Detective Pikachu reviews round-up: Buddy-cop movie is 'DARING' and 'thoroughly enjoyable'

Detective Pikachu gave every moviegoer what they didn’t know they needed. The live-action and CGI film takes characters from the globally popular Pokemon game and brings them to the big screen. The off-beat adaptation has been well received by critics, but is it worth heading to the cinema for? Read on to find out.

What do critics say about Detective Pikachu?

Detective Pikachu gets a respectable 63 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, making it certified fresh.

The critics’ consensus reads: “Pokémon Detective Pikachu may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most — if not all — of the franchise’s fans.”

Express.co.uk’s review of the movie reads: “In many ways, Detective Pikachu is a triumph.

“On the whole, this live-action CGI romp is funny, charming and full of impressive visual effects.”

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Ed Potton for the Times

Fortunately, the ever-likeable Reynolds is equal to the task, channelling the savvy exuberance (but not the rude bits) of his Deadpool persona.

Vincent Acovino for NPR

There’s something admirable about a film that isn’t afraid to have some fun with a property so established – and beloved – by its core audience.

James Berardinelli for ReelViews

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu isn’t a movie. It’s a cog in a multibillion-dollar media empire, a soulless feature-length example of product placement at its most blatant.

Brian Lowry for CNN.com:

Detective Pikachu isn’t that bad, and the movie arrives helpfully armed with a couple of decades worth of equity and goodwill; still, once you’ve gotten your fill of its wisecracking namesake, even grading on a curve, it isn’t good.

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Ben Kenigsberg for the New York Times:

This is one hour and 44 minutes of Pikachu short-circuiting your brain.

Sam Adams for Slate:

In a world packed full of franchise-extending would-be blockbusters, there’s something strangely appealing about its patchiness.

Rafer Guzman for Newsday

Overall the movie is passably entertaining, though only the youngest viewers will feel it in their jellies. 

Bilge Ebiri for New York Magazine/Vulture:

Pokémon obsessives will want to check it out, but the movie is mostly an uninspired slog, not committed enough to work as a demented genre picture, and not funny enough to work as a goofy, lighthearted comedy.

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Johnny Oleksinski for the New York Post:

Who would have thought that one of the most enjoyable buddy-cop movies of 2019 would star a Pokémon?

Kristen Page-Kirby for the Washington Post:

It seems that when you take a little yellow creature with a heart of gold and turn him into a soft-boiled detective, something special is in the cards.

David Sims for The Atlantic:

It shouldn’t work. It shouldn’t even make sense! Somehow, it does.

Nicholas Barber for the BBC.com:

There may even be something daring and anarchic about a film which stubbornly refuses to make any sense whatsoever.

David Fear for Rolling Stone:

You may choose this movie even if you aren’t a Pokéscholar. That doesn’t mean it’s willing to choose you.

Philip De Semlyen for Time Out:

If you’re not a Pokémon devotee, imagine watching ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ after a PCP binge and you’ll get the idea.

Detective Pikachu is now playing in cinemas.