1. Anyone else getting mad Pokémon: The First Movie flashbacks seeing Mewtwo bust out of a laboratory? Sure, this Pokémon is known for hating humanity but fans know that he’s inherently good and just misunderstood. But that didn’t stop the crowd from cheering when Mewtwo popped up again later on to heal an injured Pikachu. We’re glad that they nailed the characterization for this one!
2. The movie did us dirty by showing a Cubone crying. Also, what is Dopinder (Karan Soni) from Deadpool doing in this movie playing the main character’s best friend?! We were hoping that he had a bigger role but he’s never seen again.
3. Ryme City answers the “What If” scenario of what would happen if you ditched Pokémon gym battle mechanics entirely and have these creatures live among society. The news reports shown indicate that Ryme City is one of the first of its kind. Just seeing Police Chief Hideo Yoshida (Ken “Let Them Fight” Watanabe) affectionately patting his Snubbull gives us hope for this kind of setup. We find out later that Pokémon battles are prohibited. But that doesn’t stop illegal fighting rings from forming featuring a gangster-looking Charizard as the top contender.
4. Tim watches a video promoting Ryme City featuring the founder Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy). Yes, the guy who’s best remembered gyrating to “Christmas is All Around” from Love Actually is dead serious about Pokémon and human integration. He maintains a calm demeanor as waxes poetic about the Pokémon’s ability to evolve and how humans can learn to heal themselves through evolution. The wheelchair-bound CEO hopes to walk again using significant findings from the research. Guys, I think we’ve found OUR VILLAIN! The movie tries convincing us that typical mean executive Roger Clifford (Chris Geere) is the baddie but to no avail. We feel that it’s so predictable that it waters down the narrative.
5. There’s nothing more terrifying than seeing a group of Aipom going rabid due to some mysterious purple gas. But for parent viewers, it’s equally stressful to keep checking on your kids making sure that Ryan Reynolds’ adult humor flies over their head. There’s even a joke about touching and/or playing with yourself much to the delight of older Pokémon fans.
6. We love all the detective parodies and tropes that crop up while emo protagonist Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) and a Pikachu that can speak human (Ryan Reynolds) team up to solve a mystery. At one point, Pikachu fills the entire room with papers, pushpins, and strings as he maps out a conspiracy theory. Intrepid reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) and her Psyduck round up the gang and joins them as they infiltrate the offsite Clifford laboratory where they see all sorts of experiments and the broken remains of Mewtwo’s prison. We weren’t that impressed with what was shown so far (the attack army of Greninjas was pretty cool, though) but when the ground started shaking revealing that the whole island was just one of many MEGA-MEGA-MEGA Torterras? That was a geeky sight to behold and would have made for interesting battle in-game.
7. See? We told you! One does not obsess about Pokémon evolution to that extent without an ulterior motive. Howard Clifford is even creepy about the way he pets his Eevee and watches it evolve into a Flareon. Howard is using mind control to take over Mewtwo’s body so he can Just no. The grand plan is to take the Pokémon-human integration to its not-so-logical conclusion of completely fusing together. But why would he need to use the parade balloons to gas up the city when we later find out that Mewtwo can wipe out memories (such as with Pikachu) in order to perform the fusion. Guess the Pokémon going rabid plot was a red herring in order to throw suspicion on Roger since he was described as someone who disliked the creatures.
8. We’ve already seen our boy Pikachu riding a Pidgeot as a nice little shout-out referencing the anime series’ iconic opening sequence. But Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu tearfully singing the Pokémon theme song as he leaves Tim, Lucy, and Psyduck upon the revelation that he helped Mewtwo escape. Now, Pikachu is under the impression that he sabotaged Harry’s mission of capturing the Mewtwo. When in reality, it was Harry’s idea all along realizing the kind of sick experiments conducted by Howard Clifford and Dr. Ann Laurent (Rita Ora).
9. After being known as the neglected Starter next to Charmander and Squirtle, Bulbasaur finally gets the screentime it deserves. Tim has a conversation with a Bulba, begging him to help the injured Pikachu. The Grass/Poison type serves an important role by summoning his whole group so they can bring Tim and Pikachu to Mewtwo. Validation!
10. Suki Waterhouse killed it as a badass bodyguard named Ms. Norman. She might be one of the breakout memetic characters in the film. We gave a cross between an incredulous gasp and a guffaw as she took off her shades revealing beady little Ditto eyes. The purple hair should have clued us in! Plus points for including foreshadowing of the Ditto assistant earlier during the promotional TV shoot of Howard and Roger Clifford.
11. Did anyone else get chills during the grand Pokémon battle between Pikachu and a Howard Clifford-possessed Mewtwo? And we thought that the Pikachu versus Charizard battle earlier in the film was lit already! This is exactly how we imagined the Pokémon Go VR to look like.
12. We gotta say that the big reveal of Detective Pikachu turning out to be Tim’s missing father left us shooketh.
The Pokémon-human fusion sequence really ties it all in. Throughout the film, they’ve never shown Harry Goodman in full view, we never hear him speak, and there’s even a fake name in the cast list to ward off any suspicion. As much as we enjoyed the big family reunion moment, we’re gonna miss the espresso-guzzling talkative critter. DON’T FORGET TO STAY FOR THE CREDITS! You will hear the classic bit rendition of “Victory Road” that will make you stand up in your seat in recognition and hum along.