‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’ Review
Features the voices of: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Tiffany Haddish, Danny McBride, Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson, Dove Cameron, Maya Rudolph | Written by Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell, Jonathon E. Stewart | Directed by Thurop Van Orman, John Rice
The Angry Birds Movie 2, directed by newcomer Thurop Van Orman, is the follow up to the moderately successful yet woefully released Angry Birds film. A film in its own right released a staggering decade after the worldwide phenomenon of its infamous app. We once again find the same team of “birds” as the audience did in the previous instalment, aside from Sean Penn, who are now disturbed with a new clan of mysterious visitors that are plotting domination.
Sound familiar? That’s because it is. It is the same plot of the original film with more added character moments because the audience is somewhat familiar with specific character traits. Think a lite version of the Despicable Me franchise and you are right on the money. The Angry Birds Movie 2 does everything in its path to create a vast monetary franchise with sellable characters that only want to result in toy purchases. You have the Minions comparisons of integral, albeit annoying side characters, contemporary music inclusions every ten minutes and a rudimentary narrative that is over in a flash and is void of creativity and entertainment.
The animation style is poorly crafted, and nothing of note is particularly stand out or visually compelling. In a market that is filled with captivating animation from the likes of Studio Ghibli, Pixar and the universal acclaim of Into the Spider-Verse, it is abundantly clear that The Angry Birds Movie 2 has no passion or life in its vision, and it evokes a tiresome viewing with its tiresome aesthetic.
The returning voice performers are as both bland and underwhelming as they were beforehand in the previous instalment. Even with more arcs and threads, the film fails to light any warmth or connectivity with its viewer. There is only a limited amount of monotone Jason Sudeikis a viewer can take, and it gets boring really quick. The film, on the whole quite frankly, is void of personality and excitement. With unlimited possibility, the film throughout fails to light a match under itself to brighten any form of magic. It is ultimately a tedious and dull affair that flounders into a regurgitated mess.
To make matters worse a decade has gone by, and the original target audience have all grown up wanting to party and smoke their first cigarette, so here lies the question of why this franchise even matters at this point? Without a distinctive palette to boast or a captivating story, this Sont property is crafted with one purpose, and that is to fill out the wallets of the studio executives rather than deliver an entertaining feature.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is still hanging around cinemas across the UK. Just.
