Pokémon Detective Pikachu

As mature as it looks in the trailers, the end result is not a blockbuster, not even a family film, but a film for elementary school kids. This isn't a bad thing, and my son duly enjoyed it, but it does feel like a missed opportunity (led by the supporting but completely poorly thought out and untapped co-existence of humans and Pokémon). As a film for kids it's solid, but it's still duller than it should be for a material with such undeniable potential. What pulls it out of the waters of bland and unmemorable mediocrity are a few good ideas, the "Letterman saw Nolan's Inception" scene, and the escapades of Pikachu himself. But even these are, somewhat surprisingly, significantly fewer than one would expect. If there's going to be a next time for a Pokémon movie, it should not exclusively target the little ones in the audience, cast actors with at least a modicum of talent, and replace the editor with someone who understands that scenes should ideally follow each other. (13.05.2019)

Pika-pika. The whole thing relies on Ryan Reynolds’ cuteness and the one-liners served up by the yellow animal. Or something like that. The unlikable main human with traumatic childhood has nothing to offer. Otherwise it’s quite an OK kids’ film. The unbelievably well-done little monsters hop about the city and it’s a pleasure to watch them. There are duels, an evil villain and a super-powerful Pokémon. Beautiful memories come rushing back from the days when my sister wouldn’t let me change channels because she was watching Pikachu and co. (19.05.2019)

I grew up with Pokemon and was curious about this film, but in the end I'm disappointed by the overly infantile nature of it. Ryan Reynolds is great as the voice Pikachu, but the humor is not as effective as it should have been and I'm a bit disappointed with the storyline, as the film took a route ore typical for a sequel. I definitely would have liked to see more Pokemon hunting in the wild and duels in arenas, which would have been both more fun and more true to what I know from my childhood. It’s not bad, but the potential was higher. 60%. (21.05.2019)

Tim arrives in a town where humans and Pokémon live side by side. He wants to find out what happened to his father, and he gets an unexpected partner, Pikachu, who can talk. Only Tim can understand him, but that's useful. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is grand family entertainment, full of Pokémon, but their cuteness can't hide the fact that the film has a rather hackneyed story and not very interesting human characters. Fans of Pokémon will be happy, because there are a lot of them running around on the screen. The rest, however, will be treated to mediocre entertainment at best, with a fine Ryan Reynolds. (15.05.2019)

Maybe it’s because I grew up during the Pokémon craze, but Detective Pikachu felt like the perfect Hollywood blockbuster—something we haven’t had in a while. It takes the essence of the Japanese Pokémon universe and creates a stunning cyberpunk world in Ryme City, even before the whole cyberpunk trend blew up with a certain video game. I had a blast watching it. Sure, the plot is your typical adventure, but the world it’s set in is so enjoyable that I didn’t mind at all. (13.04.2021)