Pokemon: Detective Pikachu Doesn’t Deserve Ryan Reynolds

Just like the incongruity that's part of the title, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu — the first-ever live-action Pokemon movie, out Friday worldwide — is a mish-mash of genres and tone.

For much of its early going, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu plays out like a neo-noir film in both plot and visual terms, drawing off Hollywood's golden era of gumshoe stories from the 1930s for the former, and blending it with rain- and neon-drenched visuals that are reminiscent of Tokyo and in turn recall the franchise's Japanese legacy.

It's like the filmmakers thought the key word in the three-word title was “Detective” when in fact it's obvious to anyone that its target audience are clearly here for the other two.