Pokémon Detective Pikachu

It's a delight for fans to see how immersive this world actually feels.

I found this weirdly diverting... It's a counterintuitive fit for this character, and I kind of liked that about it.

Pretty well-done, and when it got to the end, the bits that are meant to tug on your heart strings twitch the very top register...

But when the earth begins to shake and villains finally show their true colors things get far less interesting.

The human characters are flat and boring...but Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu saved the entire film, and there's a lot of him...about as good as a live-action Pokémon film could be.

The central mystery of Detective Pikachu is lackluster-and sends a slightly problematic message about people with disabilities-but the production design is an impressive achievement.

Pokemon fans will be delighted at the visual interpretations of a beloved franchise, but the pervasive mildness of it all makes for an easily forgettable production.

Detective Pikachu is actually a good kids movie, both succeeding at entertaining kids and giving them a good life lesson while entertaining any adults watching as well.

It's a movie so strange that Rita Ora popping up in a bizarre cameo as a scientist wouldn't even crack a list of the top ten weirdest things about it.

The makers of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu have done something wise, which is to create a film version of the media/toy franchise that is mostly accessible even to those of us who have zero connection to the phenomenon that is Pokémon.