Detective Pikachu (a movie review post)

Yes, I went to see Detective Pikachu, and you can shut your faces. I went with my teenage kids, and we all wanted to go see it. And I'm glad I did (because I won't lie and say I wasn't worried about it) because it was a fun movie. Well, it was fun if you have the background to understand it.

That's a flaw, by the way. By far the biggest flaw of the movie: it's not accessible to people who don't already understand Pokemon. There's little to no history or explanation given for the world, what Pokemon are, and how they relate to anything. This is not a gateway movie. It knows its target audience, and it doesn't care about anyone else. Not beyond a little bit of lip service about pokeballs and catching Pokemon, which they could have just left out since it doesn't relate to this movie at all. It actually served to muddy the waters more than offer any useful information for the novice poke-goer.

However, if you have any familiarity with Pokemon in any of its iterations, it's a fun movie. Total popcorn fluff, but sometimes you need an excuse to eat popcorn for an hour. (Yes, the movie is longer than an hour! No, the popcorn didn't actually last an hour!)

Of course, the biggest draw of the movie is seeing the Pokemon onscreen. Kind of just to see which ones they included in the film, but there are also some great interactions. The interrogation of the Mr. Mime serves as an excellent example.

I feel like I should give a more in-depth critique, but that feels like going to the store and buying a loaf of white bread and complaining that it's not healthy enough or wheat enough. If you go and buy white bread, that must be what you want, then it's not really fair to compare it to bread with more and better flavor. This movie isn't very deep; the protagonist takes the death of his father sort of like losing a wallet but with less panic; the villain's evil scheme is more about the visuals for the movie than any actual sense that it makes.

There have been a lot of animated Pokemon movies over the years, not to mention the several different TV series, the vast majority of which I have not seen other than glimpses of my kids watching them. However, I did take my oldest kid to see the very first Pokemon movie in the theater when it came out some 20 years or so ago. At the time, I thought it was pretty dumb, not that he cared; he was, like, four or something. I'm sure I would think the same of it today.
BUT! This movie tied all the way back into that one, which I thought was pretty cool, I guess, because it was kind of like, "Hey! I understand what's going on there!"

Of course, the movie was all about Ryan Reynolds and Pikachu. They really nailed that. All of it. The animation, the voice acting, the interactions. The movie hinged on it, and it's part of what made the movie fun.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you've ever in your life had a love for Pokemon, you'll probably get a kick out of this movie, even if just for nostalgia's sake. If not, skip it, and don't feel bad about it.

How To Be... a Genetic Engineer

One of the earliest loves of my younger son was Pokemon (his first love was Star Wars at all of one year of age, but that's a story for another time). I suppose this was back around when he was four or five, although the exact age when all of the Pokemon stuff started is a little hazy. However, I do remember that he was, at first, disappointed to find out that Pikachus

do not really exist, but that passed quickly into a determination to grow up and make one. With the way things are going, that may actually be a possibility by the time he is of an age to do so.

Genetic engineering, as we most commonly think of it, the direct manipulation of DNA by humans (not including selective breeding or mutagenesis), has only existed since the 70s, but we have come oh so far since then (check last year's post for some of the things we've already accomplished). The real issue is that, right now, we don't really know where we're going with it, and some people are scared of the field in its entirety. And, hey, who can blame anyone for being scared with all of the zombie fear? Genetically engineered diseases are at the root of many of these ideas.

However, with the sort of wide openness in the field of genetic engineering, it leaves a lot of room to do with it what you want. Right now, there is no "genetic engineering" degree. It's not like electrical engineering where you can go to school and learn the basics. There are no real basics for genetic engineering. Well, there are, but they are very basic. Like, you need to know a lot about biology (in general), cell biology (in specific), chemistry, biochemistry, and... well, and whatever it is you want to be working with. Plants? Animals? Microbes? You need to know about it.

Once you have the background knowledge you need, it's really just about finding someone willing to hire you on to work in a lab working on genetic engineering projects. Well, that, or taking that Dr. Frankenstein route and doing it yourself, which seems completely plausible assuming you had the resources to do it. Like I said, no one really knows, yet, where we can go with genetic engineering or what is and is not possible, so, maybe, my son will grow up and engineer his own Pikachu.