effects of the Earth’s rotation being forcibly stopped and those who remain live in huge underground cities to escape the hostile wintry conditions on the surface. All seems to be going agreeably until the Earth approaches Jupiter and is drawn into the giant planet’s gravity well – but not before many of the Earth-engines are disabled by earthquakes caused by the proximity to Jupiter itself. Earth is on a collision course with Jupiter; it seems that the only way to break free might be to… er… ignite some of Jupiter’s atmosphere so the explosion will tear Earth free from the pull of the planet’s gravity and be propelled back onto its journey.

That’s right, The Wandering Earth is utterly bonkers, but that doesn’t make it a bad film, just a magnificently silly one that will dazzle and entertain you with its mad spectacle (much of which belies its $50 million budget) even as you’re marvelling at the utter impossibility of it all. Most of the characters spend their time in bulky spacesuits, so it’s hard to make sense of who’s who and who’s doing what. That said, there are a few perfunctory character arcs to add a bit of colour to a fairly faceless and disposable cast list – in particular, the plight of the Chinese astronaut aboard the navigation satellite and his two kids who get themselves into innumerable scrapes as they take to the surface to help with the repairs. But you’re really not here to invest in the smaller human dramas, you’ll just want to gawp at the audacious silliness of the plot itself and the thundering spectacle which will keep you glued to the screen even if your finely-tuned critical faculties will be screaming at you to put a stop to this nonsense and find something less ridiculous to pass the time with. The Wandering Earth really is quite preposterous, but it’s crazily colourful, impressively propulsive and, in the end, embarrassingly enjoyable.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM

CERT: 15 | DIRECTOR: CHAD STAHELSKI | SCREENPLAY: DEREK KOLSTAD | STARRING: KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, LAURENCE FISHBURNE, MARK DACASCOS, ASIA KATE DILLON, LANCE REDDICK, ANJELICA HUSTON, IAN MCSHANE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

“Si vis pacem, para bellum” (or “If you want peace, prepare for war”), but can the bogeyman ever really know peace? Well… he’s working on it. When retired, recently widowed, master assassin John Wick opened the floodgates of wrath upon those bastards who stole his car and brutally killed his puppy (his last hope at a loving soulmate in a time of grief and final gift from his late wife), an icon was born. John Wick marked a resurgence and long overdue appreciation for Keanu Reeves, and in 2017 director Chad Stahelski’s awesome sequel took the lore even further and remarkably managed to up the action ante. Now, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is here and believe the hype… it’s an action classic.

Picking up pretty much directly from the last film, Wick is excommunicated (or ‘excommunicado’) from The Continental and is the focus of all hitmen thanks to the $14 million contract on his head. Our hero will now have to fight his way out of New York and seek what few favours he has left to stay alive. Throughout the movies, Wick’s legend has travelled the world, and his unstoppable past has only added to his deadly aura, but in this entry, we see the ‘baba yaga’ slowly re-emerging, only this time he’s arguably more dangerous as he finds purpose, alongside the will to survive and endure the pain.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, like Mad Max Fury Road, is an innovative display of action but also a story filled with ambition. The world building elements of Chapter 2 are expanded, as this shadowy sub-culture of rules, honour, and death opens up even further, with some bold and quite risky plot and character developments. The film also impressively delves into the soul of Wick himself, showing how a man who has lost so much still needs to live and asks whether his past has irreparably set his future. Daring to deal in the stakes and consequences that come with tough decisions, age, and past promises, Parabellum is a tale of personal and physical resolve and how ‘the path to paradise begins in hell’.

Stahelski directs some of the greatest action scenes in cinema history here (a dog-assisted gun brawl is one of the most incredible sequences we have ever witnessed, and an early library fight is the first of many jaw-dropping moments), as Dan Laustsen’s sublime cinematography and Tyler Bates & Joel J. Richard’s score ensures that same impeccable style of previous instalments accompanies even the most sickening acts of violence (and there is some truly toe-curling stuff). The focused camerawork captures every expert motion of the faultless choreography and this sword-slashing, dog-leaping, bike-flipping, no holds barred bombardment of mayhem fits perfectly around a non-stop narrative that culminates on a – potentially divisive – tightrope.

Reeves continues to be relentless as Wick, bringing that reserved cool and contained torment and delivering perhaps his most impressively physical performance yet. Halle Berry offers fantastic support as fellow dog-loving assassin Sofia, while Ian McShane and Lance Reddick’s returns are excellent, and Laurence Fishburne – who is 100% invested to this story and character – is clearly loving every minute of it, just as the viewer undoubtedly will.

Reeves’ reckoning continues, and the exhilarating John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum puts the unremovable stamp of approval on this series’ richly deserved classification as the best action franchise in decades, and one of the best of all time. Oh, and fellow animal lovers, fret not, this time they do the killing, as well as Keanu that is!

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM

DIRECTOR: CHAD STAHELSKI | SCREENPLAY: DEREK KOLSTAD | STARRING: KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, LAURENCE FISHBURNE, MARK DACASCOS, ASIA KATE DILLON, LANCE REDDICK, ANJELICA HUSTON, IAN MCSHANE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Picking up exactly where the previous film left off, former hitman John Wick has been excommunicated from the High Table of Assassins. After a very unfortunate turn of events that led to the serious breach of The Continental rules, a large price has now been placed on his head, with every high profile assassin wanting to take down the man, known as the Baba Yaga to most in the community. The story in this series has always been very light, the main focus being the action set pieces of course, and that doesn’t change here. In fact, it’s even self-referential about how absurd the plot has been across the trilogy.

The thrill of a John Wick film has always been its very stylish and over-the-top action sequences, and we’re happy to report that Parabellum blows the previous two out of the water. The set pieces ooze confidence and style, with masterclass-level choreography highlighting to many repeat offenders in the industry just how to execute the perfect action sequence. It helps that the film’s writer and director were once stunt choreographers themselves.

Conversely, performances throughout are a little bit of a letdown. Halle Berry’s cheesy dialogue isn’t befitting of the Oscar-winner, and Keanu Reeves is essentially a walking one-liner machine, his dialogue sparse and over-the-top. Other actors are quite wasted in their roles and unfortunately not really given much to do – it seems wasteful of the film to cast the likes of Anjelica Huston for what amounts to little more than a glorified cameo.

Parabellum is a solid conclusion to the John Wick trilogy, but like the previous entries, one not for the faint-hearted. If blood, violence, and gore aren’t your thing, or if high-class storytelling is a must, it is a very difficult film to recommend. However, if you want a film that’s expertly shot, highly entertaining, and a thrill ride from the very first minute, then this will be exactly what you are looking for.

APOLLO 11

DIRECTOR: TODD DOUGLAS MILLER | RELEASE DATE: JUNE 28TH

The Apollo 11 moon mission will always hold a vice-like fascination for us earthlings, even though, let’s face it, we pretty much know it off by heart through the many re-tellings, most recently in the Neil Armstrong biopic First Man (2018). So be prepared for a pleasant shock: this 50th Anniversary documentary from director Todd Douglas Miller renders the events of those few days in July 1969 anew – and startlingly so, through his access to a massive cache of previously unreleased film languishing, Indiana Jones-style, in the vaults. Who knew?

From the opening, gob-smacking images of the Saturn V inching its way to destiny atop the humongous, Gerry Anderson-esque NASA crawler transporter to the final footage of the three victorious astronauts goofing around as they wind their way home by road in their retro-cool Airstream quarantine unit, Apollo 11 peels away the familiar and replaces it with astonishingly new perspectives. Often this comes in shimmering widescreen 65mm, beautifully captured on the ground by a team of NASA staff, who must have been wilting under the weight of the cameras. You’ll count the shots you’ve seen before on one hand – even the famous moment of Neil Armstrong making his “One. Small. Step” appears from a new angle, as filmed by Aldrin from inside the Lunar Excursion Module.
The build-up to the launch, fore-fronting footage of the thousands of Americans who camped out under a clear summer sky to witness it, evokes Terrance Mallick at his most elemental; a great sea of bouffants and cigars, squinting through the heat haze to the distant Pad 39A in silent awe of the giant science at play. These remarkable scenes will stay with you the most.
The approach is sparse: there is no voiceover, no talking heads appear and on-screen text is limited to identifying the key players and a few tasteful info-graphics. Music is also used sparingly but when it comes, it’s in great slabs of industrial synth from Matt Morton that further shocks Apollo 11 into the new. Like a dance-off between the momentous and the mundane, it always returns to the nervous faces and candid, fly-on-the-wall chatter of mission control staff, their regulation short-sleeves mass-ranked against endless IMB punch-card consoles.
Running a lean 90 minutes, Apollo 11’s bold focus on the key emotional stages of the mission takes you back through a story you thought you knew in a way that is utterly immersive. The past has rarely been so present.

EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE

DIRECTOR: JOE BERLINGER | SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL WERWIE | STARRING: ZAC EFRON, LILY COLLINS, ANGELA SARAFYAN | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW IN SELECTED UK CINEMAS [ALSO AVAILABLE THROUGH SKY GO AND NOWTV]

Everyone has their fans. In the case of High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron, that’s easy to understand, given the actor’s easy charisma, good looks and chiselled abs. When it comes to serial killers, however, the mind tends to boggle. The two fandoms collide in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which casts one charming hunk as another – the monstrous serial killer Ted Bundy. Ew.

As is often the case, director Joe Berlinger’s serial killer biopic has been a point of controversy since its first trailer, deemed by many as disrespectful and inappropriate to its subject matter. And more to the point, to the victims. Real people, murdered at the hands of Ted Bundy; families forced to relive their trauma in the name of cheap thrills. Thankfully, this isn’t the case when it comes to the actual film, and regardless of how lenient one is on the (admittedly tacky) trailer, the film itself is an entirely different beast. Yes, Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy is handsome, charming and even charismatic – arguably more so than the kinda-hot-for-the-‘70s Bundy himself – and yes, the tone is lighter in places than one might expect from a serial killer biopic. But this is no glamorisation of Ted Bundy. Instead, Berlinger turns his focus to the people around Bundy, playing to how he was perceived to be rather than how he was. In this respect, it makes sense that Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy as more sincere and dashing than the man actually was. There are layers to Efron’s performance, and that’s not a thing we ever expected to be saying of Troy from High School Musical.

This isn’t to say that Berlinger is entirely successful. None of the supporting characters are particularly well-drawn, with Lily Collins’ Liz Kendall feeling like an afterthought when she should have been the film’s heart. Instead, Bundy is front and centre – the leading man where he should have been relegated to the shadows, like young Jeffrey Dahmer in the superior My Friend Dahme. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a number of films all at once, each fighting against the other. There’s the courtroom drama, at which it succeeds almost entirely. There’s the dark and brooding biopic from Kendall and Carol Anne Boone’s perspective, at which it fails. And then there’s the almost zany Catch Me if You Can black comedy, which is muted, but still there. Thankfully, none of its personalities are the exploitation horror flick predicted by the online mobs and, if anything, the central outrage proves prescient to Berlinger’s real point – that people are drawn to serial killers.

Everyone has their fans, and so will this film. With its excellent cast and tour de force performance from Zac Efron, this is an impressive piece of work, structurally flawed and tonally wonky as it may be. It’s extremely competent, shockingly restrained and fine, and barely worth getting upset about… certainly not when a film like The Haunting of Sharon Tate is sitting right there. Ultimately, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is bound to be a point of conversation or many years to come, the surrounding controversy only serving to keep it – and Ted Bundy – in the spotlight. Ew.

HIGH LIFE

The first sci-fi feature (as well as the first English language feature) from French filmmaker Claire Denis, High Life is set in the far reaches of space, though the opening segments, in which struggling single parent Monte cares for his young baby, could be anywhere on Earth. It’s a grounded performance from Robert Pattinson, who, along with his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart, has gone on to become one of the most interesting faces of mid-budget indie cinema. And then he throws a bunch of corpses into space and the story becomes a lot less usual.

The bulk of the narrative is set on the same spaceship at an earlier time. Monte is one of a group of convicts sent into the cosmos on what’s likely to be a suicide mission, with the aim of harnessing the power from black holes. The ex-criminals are also guinea pigs in an ongoing experiment by Juliette Binoche’s Dr. Dibs – a much more out-there performance, her lengthy hair and controlling demeanour making her appear more witch than scientist – who is collecting the semen of the male convicts and obsessively trying to artificially inseminate the women.

It’s in the ponderous category of space sci-fi, one for fans of Solaris rather than Star Wars, but by no means slow, packing a lot of punch into its 110-minute running time. At times, the plot is confounding, with major developments near the end happening quickly and with little clarity. But the somewhat rambling nature of Denis’ style fits the setting, with the characters both isolated in the deep expanse of space and confined to an insular spaceship, which, combined with the fact that they’re forbidden from sexual activity with each other, inevitably becomes a hotbed for aggression and desire.

This situation leads to riveting drama, particularly between the closed-off Monte, who refuses to take part in Dibs’ experiments, Dibs herself, and Mia Goth’s unstable Boyse. It’s disturbing at times, with moments of horror: both human horror, when an attempted rape turns into a violent confrontation, and sci-fi horror, when an experiment on a black hole goes wrong; these two equally shocking images linger in the mind long after viewing. Nor will you forget the more positively sexual image of Dibs using a masturbation chamber referred to as the “fuckbox”. There’s also great poignancy, especially in sequences close to the end – when the focus shifts back to Monte and his daughter, now older and played by impressive young actress Jessie Ross – which are at once charming and deeply morbid.

The comparison to Tarkovsky’s Solaris extends to High Life’s aesthetics; rather than the high-tech space setting seen in the likes of Passengers, costumes and sets look like they were made for a 1970s production. The ship also has a verdant garden, perhaps a deliberate allusion to Silent Running. Yorick Le Sauk’s cinematography is restrained and character-focused, rarely taking us outside the spaceship – though the effects shots, when they arrive, are breathtaking.

High Life is by no means perfect, and it can be a difficult watch. But it’s a movie that provokes a lot of contradictory emotions – it’s charming and bleak, graceful and grimy, erotic and repulsive. It’s challenging, experimental sci-fi, and there’s not enough of that around. It’s only getting a select cinema release, but make the trip to see it If you can.

HIGH LIFE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: CLAIRE DENIS / SCREENPLAY: CLAIRE DENIS, JEAN-POL FARGEAU, GEOFF COX / STARRING: ROBERT PATTINSON, JULIETTE BINOCHE, MIA GOTH, JESSIE ROTH / RELEASE DATE: MAY 10TH

POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU

It has long been the case that movies based on video games have the tendency to drift so far from the source material that it ends up being the complete opposite of what it set out to be. However, with Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Director Rob Letterman and Warner Bros have finally solved the mystery on how to bring a small screen adventure to the big leagues in the most entertaining and respectful way possible.

In an alternative version of Earth, Pokémon have shared the world with humans having lived here for thousands of years. Over this time, the two species have learned to co-exist and work together in order to make the world the best possible place with Pokémon using their powers to enhance the evolution of mankind and the planet. One man, Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) took that relationship to the next step when he created Ryme City – a place where Pokémon and Humans live as equals. Our story revolves around Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a young man who meets a talking Pikachu (voiced by the incredible Ryan Reynolds) when he returns to his estranged father’s home after news that he has passed. Unbeknownst to Tim, this is no ordinary Pikachu as he is, in fact, a world-class detective with links to his father but no memory and who only he can understand. Thus the two are thrust into a mystery that only they have the power to solve.

When the film was first announced several years ago, fans questioned why a movie was being made based off of a spin-off game in the Pokémon universe that commercially was deemed a failure. But what they didn’t know, until now, is that this was a story that was made to be told in a big screen adventure. For fans of the Pokémon universe, Pokémon Detective Pikachu ticks all of the boxes for what you want to see in this kind of adventure. Throughout the film, whether it be in the background or up-close-and-personal, audiences are introduced to a wonderful world full of all of your favourite Pokémon and much more – see how many you can spot and name! Each Pokémon clearly has their own personalities and act in the same way that you may, or may not, remember from the video games and countless other forms of media that they have appeared in. For example, Psyduck, who personally is one of the true MVPs of the film, is just as anxious as its original Pokédex entry entails.

As far as world-building goes, the film does a great job of sucking in the audience into this world of Ryme City. The realism and attention to detail in all of the different Pokémon allows for a quick suspension of disbelief and full absorption into the adventure especially because the special effects are top of the range. This is only heightened by the chemistry shown by not only the human cast; from Tim’s awkward dialogue with the roving reporter Lucy (Kathryn Newton), but also the Pokémon too. The writing is something to truly be commended too – the film is classified as PG but, with some very clever work by Rob Letterman and his fellow screenwriters, there are so many witty and adult-based humour that is innocent enough to distract younger viewers whilst also providing belly laughs for the adults in attendance.

In regards to the aforementioned fact that video game movies tend to stray too far from the source material, Pokémon Detective Pikachu finds a beautiful balance between a video game narrative and a typical movie screenplay. It is very easy to see this particular incarnation of the story take place within the world of player controlled influence if it was ever deemed necessary which shows the power and attention to detail the film shows to the world of Pokémon. The story aspect will satisfy hardcore fans of the games and the action set pieces, especially in the second act including scenes of a fierce underground Pokémon battle, will appease general movie fans.

Even though the film successfully accomplishes so much in breaking the curse of bad video game movies, a few revelations and choices made in the final act have the potential to be divisive amongst the audience. But, as is the case with an adventure like this, it’s less about the destination and more about the journey and this voyage has it all – it’s funny, charming and endearing. Pokémon Detective Pikachu is an absolute delight from start to finish for new and old fans alike. Easily the best video game movie ever. Pika Pika!

POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ROB LETTERMAN / SCREENPLAY: DAN HERNANDEZ, BENJI SAMIT, ROB LETTERMAN, DEREK CONNELLY / STARRING: RYAN REYNOLDS, JUSTICE SMITH, KATHRYN NEWTON, KEN WATANABE, BILL NIGHY / RELEASE DATE: MAY 10TH