The Detective Pikachu Movie Reviews Are In, And It's Actually Pretty Mixed

Okay, so the same people who tend to know nothing about video games... are the ones giving this reviews as if it wasn't a movie based on a video game.

Who cares what paid critics say? I prefer reviews from just average folks, they don't have an agenda, usually.

Definitely not the kind of movie I would be looking to reviews to decide if I want to see it. It's a Pokemon movie, you either want to see it or you don't.

It really seems the more gaming-focused sites enjoyed it more than the mainstream media ones. As to be probably expected as the movie is geared towards Pokemon and gaming fans.

As long as it is not entirely bad it should be considered a huge success and a big step forward for video-game-to-film adaptations.

The Associated Press reviewer really had a very uninspired joke with his "Pokemon don't go" comment.

Maybe someone should start reviewing reviewers.

@Kalmaro A lot of people, actually. Same with game reviews, as evidenced by comment threads on all of the reviews here. People will wait to read them if they are on the fence, but it obviously won't sway many people who already had made up their minds.

Great analysis Ryan! You hit the nail on the head — everyone who doesn’t seem to know much about Pokémon is more likely to say it’s average, and the people who do know about Pokémon are more likely to say it’s great. Like you said, I wouldn’t worry about the average reviews.

Honestly, this movie has the potential to be the best video game based movie ever. It’s funny and more importantly respects its source material. I’m super happy that they refer to all generations of Pokémon , not just generation 1. The movie feels like a celebration of ALL Pokémon, which is awesome. And of course seeing Pokémon and humans coexist makes my childhood dream come to life right in front of me. It’s shaping to be an awesome movie, I’m super excited to watch it.

@rjejr well-said.

Who needs movie reviews? It's just a couple of hours, I really don't understand who needs a review to know about a movie before they watch it.

I didn't have high hopes for this one either, but at least it's still better than the Sonic movie (it's going to take a lot more than just fixing Sonic's model to make the product acceptable).

74%?! In the aggregate movie review realm that’s a good-go see it score. Never regretted a box office ticket for a movie that’s 70% or above, unlike so many 7/10 video games!

From the sounds of it, it should be a hit with fans and general audiences, but the film itself is not terribly deep.

I’m totally fine with this too, I rather have a fun movie rather than a tropey-cluster of generic Hollywood junk like the Sonic movie with what we have seen so far appears to have.

I’m still looking forward to the movie as much as I have before.

@shadow-wolf Couldn't agree more. I'm stoked and can't wait to see it

"the film has a Metascore of 50 out of 100 - you can't get much more average than that. On Rotten Tomatoes, it's currently sitting at 74%."
Interestingly, I've come to realise Rotten Tomatoes often closely matches my impressions of a film while the metascore is usually very wide off the mark.

Honestly, not that much of a shock. It’s hard to sit through 2 hours of Ryan Reynolds at the best of times but it was never going to exactly be an Oscar winner.

That's every decent movie in a nutshell. You rarely see a movie score all great reviews. Too many people that just wont like it or get it. This movie appeals to fans of Pokemon not everyone but I'm sure there enough there for most to enjoy.

I kinda tend to trust Grace Randolph with these things and the way she put it - Blade Runner meets Roger Rabbit - definitely sounds enticing, not to mention that she was raving about the VFX and production values in general, as well as giving high praise for most of the actual cast, beyond Renolds.

@Chayshirin Thanks. I'm actually looking forward to it. Originally I hated the idea of Detective Pikachu and it sounded like trash, but the 1st long trailer sold me on it.

Though I'm not really a Pokemon fan either, here's my original post from November.

"OMG, I went into that so expecting to hate every thing about it, but I love it.

Of course in my head it's called "My Pet Deadpool" and it's all about how Deadpool gets turned into a cute furry creature by an evil mutant and nobody can understand him except this one other outcast mutant kid so they band together to hunt down the evil mutant who turned Deadpool into a cute adorable furry creature.

But seriously, watch the trailer like that, and if you've seen either of the two Deadpool movies it works a whole lot better.

Pop a couple of shrooms before hitting the theater and you're good to go, Deadpool 3."

???
Most of the qoutes were positive?

@Spoony_Tech "You rarely see a movie score all great reviews."

Except Endgame, which I wasn't crazy about.

I'd switch RT scores from the big weekend, I'd give 96 for GoT, 80 for Endgame. (Reversed scores on RT last I checked) I'll watch GoT 3 more times before I sit through 3 hours of Endgame again.

“Avengers Endgame is full of references to the franchise and a treat for fans.” 5/5

“Detective Pikachu is full of references to the franchise and a treat for fans” 3/5

DP wasn't designed with professional critics in mind. it was designed for people with attachment of some sort to the world of Pokemon, be them die-hard fans who can tell you every stat and move, or just people who watched the anime every Saturday morning before they even knew what "anime" means.

plus, I always take movie reviews with a heart attack-inducing grain of salt - The Guardian gave Missing Link 3 stars out of 5 for cryin' out loud!

Critics weren't super excited about first Pokemon movie in 1998 either... and about every other Pokemon movie released every other year as well. Movie specials are usually made for people who already love the franchise and want more of what they love. So if you want to know if this movie good or not, just buy a ticket and see everything for yourself.

"For every 'Mortal Kombat' there’s a 'Prince of Persia.' "

...what? this statement alone makes me think the guy they sent from Associated Press hasn't played video games in a while and just throws some names around that he thinks people will resonate with.

Does anybody really trust critic reviews these days? They are NEVER trustworthy.

This is an instance where I wouldn't expect a critic, who knows nothing about the franchise, to have a clue to all the easter eggs and eye candy this movie will have. I have a hunch that it's gonna be a great love letter to the fans. If the movie interests you, go see it, if not, move on.

@derty and that kinda implies one of those two was good.

@kalmaro Are you one of those people who think Disney pay for positive reviews? lol

@rjejr makes sense to me. I don’t like Pokemon and have no desire to see it. But people who like Pokemon I can imagine this is right up their street

@gokev13 Man, there should at least be a twitter account compiling hacky put-downs like this from critics.

@EasyDaRon Not all the time, that's why I said "usually". Most movie goers just want to watch a movie. Not everyone is a superfan.

And why should I care for the opinion or respect the refined sense of taste of someone who thinks "Pokemon Don't Go" is a witty remark? He even sets up the joke with a quasi-explanation to make sure we truly get it...

@Morpheel Exactly, both movies were crap i dont get this statement.

Honestly these days crítica are so out of touch with what people like. Look at the past movies, and tell me how the audience numbers are almost the opposite of what crítics say.

SMH critcs are just so basic these days, and trying to get more cash in their pockets over their credibility.

I'm still watching it and waiting to see what us people say.

Professional film critics were never going to embrace this film, given its Japanese and video game roots.

Besides, I think most people know better than to trust the critical consensus on films these days.

@Venus_Adept Hey, the first Mortal Kombat had the right amounts of awful mixed to make a passable movie! Also it had Highlander shooting electric bolts and a KILLER soundtrack!

@Wesbert LOL

Reminds me of Hillary Clinton's infamous "Pokemon go to the polls!" moment in 2016.

This Pikachu is like son of I miss my bus ride..

Cue die-hard Pokemon fans coming up with reasons why critics' reviews don't matter because they're mixed. Let's cut the pretense and just skip to the logical conclusion that only fans who liked the movie are allowed to talk about it, because obviously it was made only with them in mind.

Who honestly thought this was going to be a hit?

I remember finding one review complaining about how there's no depth to the humor, using examples like how Snorlax is sleepy or Cubone is depressed and that's it. What were they expecting, a Shakespearean comedy?

Honestly, after getting other video game related movies that ranged from decent to god awful, in my opinion I think this is an achievement.

Bravo to all that worked on this!

@Kalmaro Because review bombing isn't a thing...

In Japan, they think this is a horror movie. No joke.

American producers who thought this movie will at least be successful in Japan is dead wrong. The perception of Pokemon in Japan is very different from the West.

I wouldn't let the 50 on Metacritic get people down or become sceptical in seeing the movie. For some reason movies on Metacritic tend to get very average to negative scores compared to their Rotten Tomatoes/IMDB counterpart. A great example of was with Infinity War, which got an 85% on RT but only a score of 68 on Metacritic. Not saying that metacritic scores should be completely shunned aside and ignored but I just wanted to let people be aware that Metacritic movie scores tend to be much lower than the RT/IMDB ones. Honestly, the fact that the movie has a fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes shows that for a video game movie it must have done something right.

I'll delete any comments about the captain marvel conspiracy made after this point.

@Arehexes again, that's why I said "usually".

I think this movie is gonna be great! These reviewers just don't get pokemon.

So basically they made a film based on a video game property that lent towards said gaming fans and taking into account their existing knowledge and tastes. Sounds like they may kinda have done what gamers have been telling them for years?

I can never take The Guardian writers seriously. I mean really, "Pokemon-kind"?

The trailers have managed to impress me, so its likely I'll be watching this at some point. Who knows, maybe its the first good video game film.

Man.. those low scores from some and I'm not surprised either. Seems like some don't play games and such and expect much more from a movie based on a game.

Of course I'm going to watch it and make my own judgment on whether it's good or not.

Don’t really care about the reviews going to see anyway

@Morpheel exactly haha

I'm not saying this is the perfect film but reading through some of the negative reviews it's pretty clear if you're over the age of 50 and can't comprehend why people play video games you won't enjoy this movie.

We all expected the plot to be bad. I just like visuals

Classic case of old-timers being unable to understand the appeal of the newer generation's interest.

Reminds me of the massive divide "classical" music had in the 1800s/1900s.

The Rotten Tomatoes score actually puts it over 20 points higher than Rampage, making it the most critically acclaimed video game film adaptation of all time.

This movie seems like a perfect example of one of my favorite Roger Ebert sentiments: Movies are so rarely great art, that if you can't appreciate great trash then there's no reason to watch them.

Sounds like what I thought it would be, a mixed bag but an entertaining mixed bag. That IGN gave it such a good review is no surprise, they tend to be insanely biased.

While I wouldn't say that the "average" reviews should be disregarded per se, it's clear that many of them aren't invested in the Pokemon franchise in any way. Also, that one review with the poor Pokemon Go reference.... 🙄

I tend to rely more on word of mouth/genuine user impressions/reviews these days. I've seen cases where critics panned a film that I thought was fairly decent and others where critics loved something that I ended up disliking. At the end of the day, reviews are just the impressions of one person. I think what critics look for in a film should change depending on the genre.

I've played the game and liked what I've seen in the trailers I've watched, so I will be seeing this at some point.

Just I expect from a film adaptation.

You just know that the AP reviewer is a 50 something who was pissed that they made him sit through a "kid's movie" that he didn't understand because the only Pokemon thing he knows of is Pokemon Go.

too convoluted for kids? do those reviewers know how much convoluted games the kids these days play? ...what th ...

The review score keeps going up on Rotton Tomatoes, so not exactly mixed. It is pulling to more positive.

The fact that thos critics who aren't into Pokémon (orvideo games in general) all they talked about eas Ryan Reynolds demonstrate how little interest they had in the grand point of the movie which is obviously Pokémon, they were simply interested in checking out the performance of the famous actors, is like how some movies get the famous actors on the cover of the DVD/Blu-ray box but have very minor role in the movie.

I think in this case, a movie based on a video game is best reviewed by gamers themselves with an open mind, not close minded ignorant film critics.

Atleast some of them know what they are reviewing, a lot of them are just to out of the franchise or not into the franchise at all to understand it properly, i bet this people probably think the live-action Sonic movie looks great.

To be fair, most gamers likely don't have a good understanding of how quality cinematography is done.

In other words, the movie should be able to stand on it's own merit, without completely relying on CG Pokémon.

74% for a game-related movie is actually a VERY high score. I can't wait to see the movie next week.

@RevampedSpider
Eh... The best critics have a far greater understanding of film technique and history - and art in general - than the average viewer. They know quite a bit.

With that said, there are a lot of trashy critics out there too - and responses to art are going to be subjective anyways. Most critics worth their salt will be the first to admit that fact.

In my opinion, the reviews of my favorite critics - whether or not I agree with their assessment - can be helpful in providing context, elucidating themes, and offering a different perspective. But in the end, it still comes down to my personal reaction to the work.

Which is to say... I think it's a mistake to dismiss all critics out of hand - there are some very smart and insightful ones out there - but it's ultimately up to each of us to make up our own minds about a film/game/book/album/etc

Wow, it's almost like this Pokémon movie was made to appeal to Pokémon fans. Crazy, right? Being a Pokémon super Fan myself, I can't wait to see it!

I think critics just watch too many movies. So when a movie does something surprising, they'll like it regardless of its faults. And when a movie seems to stick mostly to a formula they're tired of, they'll pan it regardless of its strengths.
Hence them liking art movies and not pop culture stuff.

@Chayshirin and @Tarolusa

I believe some of the discrepancies between metacritic and rotten tomatoes stems from how they aggregate.

I believe metacritic is a normalized average. So takes all the scores reviews and normalized then to a 100 point scale and you get the average.

Whereas rotten tomatoes is a ratio of positive to negative reviews. So In that case a 6/10 and a 10/10 equally contribute to the overall percentage score.

That’s most likely why you see metacritic scores lower than rotten tomatoes.

Looking forward to reviewing this film. I'm actually hyped about it!

@Remerkin 👍you are right.
Rotten Tomatoes operates on a recommend/not recommend basis, which I find more effective for a medium like film. Scores would be too arbitrary for my taste.

@HeroponRiki The Power of Us ranks higher and managed to get 60% based on five critics. Detective Pikachu is beating that right now.

@Kutal Actually, a great movie needs to appeal to everyone, not just enthusiasts. This is where the Pokémon anime movies failed and where Detective Pikachu succeeds.

The most negative review out of the ones you pointed out (the 5/10) was clearly written by someone who doesn't know or give a crap about the game franchise, and I'd assume most follow suit, since this is the movie media we're talking about.

I'm not a big fan of Pokemon and I'm not even saying the movie will be great, although the trailers made it seem fun. I'm just saying, if you are a fan, you're probably better off watching it and making your own judgement.

@gokev13 I would like to review reviewers........ but their is a catch.... how much will you pay me for each review I do?

(Also I wouldn't mind reviewing game critics).

@turntSNACO
"This week on "Gokev's Review Review" we look at a movie review for the movie "Review" found in the "National Review" and it looks like the reviewer needs to review how to do a proper review."

So if you like Pokémon you are more likely to over look the movie's flaws?

@IceEarthGuard
I can only pay you in respect. You will get more of my respect for each review you review.

I don't buy these reviews.
GameXplain gave it a pretty great review, I think. Haven't watched the video yet, though.

@-Juice- Is it really the case? All the excitement I've seen on social media comes from the old school fans, you know the ones who actually grew up with the franchise, and that's the market they're going after. Nowadays kids basically know the franchise from Go and maybe the anime but lack that nostalgic feeling for it. It's not strange that a lot of critics aren't fans and as such the movie don't do anything for them

These reviews basically confirm what we already knew, if you are a huge fan of the franchise there's a good chance you'll want to watch it but if not it's just another movie. And there isn't anything wrong with that, after all it was clear they were targeting old school fans, I happen to fall in that camp and surely will go watch it. Now critics don't HAVE to be familiar with the source material, that's a coincidence most of the time and just purely reflect what someone who isn't familiar with the franchise would think about it, but who the hell takes critics seriously these days? If anything I have mixed feelings about PokeGo being the thing most people including kids recognize the franchise for

End of the day you watch and enjoy what interests you, critics are nonsense and sometimes biased by their own taste. It's all subjective. I can think of some popular things on TV that don't interest me at all, and vice versa.

Pokemon as it is, is a tough sell at least to older generations. I can see how some of these old dudes reviewing the film just genuinely wouldn't get it. But I get the impression that if you're even mildly familiar with Pokemon and don't have any major negative thoughts on the franchise, then you'll probably enjoy it.

I think average reviews are to be expected, doesn't mean it will be an average movie for the audience though.

@TommyTendo don't buy these reviews, but believe one that you haven't even watch yet? Lol! Dat trolling.

A lot of critics gave a garbage movie, like TLJ, highly undeserved, high praise. So it’s best not to believe what most critics think, be it good or bad and simply determine whether a movie is good or not, yourself.

What gives away a bad movie is when the posters and trailers have to use random people's tweets to prop it up.

Not really bothered by the critics. I never expected it to be Best Picture worthy but I'm going to see it next weekend and I have faith I will enjoy it and possibly praise it as "video game movie adaption done right."

I'll wait for the audience and youtube reviews thanks.

The movie critics gave The Last Jedi 91%.

I'm supposed to trust their judgement?

The trailers sold me on this one. I'm in for the ride. Don't care if it isn't perfect.

Seems like the movie's Rotten Tomatoes score has settled at a 70%, which would make it the highest-rated video game movie by a comfortable margin, even if the movie' isn't an outright critical darling.

I don't think you can really justify saying "The more film-centric sites, who we'd assume don't have quite the same knowledge of the Pokémon franchise, have commonly argued that the acting of Ryan Reynolds is the saving grace here, with the Pokémon not being particularly special."

It's pretty bold of a site which reviews things to call into question the ability of other reviewers to review they respective fields. It's fair to say the wider media has a better handle on reviewing films than the gaming media. Frankly, opinions of the likes of Empire and Variety are worth far more in this context than Serebii or Polygon. I wouldn't go to Empire for their review of a Pokémon game, but I wouldn't go to Nintendo Life for movie reviews.

The suggestion seems to be that the wider media doesn't understand Pokémon well enough to be able to review this movie for all it's merits. But I'd argue that the gaming media don't understand movies well enough to be able to review it.

Having seen it, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the film media's impressions are more accurate than the gaming media's. The script is messy, a lot of the acting pretty poor, and there aren't nearly as many different Pokémon in it as the trailers imply. As a big Pokémon fan I expected better but feared worse. It's good fun, but it's hardly perfect. 3/5 is a very fair score.

So the plot is bad and the effects are bad and nightmare-inducing, and people are surprised that critics who aren't wearing massive pokémon fan rose-tinted glasses aren't giving it a high score. Shocking.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@derty
Yeah, I noticed that one too. They are both good movies. Personally I’m a big fan of PoP. Just shows you gotta take any review with a bucket of salt.

I don't know the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate makes it seem more positive. I'd say if over 70% recommend a film then it's a success.

That is the whole problem though. I’d love to take my non gaming family to not only a good game based movie but one we can enjoy together, just like we can do with the MCU. This still looks like one of those straight to video cases where if you don’t know or care about the source material, you’ll get very little enjoyment out of it at all.

I'm not that big of a fan of Metacritic... I am more interested in seeing how many critics have had something positive/negative to say about a film rather than assigning some arbitrary number between 1-100 based on keywords in a review. Even then, I generally prefer to see movies myself and draw my own conclusions.

It is a Pokemon movie. Never thought it would be up for an Oscar.

Also easier to get my girl to go see this than another super hero movie. Even I am sick of those at this point.

I'm not convinced the movie will be good, but I've learned critics are more noise than substance. They're paid to meet expectations.

The Last Jedi was the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to taking paid reviews seriously. I understand that not everyone has the same opinion on that movie, but it's like reviewers COMPLETELY ignored the flaws collectively.

Considering the amount of forced Pokémon Go references many of these critics are making, it’s pretty obvious that most of them have never played a mainline Pokémon game in their lives. This film was never going to be critically well received because they simply won’t get most of it! Personally, I think it looks great and can’t wait to see it (:

I'm so glad I don't listen to other people I would have missed out on some great movies and games

I'll be seeing an early screening Wednesday since I work at a theater. I'll probably really enjoy it. It's like Rodger Rabbit but with Pokemon! What could possibly go wrong?

@idrawrobots Sure seems to be the case with those who watch the yearly anime movies. They're quite bad, IMO.

70% on Rotten Tomatoes is solid though. I look forward to seeing Detective Pikachu.

What a stupid review. Reynolds' inclusion is precisely what makes this movie run-of-the-mill, hiring a name as opposed to voice talent.

It's a fun movie to watch for Pokemon fans and kids, that's pretty much it. If you're expecting the next Star Wars or Toy Story here you aren't getting it.

I never understood film critics. Their reviews are all over the place. And they are generally much lower than what you'd expect from a video game review.

"For every 'Mortal Kombat' there’s a 'Prince of Persia.'"
I can't tell which is meant to be the good one here... I mean, both are terrible, one has 50 on Metacritic, the other 58; both awful scores and MK getting 8 points more is surely down to it being reviewed 25 years aho when standards were much lower.

when are people going to stop listening to critics or using aggregate score sites as the reason to watch or not watch a film and actually go see if they like it themselves, don't want to go to the cinema, fine wait until it's available to rent or on Netflix or something

make your own minds up instead of letting others do it for you

@Kalmaro
"Are you aware of what happened rotten tomatoes concerning Captain Marvel?

I don't remember if anything turned up that proved Disney was directly behind it but it would be odd for rotten tomatoes and even YouTube to protect her.

We even have evidence of theaters have empty seats that were still paid for.

Theres no denying that Disney pushed for that movie hard."

Wow, wasn't that thing with RT because it disproportionately got "do not want to watch" scores from trolls who get triggered by Brie Larson? Of course RT is going to intervene with that. Apart from that, RT did nothing for Disney involving Captain Marvel. It was reviewed fairly.

And I'd like to see this evidence that Disney paid for the Captain Marvel seating when they didn't for their recent flops e.g. Nutcracker, Dumbo, Wrinkle in Time. You'd think they would pay for seating in those films, right? Or is your theory just dumb?

@NintendoFan990 i thought Captain Marvel was pretty good, not the best MCU movie but a solid entry

i can see why some wouldn't like it though

I really don't care about movie reviews at all as there have been so many instances where I really enjoy a movie and after watching I would go check the reviews it received online and would be surprised to see it being lambasted by critics. I guess I am just not picky and don't expect every movie to have a deep and profound impact on me. Dumb fun is a good thing sometimes.

@NintendoFan990 Unfortunately, mods have said they will delete any comments that have to deal with Captain Marvel, so I probably shouldn't even respond to this, but I WILL ask you this, how did Rotten tomatoes es determine that the user review scores were low purely because of trolls?

The scores staid low even after the removed thousands of reviews and only started to count review scores higher than 2~3 stars.

They also never removed 5 star reviews, since clearly people would never just troll and give a movie 5 stars out of spite.

And like I said, I don't have evidence of Disney buying seats, I just know the seats were bought. Plus, those other movies were way less important. Dumbo? Really?

https://outline.com/UDakck
https://outline.com/WLg3Ae
These stories are all over the place, and they do have incentive to help Bre since she's supposed to be important to the movies, despite all the controversy around her.

Don't be so quick to call an opinion stupid, you run the risk of making yourself look bad.

@Kalmaro

"And like I said, I don't have evidence of Disney buying seats, I just know the seats were bought. Plus, those other movies were way less important. Dumbo? Really?"

lol All films that Disney release are important to them. A loss of money is a loss of money.

Also, that "source" that you linked is awful. Cosmic Book News is one of the most unreliable websites out there when it comes to comic book movie news. If you actually read the article it is trying to source, it'll tell you exactly why they chose to alter the RT score for Captain Marvel. These troll campaigns have been done in the past and they are trying to prevent them. Why should someone give a movie a 1 star if they haven't even seen it? I think that's pretty fair. Campaigns to alter things on metacritic or RT should be prevented so that movies get accurate results on audience reactions. I don't really see anything wrong with that. It kind of goes against the whole point of RT. It would be dumb if they didn't do anything and then CM got a lower score than... Catwoman, for example.

@NintendoFan990 Why would someone give a 1 star to a movie they haven't seen? Because they didn't want to see it.

Rotten tomatoes used to let you vote on if you wanted to watch a movie, it was the "want to see" score. The score for captain marvel was so low that they removed that feature.

And who cares where news come from, provided its true. Was there anything that article lied about? If so, show me. Don't just say "I don't like it" and dismiss it.

I linked the article they mentioned to show the bias. Like I said before, they only went after people who didn't like the movie and didn't want to see it. They never went after people who trolled by giving the movie 5 star ratings. How is that fair?

They essentially assumed that everyone does want to watch captain marvel so, natural, all bad reviews must be troll reviews. That's absurd, just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make them a troll. Can I call you a troll for not sharing my opinion?

https://clip-share.net/video/KBeUffaNxkY/disney-buying-captain-marvel-tickets-750-million-to-break-even-sales-fall-hard.html

It's easy to see the bias put towards captain marvel, it's pretty sickening.

There are only three people I trust to give legitimate movie reviews:

Grace Randolph
Jeremy Jahns
Chris Stuckmann

Everyone else can go do something other than review movies.

@kensredemption Never heard of those folks, but sounds like you've given sine thought to it.

1. Who gives a crap about critics?
2. 70%+ is still pretty damn good for "Rotten Tomatoes".

Honestly, I'm kinda surprised. From what I've heard, the movie is doing a pretty good job at explaining the world of Pokemon to newcomers. But I guess it's just shows that different movies has different audiences. Also, I'm pretty sure that Pokemon Go jokes died in 2017.

Ah yes, expectations. This is why I don't get hung up in reviews. I read, and see for myself.

Video game reviews are inflated far more than movie reviews. A 5/10 game would be a 2/10 movie, while a 5/10 movie would be equivalent to a 7/10 game.

It's become en vogue to say you don't care about professional reviews, but I still think they're helpful. I am a little suspicious of the numerical scores, but I find descriptions pretty helpful in knowing what to expect. And reading the full reviews on Detective Pikachu, what I'm getting is that this movie is really simply a kid's movie. Basic humor and predictable plot. I think the critics were expecting something that would more appeal to all ages considering the games have that wide appeal, so they marked it down.

@Kalmaro They’re movie reviewers on YouTube and I frequent their channels to see what they think of upcoming movies.

Grace Randolph has worked as a movie critic for awhile and has the discerning perspective of the technical aspects of a movie and her attention to detail is superb.

Chris Stuckmann is a filmmaker himself and evaluates movies based on how aesthetically adept they are, indicated by his appreciation of cinematic classics like Psycho and 12 Angry Men.

Jeremy Jahns’ reviews are like listening to someone who was just in the audience who isn’t critical of what they just saw and was just looking to enjoy what they saw and his reactions are generally raw and unfiltered which could either generate legitimate hype for the movie or make it sound like a complete dud.

I trust their impressions more than I do the paid critics who couldn’t care less about how their opinions affect others’ decisions to go out and see the movies and, in this particular case, still treat video game adaptations as “the enemy” since, apparently, the film and video game industry are still at war.

No tear induced super slow drama in it means a less likely positive review from most outlets.

Looks like a fun movie!

@kensredemption That's fair, I can respect that.

I took a film studies course where they do things like analyzing camera angles, lighting, and a bunch of mundane things for the sake of reviewing a director's skill, or something like that. Basically, the normies are not going to like this movie because it focuses more on fanservice instead of how well the narrative is put together or whatever. Long story short, that class was really boring and I would not recommend it. I'll trust the video game focused sites more than the mainstream reviewers.

This movie is for people who have affinity with games and/or Pokemon in general. I love games, but aren't huge on Pokemon. Yet I'll watch it someday, just not in the cinema. The trailers looked pretty cool.

But seeing as I am not a huge Pokemon fan, I might be dissapointed in the end. After all, I am also not that big on Super heroes (I watched some pretty cool super heroes movies in the past though) and I recently saw the first Avengers movie. Those movies are supposed to be the best of the best, right? Well, it didn't do me much. I only saw a pretty long movie with not that remarkable action scenes and no story! I have seen sooooo much better! I will still try the other movies though.

Is this a surprise to anyone? We all knew that it would be so-so at best. 74 is higher then I expected. And 74 aint a bad score. I'm not looking forward to seeing this with darling daughter.

I'm sure some of the reviews were by people who have never played Pokemon or any videogames for that matter. Probably by people that thought The English Patient was a great movie. eyeroll

Movie critics are to be taken with a huge barrel of salt, especially for a movie in this category.