Quick Review : Detective Pikachu (2019)

There aren’t many films in recent memory that jog from absurdity to absurdity (and take it in their stride) like Detective Pikachu. It tries to balance film noir with Pokémon to a confusing, yet sometimes enthralling, degree. The word-building is exceptional. The majority of the Pokémon are brought to life just as Pokelovers (myself included here!) would imagine, full of life and vitality. Rime City is a wonderfully constructed world, with more imagination and eye-popping visuals than most big budget blockbusters and muster up.

So cute!

But eye candy is not enough to distract you from the increasingly silly plot, which flies off twists and turns every ten minutes or so. There’s at least two or three films’ worth of material here (much like Batman vs Superman, actually). Most thought-provoking material pops up for a few minutes, only to be relegated by the next ludicrous revelation. Not only that, but the human characters are so much more duller than the Pokémon.  Worth watching for the visuals…but not much else.

Hammy’s Rating: 2/5

Memorable Scene

COLOSSAL TORTERRA

Memorable Quote

‘There’s magic that brought us together, and that magic is hope’

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Review: Deadpool 2 (2018) (Lives Up To The Hype? Plus Plus?)

SPOILER-FREE

“Family was always an f-word for me”

I enjoyed the first Deadpool movie. Sure, it sent up comic book film tropes whilst strictly adhering to them, but Ryan Reynolds’ dedication to the role was infectious and the film was fairly funny. I had some hopes for a sequel: whereas the rule for regular film sequels is that they will be worse than the original, the same rule rarely applies to comic book films sequels. With the origin story out of the way, the comic book film sequel has more scope to explore themes, characters and plots. Think of the great superhero films and you think of Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, X-Men 2, etc (with the MCU things are different: more often than not, the sequel tends to be worse than the original. But that’s something for a different time!). Could Deadpool 2 be the sequel its marketing made it out to be?

Review: Deadpool (2016) (Your Atypical Typical Superhero Film…)

“This is a love story”

It’s Valentine’s Day, and you always need a good date movie for V-Day. And what better date movie than the recently released Deadpool? Deadpool promised a subversive comic book movie where the hero isn’t really a hero and all of the typical tropes of the comic book movie are shot to pieces. Or at least that’s what I understood. Instead, what I saw was a comedy that hurled too much at the screen and was as loyal to the traditional comic book movie tropes as any other comic book movie. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; there was so much effort and love poured into this movie that it was hard not to enjoy it. However, much like ‘Kick-Ass,’ it promised a lot more than it delivered.

Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) (Give Me A Break, Bub!)

“Welcome to the war”

The upcoming ‘Deadpool’ won’t be the first time that Ryan Reynolds has played Wade Wilson and his alter ego, Deadpool. We first saw Reynolds as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After X-Men : The Last Stand, 20^th Century Fox wanted a series of ‘Origin’ films for the X-Men. Following ‘Wolverine,’ there would be one about Magneto. Wolverine was meant to be a new beginning for the X-Men films, which has fallen in quality with the terrible ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (why is the third film of a super-hero trilogy always terrible?!?!). However, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ made ‘The Last Stand’ look like ‘X-Men 2.’