Video game movies are usually garbage sadly to say. But, we finally have one that is actually good. Detective Pikachu succeeds due to an amazing cast, stellar CGI and a simple and fun story. The standout here is obviously Ryan Reynolds as the titular Detective Pikachu. His performance is essentially PG Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds’ immense charisma helps this character and his relationship with Tim Goodman played by Justice Smith. The character interactions between them are usually fun banter or moments where they play off a Pokémons’ abilities.

The story is a fairly simple story that follows our main characters trying to unravel a mystery that is actually pretty well tied up. I wasn’t expecting this kind of a mystery from a PG movie. I won’t give anything away but it’s pretty good. Now I don’t know anything about Pokémon or the source material but this movie does a fantastic job of getting you into this world. I didn’t know any of the Pokémon in the film but luckily the kid behind me did so I wasn’t completely out of the loop.

The visual effects are phenomenal here. Not once did it really stick out to me that these characters aren’t real to this world. They all look great. I would’ve liked practical effects but the use of CGI here doesn’t bother me.

The fact that this is a video game based film kind of blows me away. I am so used to video game based movies being absolute garbage. Here, the story is fun, the characters pretty well written and pretty much all of the above is good! I don’t have any complaints other than predictable villain casting.  So Hollywood, stop casting the same guy as the bad guy in everything.

Detective Pikachu is a rarity in the world of cinema today. People are so used to these movies being just the worst and finally we have a light of hope. Detective Pikachu does everything right. Its got a mass amount of light and fun within it. Its got great story, great visuals, great acting all wrapped in a big heart for this world. Detective Pikachu gets a solid A-. The only thing holding this film back is some predictable casting, and a few times where the acting was kinda meh.