Pokemon: Detective Pikachu Review (No Spoilers)

Even though I grew up watching the Pokemon cartoons and collecting all the Pokemon cards, I kinda grew out of it during my middle-school years and honestly, didn’t even bother playing the Pokemon Go game. Not to mention, I forgot most of the Pokemon characters and their names. So, even though this movie was a little nostalgic, it’s safe to say that I went in with a pretty clean slate.

Positives – Before I go any further, I just have to say – Pikachu is so adorable. I can literally watch this gif all day and who’s to say, I haven’t already!

Cuteness aside, after watching the first trailer, I was a little apprehensive about Ryan Reynolds’ casting as Pikachu because Pikachu “sounded” a lot like a PG-version of Deadpool. I understand that is unfair, but Reynolds is now synonymous with the merc with the mouth. However, I am so happy to report that, for this version of Pikachu, Reynolds casting is brilliant. His casting and voice performance makes this movie work. Yes, the character does sound like a lot like a watered down version of Deadpool but this movie is better for it. The main human lead Tim, played by Justice Smith, is a semi-decent character but shines, even more, when he is interacting with the adorable, caffeine-addicted detective. There are some hilarious moments in this movie, especially one scene involving Mr. Mime. Even though we don’t get a lot of action scenes with Pikachu, when it did happen, I was giddy with excitement! Another great aspect of the movie is that it focuses on world-building rather than setting up future movies, which I can appreciate as a viewer.

Negatives -Despite some entertaining sequences, this movie suffers from narrative issues and some really bland human characters. The main female lead, played by Kathryn Newton, could have been an interesting character but is often relegated to the background. Not to mention, Newton’s performance along with many other actors’ performances, often felt cartoony. In addition, if you were hoping to see some Pokemon battles like the ones in the cartoon, prepare to be disappointed. Hell, we only see the Pokeball a couple of times. The main characters also have a lot of plot armor and boy, they survive a lot of crazy death-defying sequences. Another aspect of the movie that doesn’t work is that many scenes served no purpose, aside from getting the hardcore fans to exclaim “Hey, that’s *so and so Pokemon*.” Most of those references went over my head, as I am sure they will for the average moviegoer too. Also, the movie has a reveal at the end, which doesn’t make much sense upon looking back.

Rating – Overall, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is a semi-entertaining film with good humor and an adorable, well-written Pikachu as the lead. However, it has a mediocre story, one-dimensional human characters, and some very over-the-top performances. Still, I think there is some fun to be had, both for the hardcore and average movie-fan alike. 3/5

Ranking the Comic-book Movies of 2018 (SPOILERS)

Since forever ago, many folks have been predicting the demise of the superhero genre. Well, they were proven wrong yet again. Being the dominant genre in Hollywood, the combined worldwide gross of all the 8 comic-book movies (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Ant man and the wasp, Teen Titans: Go to the movies, Venom, Spiderman: into the spider-verse and Aquaman) is well over 6 billion dollars, with Spiderman and Aquaman just having released in theatres. Now that I have seen them all, I can now rank the 8 comic-book movies from least favorite to my favorite. Spoiler warning.

#8. Venom – a Tom Hardy-led Venom movie with the director of Zombieland at the helm and a solid cast (including Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed), what could go wrong? Well, it seems like pretty much everything went wrong with this anti-hero flick. Venom has a terrible script, weak performances (sans Hardy), cringe dialogue, poor villains (both Drake and Riot) etc. The only reason I didn’t hate this movie is because of Hardy, who goes “all out” and delivers an entertaining-to-watch performance. Eddie and Venom’s relationship and back-and-forth is one of the film’s strengths and it was very enjoyable when the movie just focused on the two. While I personally didn’t like this movie, the general audiences kinda did and the movie had great legs and well over $850 million at the box office. This is by far the weakest comic-book movie of the year but here’s hoping that they make a better Venom sequel.

#7. Teen Titans – this was a movie I had absolutely zero interest in. Never seen a Teen Titans episode and the trailers were pretty bad and looked extremely childish. Gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised. This is an extremely self-referential movie and has a pretty well-developed lead in the Robin. While this is definitely not a movie for everyone because of the juvenile nature of the movie, it has some great moments for the DC fan in me to ultimately have a good experience.

#6. Ant man and the Wasp – Like its predecessor, A&W is a good palette cleanser after the big Avengers movies. I love how our heroes use shrinking/growing and the visuals are really good! This is also a really funny movie with some good performances from Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly etc. Where this movie suffers is with the villains, especially the storyline with Sonny Burch. Also, Black Panther just opened our eyes to the incredible world of Wakanda and Infinity War was a large-scale epic movie, but A&W, unfortunately, is a pretty formulaic MCU movie .

#5. Deadpool 2 – Like most people, I loved the first Deadpool movie and was very excited for the sequel. After watching the movie, my initial reaction was “it’s good but no where as good as the first one” and this reaction mostly stands. I enjoyed this movie but this movie doesn’t have as good of a balance of humor and character work as the first one did. The pacing is off and some characters like Firefist are obnoxious. However, the emotional moments between Wade and Vanessa are powerful and this movie is arguably funnier than the first film, especially the X-force deaths sequence which had me cracking up. Not to forget, Cable and Domino are really interesting characters and I can’t wait to see them in X-force.

#4. Aquaman – Coming off of a string of divisive films (sans Wonder Woman), DC absolutely needed a win in Aquaman and they achieved it! Aquaman is the definition of a fun, popcorn movie. It has a ton of action, one-liners, comedy and decently fleshed-out characters. The effects on the underwater world are visually stunning and this movie does not hesitate to embrace its comicbook-iness. Not to mention, Aquaman has a good lead in Momoa! Where this movie suffers is in its script, emotional moments and weak villains (notice the trend?). However, a win’s a win and DC is on the right path again!

#3. Black Panther – Before I say anything, I just want to preface this by saying Black Panther is a really good movie. It has some of the best performances and an uber-talented ensemble cast in the MCU, strong female characters (Okoye, Shuri, Nakia) and is a very relevant movie in our society today. Having a predominantly black cast with a black director is remarkable and what Ryan Coogler did with Black Panther is incredible! This is also one of those movies where the beliefs/actions of the villain actually changes our protagonist and by the end of the movie, T’Challa opening up Wakanda to the rest of the world works. However, I don’t love this movie, like most people do, and really don’t believe that this movie deserves to get a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. It is an important movie but that doesn’t make it an Oscar-calibre movie, in my humble opinion. This movie also has questionable CGI at times, messy fight scenes and a sudden villain turn. Killmonger makes some very good points about Wakanda not using its resources to help black people around the world, but he becomes a moustache-twirling villain by the end. Again, I really like this movie and do believe that it deserves technical awards nominations like “Best Costume,” “Best Sound Editing,” and “Best Sound Mixing” but just not more.

#2. Spiderman: into the spider-verse – This animated flick had a very difficult job – convincing us that a Spider-man movie with so many characters and villains can work. After all, neither Sony nor we have forgotten what happened with Spiderman 3 and Amazing Spiderman 2. I am very happy to say that this movie is amazing (no pun intended)! It had a lot of great character moments and the relationships between Miles and his dad, Miles and his uncle and Miles and Peter are heartwarming. There is a scene that takes place between Miles’ dad and Miles in a college dorm, which gives me chills just thinking about. The introduction of the secondary Spidey characters is super fun and infuses a lot of humor to the movie, especially from Spider-Noir (voiced by Nicholas Cage). This movie, at times, feels like a comic-book come to life with comic-book style panels and text on screen. If this movie does end up getting a ‘Best Picture’ nomination at the Oscars, which it very well may, I have no qualms about it as it is definitely deserving of any accolades.

#1. Avengers: Infinity War – Infinity War is the culmination of 10 years of storytelling and to celebrate this momentous occasion, Marvel essentially had “throw everything but the kitchen sink” mentality for this movie. It has basically every main character (sans Hawkeye and Ant Man) in the MCU facing off against the big baddie, Thanos and man, the Russos exceeded my already-high expectations. This is easily one of my favorite movies of the year and one particular reason for that is Thanos, who is now my favorite villain in cinematic history. He is such a complex, 3-dimensional character and even though you (hopefully) don’t agree with him, you totally understand where he is coming from. The action is incredible, the humor totally works and because of its scale, this really felt like the most epic movie of our generation. And of course, who can forget the ending? Our heroes turning to dust and Spiderman’s line “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.” Man, that is heartbreaking. Infinity War is easily my favorite superhero film of the year and I am (just a little) excited for Avengers: Endgame!

Now, what say you? Leave your rankings down below!

Once Upon a Deadpool Review (No Spoilers)

If you’re one of the few kids / teenagers that didn’t surreptitiously watch Deadpool 2 (either by movie-hopping or torrenting) without your parents knowing about it, but you really want to see the movie, Once upon a Deadpool (OPAD) is for you. The newest Deadpool 2 cut has a PG-13 rating with the framing device of Deadpool narrating the story of Deadpool 2 to a “kidnapped” Fred Savage, who is in his ‘Princess Bride’ attire and childhood setting. If you don’t remember who Fred Savage is or why this movie uses a framing device, Fred Savage plays the Grandson in the Princess Bride, whose grandfather narrates the story of the Princess Bride to. OPAD will only be playing for 12 days in the theatre and Fox will donate $1 of every ticket sold to “Fudge Cancer,” a clever play-on “F*ck Cancer.”

Positives – Once upon a Deadpool cleverly uses the framing device to make fun of itself and address many of the criticisms, both self-referential and ones the viewers saw. For example, Fred Savage comments on Wade’s remark “that’s just lazy writing” with “actually write a better script!” or Cable’s, frankly, convoluted comic-book backstory, or lack thereof in the movie. Comments like these exist to remind the viewers that the film-makers knew their movie’s shortcomings but decided to ignore it anyways, which made for some excellent comedy in this particular movie. The interaction between DP and Savage are absolutely hilarious and if Fox (about to become a part of Disney’s empire as Deadpool himself points out) decides to make a feature-length film starring just Deadpool and Savage doing anything, I will gladly give my money.

Negatives – That being said, make no mistake about it – Once upon a Deadpool is 80% Deadpool 2 (without the gore, nudity, violence), and arguably the weakest of the Deadpool 2 cuts. While the 20 mins of new footage with DP and Savage are funny and worth the price of admission, majority of the jokes (which were funny in the original cut) are not as funny. On top of that, the movie does suffer from poor editing and scenes, that did flesh-out the characters in the original cut, end up on the cutting room floor. Lastly, OPAD once again proves why the Deadpool flicks need to be R-rated. They better serve the character and their uniqueness brings a dose of freshness to the comic-book genre.

Overall, Once upon a Deadpool is finally the Deadpool movie that parents can bring their children to see in the theatre. It is definitely an entertaining ride, with great jokes, character moments, action etc. While this cut is an inferior cut to the rated R Deadpool 2 cuts, it is a great watch nonetheless. Stay through the whole credits – it’s worth it!

Rating – 3.5/5