The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)
I don't know why but back in 2016 I made my way to the theater and paid for a ticket to the first Angry Birds movie. As pretty much everyone could guess the film didn't deliver anything unexpected and ended up being a pretty weak kids movie. Somehow it made enough money though to warrant a sequel and it is safe to say that I was dreading this. I remember seeing a month or two ago that Thurop Van Orman was directing this film and feeling almost sad for him, despite doing some great work on projects like Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack seeing his name attached to this project being his feature directorial debut brought me no excitement, I mean after all it is an Angry Birds movie. Then in recent weeks reviews started to come out for this film and the strangest things were being said, people were saying that this film (reminder that we are talking about The Angry Birds Movie 2) was actually good and even smart at times. I could not believe what I was hearing, again it is an Angry Birds movie, sure if this was a major blockbuster I would just pass it off without a second thought considering every blockbuster gets huge praise at first but this is not the norm for movies like The Angry Birds Movie 2. Where normally I would pass on the screening for a film like this I had heard enough to get me to go to the theater and see for myself what this movie was all about, and I can't believe I am saying this but The Angry Birds Movie 2 impressed me. Sure it is far from perfect and does still have plenty of stupid moments, but it does strangely work quite well.
The thing that especially shocked me was the comedy in this movie, where the first one might have got a slight smirk from me once or twice at most this had me audibly laughing with some really smart and clever humor. Sure there are still jokes that don't quite land which is expected for a kids movie and not something I fault them on too hard as they do have to play to their demographics (specifically the gimmick of having lines with curse words but just changing that curse to another word fell quite flat) but the majority of these jokes I would actually say land quite well. Specifically, the visual humor that this movie has really stood out to me as unique and effective, in the trailer you can see the scene where our main characters sneak into the Eagle base in a really terrible Eagle costume and where the land looks pretty bad in the trailers it ended up being one of the best scenes of the entire film. The editing of scenes like that so many other scenes in this film is really smart and unique for a kids movie, they take their time with the humor and don't feel the need add stupid fart sound effects or anything that would normally ruin scenes like this for me. Though what was nearly equally surprising for me was the message in this movie, it is shockingly interesting and unique.
Where I gave no thought to this beforehand as there was no expectation that they would do anything with it the character of Red is in a pretty interesting spot. He grew up hated and now is loved due to his fight with the pigs yet he is not able to put his trauma behind him, he feels the need to give 110% always in fear of going back to being lonely and hated so where obviously conflict is bad he feels like he needs it. As conflicts start to come to an end with the Pigs he feels his happiness slipping away which is not something many films deal with. Where sure this film does have that cliche of bringing a new villain in to break up the happy ever after created in the first film it has that added element which helps make it feel deeper and above those other sequels. I also think the villain had some interesting ideas with her, I don't want to spoil too much about her and her motivations I will say that at least they try to give her some deeper ideas instead of just being a generic and forgettable villain even if not everything with her depth connects as well as the film would like it to.
Where I gave no thought to this beforehand as there was no expectation that they would do anything with it the character of Red is in a pretty interesting spot. He grew up hated and now is loved due to his fight with the pigs yet he is not able to put his trauma behind him, he feels the need to give 110% always in fear of going back to being lonely and hated so where obviously conflict is bad he feels like he needs it. As conflicts start to come to an end with the Pigs he feels his happiness slipping away which is not something many films deal with. Where sure this film does have that cliche of bringing a new villain in to break up the happy ever after created in the first film it has that added element which helps make it feel deeper and above those other sequels. I also think the villain had some interesting ideas with her, I don't want to spoil too much about her and her motivations I will say that at least they try to give her some deeper ideas instead of just being a generic and forgettable villain even if not everything with her depth connects as well as the film would like it to.
What wasn't that shocking is the animation in this film, the general standard of animation is so high that it seems like a bigger deal to find a major animated movie that looks bad rather than good. The color dynamics are particularly strong and there are some impressive facial animations when it comes to showing strong emotion. I don't think many will be blown away by the animation but that doesn't take away from it is pretty damn solid. As I mentioned though this film is flawed and the surface level plot is pretty uninteresting. Sure deep down there is quite a bit to chew on but to find that you have to sit through some pretty generic kids movie plot. The film also feels a bit questionable with some of its layout, the beginning of this film feels like an acid trip of sorts as it jumps right into the plot with no intro or sequences to work us back into this world which feels pretty disorienting and the use of side characters felt a bit off. There are so many side characters that take up time that never is really given much to do and end up feeling like wasted time and space to where this film feels a bit too full with the sheer amount of characters present.
Though for something like The Angry Birds Movie 2, those are not the worst issues to have. Shockingly I would recommend you bring your children to this movie, there is enough to the comedy of this movie that I feel like you will have a genuinely good time with it and the messages here are important and unique for children. Where it is far from the best animated movie of the year so far it is far from the worst animated film to come out this year and impressed me. I can't believe I am actually typing that The Angry Birds Movie 2 impressed me but here we are.
Though for something like The Angry Birds Movie 2, those are not the worst issues to have. Shockingly I would recommend you bring your children to this movie, there is enough to the comedy of this movie that I feel like you will have a genuinely good time with it and the messages here are important and unique for children. Where it is far from the best animated movie of the year so far it is far from the worst animated film to come out this year and impressed me. I can't believe I am actually typing that The Angry Birds Movie 2 impressed me but here we are.