Film Review: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

"So You’re A Talking Pikachu With No Memories, Who’s Addicted To Caffeine..."

For those who happen fall into my particular age group, the original worldwide boom of Pokémon during the 1990's was something of which defined an entire generation of die hard fans eager to collect each and every rare trading card, every cutely designed and easily swallowed toy, and for me personally, play their way through absorbing Pokémon contests on many different modes of video game consoles as they developed from the brick-esque solidness of the Nintendo GameBoy to the high-tech, high definition box of tricks which make up the market today. With big screen adaptations of popular video games famously not faring too well with both critics and the box office when released upn eager audiences, recent years have at least attempted to bring some respectability to the transition, with Assassin's Creed and Warcraft my own particular cinematic saviours, and what we have with Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a movie which although is by no means perfect, is most definitely a fan pleasing, visually satisfying solid work of child friendly drama which managed to make me laugh and gasp in awe at the world in which I was treated to, and even for someone with only a basic understanding of the Pokémon universe, was a movie which passed the time rather splendidly. 

Directed by Rob Letterman, a filmmaker with a knack for successfully cultivating generic family adventure movies in the ilk of Goosebumps and Gulliver's Travels, Detective Pikachu boasts not only one screenwriters but four, and whilst nowadays it can be usual practice for a movie to have a whole army of different thoughts being put onto paper, Letterman's movie undoubtedly suffers as a consequence of such a decision, with the central murder mystery narrative not exactly worth the time or effort come the final revelation in which every left turn greets us with a twist which even the softest of minds can see from around a mile off. Where the film does overwhelmingly succeed however is in the world in which the narrative plays out, with its' Blade Runner esque, neo-noir futureworld featuring enough neon lights to short circuit most counties whilst beaming with cute Pokémon at every corner which resulted in many of the fellow cinemagoers rightly exclaiming their delight at witnessing their favourite digital characters materialise upon the big screen. With a well designed leading Pikachu featuring the comedic tones of Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 2) and a well meaning, optimistic sensibility, Letterman's latest is by no means a classic, but with enough positive elements to pass the time nicely, Detective Pikachu is another step in the right direction for big screen video game adaptations. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Assassination Nation

"This Is The Story Of How My Town, Salem, Lost It's Mind. Let's Start At The Beginning..."

Written and directed by Sam Levinson, son of Good Morning Vietnam and Rain Man director, Barry Levinson, Assassination Nation acts as the American's third feature after trading in acting for directing but the first to venture onto the big screen with a significantly wider general release. Slapped with a beautifully rare 18 certificate and released within a period of the cinematic year in which Halloween, Overlord and Suspiria have all shown a resurgence in the BBFC classifying movies with the highest rating possible, Levinson's latest is a particularly odd beast, a hybrid of varying subjects with an underlying topical social commentary which sees Odessa Young as the free spirited Lily Colson who along with her group of freely spoken youthful friends become embroiled in a town-wide internet hack which sees every single resident's personal online history leak into the gaze of the public eye, resulting in extraordinarily extravagant and particularly violent consequences. Beginning with a familiar stylish and slightly bizarre aesthetic feel to Harmony Korine's woefully unsatisfactory Spring Breakers in 2013, Levinson's movie traverses through a minefield of themes and genres for two hours worth of storytelling which at times is undoubtedly problematic and troublesome, but crucially, never boring, resulting in audiences guaranteed to leave the auditorium thinking to themselves; "what on earth was that all about?"

With the film using the first half an hour to introduce the primary quartet of femme fatales at the heart of the action, each with their own distinguishable individuality and vices, the coming of age style narrative allows the evolving opening scandals to be seen from the point of view of the youth of the aptly named town of Salem as an unknown hacker forces out both the secrets of both a local politician and teacher. With Levinson's screenplay clearly following on from the likes of Ingrid Goes West and Searching by conveying an on-the-nose comment on the nature and impact of social media, whatever point Levinson chooses to focus on becomes completely lost in an out of control second act in which the audience bears witness to a startling combination of Winding Refn and Dario Argento eye-gouging neon style with elements of The Purge, resulting in an abundance of violence and particularly tough scenes of torture, murder and near attempted rape which for some audiences may be too explicit to cope with. Personally however, the sense of silliness and emphatically ripe shock tactics which unveil themselves heading towards the film's climax never became dull or uninteresting, due in part to some wonderful camera work and blissfully bright cinematography, and whilst there never was a single character in which I cared whether they lived or died due to pretty much every single one being fundamentally unlikeable, Assassination Nation moved along nicely as it offended audiences left, right and centre and concluded in a way which simply made me giggle. Bring on more gory grunge movies!

Overall Score: 6/10