The internet may be freaking out about one studio's attempt to turn a beloved video game mascot into a realistic piece of CGI right now, but there's one other project that's going over considerably better. Reviews for Detective Pikachu are in, and it seems that something incredible might have happened. For years, video game fans writ large have suffered through an endless slew of mediocre, weird and just plain bad video game adaptations to the point where it seemed like nobody might ever crack the code. The video game curse, as they call it: it isn't true that no titles have managed to turn a video game property into something watchable, but you only need to look at high profile failures like Assassins Creed, Prince of Persia or Hitman: Agent 47 to see where we get this idea from. A particular sort of large-scale, faithful adaptation of a video game world still seems to elude most studios.
Could Detective Pikachu be the movie we've been waiting for?
There's most definitely some divide over whether or not Detective Pikachu succeeds in its remarkably strange task, but so far the video game world seems a lot more enthusiastic than the film world. It currently sits at a respectable 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, earning it a "fresh" rating. A note for when we're talking about film reviews: they're on a different scale than video game reviews. So a 3/5 is pretty good for a movie even if a 60 is abysmal for a game.
There are definitely some conflicting opinions, but that's a whole lot better than some of those other movies I mentioned. Here's what people are saying:
Forbes: Whether a sign of things to come or a beacon of false hope, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a darn good fantasy adventure that also happens to be based on a video game. It works for the same reason, relatively speaking, that Batman Begins did. It is an entertaining and kid-friendly comic fantasy first, a straight-up genre appropriation second and an IP adaptation a distant third. It is a deep dive into Pokémon lore, to the extent that there were probably a million references and Easter eggs that went right over my head. But it works on its own terms, even for this “Pokémon No!” critic, thriving within the world it creates for this specific theatrical feature. I have no idea if Detective Pikachu is a good adaptation. But it is a robustly entertaining movie.
The Guardian, 3/5: Detective Pikachu is undoubtedly the best movie ever made… about Pokémon. Nobody who sat through 1998’s awful Pokémon: The First Movie, any subsequent Pokémon films or the more than 1,000 TV episodes, could argue that quality entertainment has been a priority of the children’s monster franchise. But following the colossal success of its Pokémon Go game, the Japanese brand has undergone an expensive Hollywood makeover, and if the results are not exactly groundbreaking, they’ve at least caught the attention of the wider world, mainly thanks to the inspired casting of Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu. Without Reynolds this would be pretty run-of-the-mill; with him it’s a perfectly acceptable family movie. Given the history, that’s a giant leap for Pokémon-kind.
IGN, 80/100: Despite the film industry’s resistance to video game movies, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu has landed a critical hit. Sure, not everything goes off without a hitch, but the lifelike Pokémon provide a nonstop stream of delights to make the weaker aspects of the movie forgivable. Smith’s character gives the story an emotional weight and Reynolds delivers an endearing comedic performance that’s closer to his subversive Deadpool schtick than you’d expect. While video game movies haven’t had the best track record, this movie is by and far the best example of how to do one right.
Polygon: The thing that kept me hooked throughout the movie was seeing how it depicted Pokémon. While initially I found the Pokémon designs uncanny in their attempts at realism, seeing them in motion sold me entirely. Cute Pokémon are a given; Pikachu is the poster boy of the movie, after all. But to see a Charizard spread its massive wings, or to behold a Ditto changing forms, or a Lickitung engulfing someone in saliva — to see the individual scales and fur, to see the burns and residue and gravity that come with taming actual monsters — that is pure awe.
i09: Detective Pikachu isn’t really trying to be a movie you think about beyond its most basic beats—and that’s what makes it work, even if it ultimately means that it takes the crown of “Best Video Game Movie” simply by being basically competent rather than because it can truly shine on its own merits. If you’ve ever in your life, even for just a moment, been touched by the simple joy of Pokémon, then Detective Pikachu makes it clear that it understands you, and why you got that spark of joy in the first place. It just hopes that it understands you enough to mask its otherwise messy, relatively humdrum tale.
Entertainment Weekly, C+: Sure to be a hit with the pint-sized set and in states where recreational marijuana use is legal, Pokemon Detective Pikachu is Hollywood’s latest attempt to spin a cutesy kiddie craze into box-office gold. Narratively incoherent to the point of being almost avant-garde, the film goes down a lot better if you come to it with a finely nuanced understanding of the difference between a Jigglypuff and a Wigglytuff. But for everyone else, it will feel like being forced to watch a Saturday morning cartoon marathon while trapped inside a Japanese Pachinko machine.
