Having never played the "Detective Pikachu" game, I can't attest as to the film's faithfulness to the source material. As a movie on its own merits and with a passing knowledge of Pokemon, I found that I enjoyed this more than I thought I would going in. It has a decent narrative structure (although the villain reveal is a little out-of-left-field; they probably could have used a little more buildup) and likable if somewhat cookie -cutter characters. But, WOW, is the tone inconsistent! Most of the movie gets surprisingly serious and dark early on, and for parts of the film Ryan Reynolds feels more like comic relief. Expect emotional whiplash from this one. Still, it's a fair movie that at least fans of Pokemon will likely enjoy.
