A lively, often charming video-game-adjacent fantasy that gets by on creature design, playful worldbuilding, and a surprisingly strong sense of fun. It’s more enjoyable as a spectacle and a Pokémon hangout than as a mystery, with a few clunky stretches and a story that plays very safe.
20% ★☆☆☆☆ (791,277)
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Action · Adventure · PG
2019 · 1h 45m · ★ 20% (791.3K)
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Director: Rob Letterman
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton
Overview
In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent monster who seeks to be a detective.
Director
Rob Letterman
Production
Legendary Pictures, The Pokémon Company, TOHO
Cast
Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe, Chris Geere, Suki Waterhouse, Josette Simon, Alejandro De Mesa, Rita Ora, Karan Soni, Max Fincham, Simone Ashley, Edward Davis, Diplo, Omar Chaparro, Ben Fox, Kadiff Kirwan, Ryoma Takeuchi, Rina Hoshino
Curator Review
Verdict
A lively, often charming video-game-adjacent fantasy that gets by on creature design, playful worldbuilding, and a surprisingly strong sense of fun. It’s more enjoyable as a spectacle and a Pokémon hangout than as a mystery, with a few clunky stretches and a story that plays very safe.
Best for
Pokémon fans
families and younger viewers
viewers who want cute creature effects and light adventure
people nostalgic for early-2000s studio fantasy
Skip if
you want a sharp detective story
you dislike obvious exposition and formulaic plotting
you need emotional depth over spectacle
you are not invested in the Pokémon property
Overview
Pokémon Detective Pikachu works best when it leans into the absurd pleasure of seeing Pokémon rendered with enough texture and personality to feel tactile. The worldbuilding is playful, the creature effects are the main event, and the movie understands that a lot of its audience is here simply to enjoy being in this universe for a while.
Worth noting
The mystery is serviceable but not especially surprising, and the human drama never quite catches up to the visual invention around it. Still, the film has enough energy, charm, and creature-comedy to keep it moving, even when the plot feels like familiar family-adventure scaffolding.
Bottom line
If you’re already on board with Pokémon, this is an easy watch. If you’re not, it’s probably too dependent on brand affection to fully win you over, but it remains a polished, goofy, and occasionally delightful piece of studio fantasy.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (3.5★) · 3105 likes
Look: when Pokémon are onscreen, I'm happy. So luckily that's most of the movie.
rach (4.5★) · 2966 likes
psyduck most relatable character of all time i think
sree (3.5★) · 1582 likes
mewtwo thicker than a bowl of oatmeal
Karsten (2.5★) · 1157 likes
As someone who still consistently plays Pokemon Go, I was ready to come out of this shoving my middle finger at all the critics faces and slapping a 4 stars on it. But unfortunately I can’t bring myself to do that. In short, it’s like a movie from the early 2000s done right but at the end of the day...it’s still feels like a movie from the early 2000s. Also not a single Magmar in this whole thing, fuck that.
cinéfila... 🕯️ (3.5★) · 1144 likes
this is our generation's blade runner. i will not elaborate.