Pokémon Detective Pikachu Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

1. It Doesn't Really Break The Video Game Movie Curse

Though many have pointed to the critical reception of Detective Pikachu and declared the decades-long "video game curse" to finally be broken, it's a pretty weak argument, honestly.

Given that most of the reviews have sat in the three-star territory and the film is (at the time of press) only barely critically Fresh, it's hardly the decisive, fist-pumping win for video game adaptations that most fans were hoping for.

Many of the big problems with most video game films are still here - it's fatally under-written and overly reliant on its effects-driven mayhem, even if it undeniably handles the source material with greater care than the overwhelming majority of its genre brethren.

But the first great (or even particularly good) video game movie this isn't, and so, the search still continues.

If you can accept the film's superficial qualities, though, it certainly does enough to be a decent, watchable time. And so, here's everything it gets right...