Pokémon Detective Pikachu

Name: Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Fantasy
Released: May 10, 2019
Duration: 104 min
Rating: 53
Cast: Alejandro De Mesa, Bern Collaco, Bernardo Santos, Bill Nighy, Chris Geere

2019

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 894 Ratings

See All

7.5

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.5	Your Score
7.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 894 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Pokemon Detective Pikachu (Trailer 2)

Now Playing: Pokemon Detective Pikachu (Trailer 2)

Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: May 10, 2019 | PG

Starring: Alejandro De Mesa, Bern Collaco, Bernardo Santos, Bill Nighy, Chris Geere, Georgie Carter, Ikue Ootani, Iulia Filipovscaia, Jackson Kai, Jordan Long, Josette Simon, Justice Smith, Kadiff Kirwan, Karan Soni, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe, Omar Chaparro, Priyanga Burford, Rita Ora, Rob Delaney, Ruth Horrocks, Ryan Reynolds, Suki Waterhouse, Zoë Scott

Summary: The first-ever live-action Pokémon adventure begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself.The first-ever live-action Pokémon adventure begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.… Expand

Director: Rob Letterman

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy, Animation, Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 104 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Simran Hans

May 14, 2019

The CGI critters are seamlessly integrated with the 35mm cinematography, the film stock’s grain smoothing the visual tackiness. Read full review

Johnny Oleksinski

May 8, 2019

Being obvious nostalgia bait for children of the ’90s, director Rob Letterman’s film has no right to be as good or well-crafted as it is. The plot takes major twists that come as legitimate surprises, and seeing those old cartoon characters plopped into our world rendered in CGI is enormously satisfying. Read full review

Richard Lawson

May 8, 2019

If you’re uninitiated like me, Detective Pikachu isn’t an actively unpleasant experience; Letterman gives us lots of nice and interesting things to look at, plus Bill Nighy shows up. But it’s maybe a little boring. There’s not quite enough texture for the non-followers to grab onto. Read full review

Thom Ernst

May 9, 2019

Pokemon Detective Pikachu doesn’t quite manage to create a coherent story out of its convoluted mythology, and its playful winks at the detective genre feel misplaced. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

May 8, 2019

The film’s plot is either too much or too little, but whatever you decide, it’s best to give up on any expectations of true logic and just go with the flow because you know what, Jake: Forget it. It’s Pokémania. Read full review

David Fear

May 7, 2019

Pikachu Detective does not make it easy to get on board. It’s not here to convert — it’s here to preach to the already converted. You the viewer may choose this movie even if you aren’t a Pokéscholar. That doesn’t mean it’s willing to choose you. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

May 9, 2019

This is 1 hour and 44 minutes of Pikachu short-circuiting your brain. Read full review

SEE ALL 48 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

YakusokuNoJi

May 10, 2019

Preliminary statement: The professional reviews are very questionable. And don't listen to people who say "how can fans of the franchise question critics, opinions rule". That is flawed logic. Which is quite a funny thing, by the way because now even the fans try to refer to this posting andPreliminary statement: The professional reviews are very questionable. And don't listen to people who say "how can fans of the franchise question critics, opinions rule". That is flawed logic. Which is quite a funny thing, by the way because now even the fans try to refer to this posting and want to call it the "worst" as if it is spreading "hate". No. It doesn't. Unfair and inappropriate criticism, off-context steming from the lack of information is a non-contribution so it is absolutely legitimate to warn from. Being misinformed is one thing but already knowing that it will influence your rating heavily is a big issue. Do the fans here not point out flaws in the movie just because they know the franchise? They do.
If you already know you give it an unfair treatment through the lack of knowledge then you are criticising inappropriately. And what is this nonsense of "please ignore the 10 reviews"? So trust the other so-called "opinions" but not the 10s, that acknowledge flaws? 10-movies have flaws. And you can integrate the lack of knowledge but less than 5 primarily because you don't know it is just not ok.
___

This movie was absolutely solid.

Is it the most logical movie of all time and does it have a super original story? No. What does, really? Still for the first real theatre-released live-action movie of the Pokémon franchise this has been absolutely fantastic. And the way the story was presented was still quite original in its own way because of how it relies on certain elements that are just not given in similiar stories most of the time.
What can I say about this movie that got me a bit on the negative side? The lore is different. They say stuff like "Pokémon don't understand what we say, they feel it" yadayada. Well, that is definitely not true - in OTHER continuities. But this is a new continuity so who cares. Same goes for some other things like "in old times people caught Pokémon" et cetera and then showing ancient drawings when the game continuity actually has NPCs saying the exact opposite: The trainer stuff is quite new and humans and Pokémon once even lived together, eating on the same table and all (yes, there are people reading NPC dialogue, unbelievable!)
Also the way they treated the strongest Pokémon made by mankind (Mewtwo) in this movie during the finale was a bit something I did not like but that is because I grew up with the first REAL Pokémon movie and the Mewtwo in the original movie (which definitely got them some of their plot details) would never have let a villain do this to "him" - but stuff from before like him being used or how he was caught was a good parallel to how he was originally made in the anime or how Giovanni tried to get him back in the second Mewtwo movie "Mewtwo returns".
What did they do fanservice-wise that I really like how they re-used the Mewtwo stuff, just as mentioned. Also how they used the instrumental version of the Western opening and actually let Ryan Reynolds sing it. I must really say - for a not even 2 hour lasting movie there was a lot happening, especially plot-wise for a movie like Pokémon, I really have no idea what those critics are babbling about because I already watched it twice and yesterday I was justb surprised how far the movie was advanced in such a short time. Is the master plan of the villain cheesy? Yes, it is. But it is supposed to bring the world of Pokémon which is a kid's show on the big screen (as said, live action, Pokémon has enough movies). I am not that fine with how they displayed the humor because it got a bit too extreme for Pokémon. The manga is very dark and aggressive and even the games use words like "kill" and "die" very late in the games, although the theme was already there from the first generation on but constantly bringing up that topic or talking about throwing up, making a drug joke or bed jokes is just a bit too much. Not that I did not find it funny or that it was such an incredible no-go, it is just something displayed a LITTLE bit to extreme for something that is primarily associated with the games and anime instead of the manga. Some Pokémon were really goodlooking, some were a bit too much with the uncanny valley effect. Pokémon like Bulbasaur for example should definitely have been remade. Pikachu, Mewtwo, Jigglypuff, Psyduck, Charizard and Gyarados were top-notch.

Overall it was very entertaining. A good start for what I hope is the first step to more Pokémon movies and children will surely love it. Old veterans/freaks like me will surely enjoy lots of the fanservice during this nostalgia trip even if it is not exactly like the other continuities. Although they already mentioned Kanto, so who know what comes next.

Since most people might be missing me saying this: Ryan Reynolds was great. I think that's a given and does not need to be mentioned. Most people like him so this does not need long paragraphs.… Expand

39 of 54 users found this helpful3915

Kyurem91

May 17, 2019

Da rasponi a du mani davvero ragazzi dovete guardarlo assolutamente Cristo santo come come avete fatto a dargli una votazione così bassa

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

SkyPikachu

May 10, 2019

Solid movie with great acting from Ryan Reynolds. The humors was great and the story and twists were good. This is obviously a movie that's suppose to also appeal to older children as well and I feel like it did that very well. Ignore the critics about Pikachu. Pikachu was an important andSolid movie with great acting from Ryan Reynolds. The humors was great and the story and twists were good. This is obviously a movie that's suppose to also appeal to older children as well and I feel like it did that very well. Ignore the critics about Pikachu. Pikachu was an important and amazing asset to the movie and some of the best lines come from Pikachu. There weren't as many different pokemon as I would have hoped for. I wasn't counting but I assume we didn't see more than 100 max. I came out of the cinema really happy and had really enjoyed myself. Must watch if you're a pokemon fan. Decent movie for children as well though there's some scenes that may scare some younger children (hence the PG rating) I also think parents will get a decent amount of enjoyment from the movie since the plot is much deeper than your typical pokemon movie or your typical childrens movie.… Expand

11 of 15 users found this helpful114

tsarouhas

May 27, 2019

The cutest movie i have ever seen. Ryan Reynolds as pikachu's voice was amazing. And we were not in it for an amazing plot, we were in it to see CGI Pokemon, and they delivered

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Kevin3

Sep 12, 2019

Detective pikachu cumple con entregarte una película divertida y los pokemones son excelentes, pero la historia es muy repetitiva y en el final decae su ritmo

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

CyberRobotnix

May 11, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well, I must say I kinda expected this movie to be as good as any other movie from Hollywood that tries to cater to a younger demographic (or about 60% of their movies for that matter).

I'll start with the least problematic con (consider that as a nitpick), the protagonist in the game is a white guy, but in the movie he was replaced by a black guy for the sake of inclusivity. I honestly could care less, you could replace the protagonist by the green dude from "Dame Tu Cosita" and it would still be enjoyable if the movie was good to begin with. As a fun fact, Pixels did the same **** by putting in a midget for the sake of inclusivity.

Now the real kicker, the story is bad. It is very erratic and it doesn't know how to progress so basically sometimes the flow of the story is slow, sometimes it is as fast as all hell and in the meantime you don't learn anything meaningful, like wow the Mr Mime interrogation is the best example to point that out, that's just wasting the viewer's time and the protagonist goes to several places not knowing where to go to progress the investigation.

On the same subject, the movie doesn't know who to choose as the main antagonist, first you think it's the whamen with the Psyduck because she harasses the protagonist, then you think it's the son of Clifford, Roger Clifford (he was the main antagonist in the game after all), then you think it's that guy with the Charizard since he had those drugs that made Pokemons go bat**** crazy on him, then you think it's Mewtwo as an ode to the first movie (you could imagine he was a side villain, but like not the main villain at the very beginning of the movie) and finally plot twist, plot twist, it was actually Howard Clifford. Damn, choose your main villain within the first half of the movie goddamnit, atleast Pixels did that correctly!

Overall, a mediocre movie. I am so hyped to see how awful will be Paramount's Sonic movie and the rumoured upcoming Mario movie, I'll expect the same subpar quality that this movie had.… Expand

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

LifeHistory

Jun 7, 2019

is this really for real? I thought Dragon ball Evolution was bad but this is ten times worst. Whats wrong with the people who made this? A garbage story and trash actors with very bad CGI.

1 of 7 users found this helpful16

SEE ALL 261 REVIEWS

20	#20 Most Discussed Movie of 2019
11	#11 Most Shared Movie of 2019