May 11, 2019

"Pokemon Detective Pikachu" opens with a mix of reviews, but should please fans

Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's cg/live-action hybrid film Pokémon Detective Pikachu is expected to be a financial success this weekend. Reviews have generally been on its side, as most critics have found the film flawed but charming. The movie currently holds a middling 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Banking on millennial nostalgia and the content empire the Pokémon Company has built over decades, analysts are predicting Detective Pikachu will gross somewhere between $50-$65 million for its U.S. opening, which would be a decent start though likely not enough to overtake Disney's Avengers: Endgame in its third weekend. The movie will open on around 4,200 screens across North America.

In terms of the overseas markets, predictions range between $90-$120 million, which would put its global opening somewhere around the 140-$185 million mark.

Directed by Rob Letterman (who most recently helmed Goosebumps), the movie is based on a video game by the same title within the Pokémon game franchise, but of course many of its characters have been made famous through the property's incarnations as animated series and features, as well as the popular trading card game, and most recently the overwhelming success of the Pokémon Go augmented reality mobile game.

Early in his career as a director, Letterman wrote and directed the cg animated features Shark Tale and Monsters vs. Aliens for Dreamworks, which likely factored in the decision to hire him to oversee a major project aimed at younger audiences that involves numerous cg characters.

Animation and vfx for Pokémon Detective Pikachu were created by MPC, Framestore, Image Engine, and Proof. Erik Nordby is production vfx supervisor. The estimated budget for what could be one of Warner's biggest hits of the year is $150 million.

Starring Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu and Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, a teenage boy whose estranged father has mysteriously disappeared in Ryme City, the film is a fan's dream since it features a wide variety of Pokémon, peculiar creatures that, in this case, serve more as companions to humans than as trained fighters for battles.

Ahead of this week's release, Warner created a Youtube account named Inspector Pikachu where it uploaded a fake Pokémon Detective Pikachu screener, which instead of showing the full film, features Pikachu dancing for 103 minutes, which is the actual film's approximate length. Actor Ryan Reynolds himself tweeted the link, which has already amassed 12 million views.

The film has received mixed reviews, with many critics pointing out issues with the screenplay and the coherence of the story in general. Although some found it to be solely targeted at super fans, the majority agreed its visual aesthetic and the cg characters are some of its standout qualities.

Here are some takes on the film from critics at major publications:

In his mostly positive review for Slate, Sam Adams praised the work of animators in the face of the task at hand:

While addressing issues with the screenplay, The Washington Post's Kristen Page-Kirby felt the visual elements of the film worked, especially the animated characters:

For The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen praised the work of the vfx team that created the movie's world, including a particular set piece:

The Wrap's Alonso Duralde was much less impressed by the overall ambition of the project:

Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fear said the film will only satisfy preexisting fans:

Indiewire's Kate Erbland found the pokémon adorable, but not much else worthwhile: