Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Leslie Jones

Director: Thurop Van Orman

Review:

Ok, The Angry Birds Movie 2 easily takes the mantle to most pointless sequel or remake of 2019.  Seriously, did anyone leave the first movie going, “golly gee I’d sure love to see more of these interesting and hilarious characters with a completely unique storyline.”  I didn’t think so.  Considering the original game came out 10 years ago, the first movie happened too long after this fad ended, let alone the sequel.  Not good enough to stand out in any particular way but not bad enough to be truly offensive to the senses, The Angry Birds Movie 2 serves exclusively to pad Sony’s bottom line and thinking it will be anything else is foolish.

The film follows Red (voiced by Sudeikis), the main character and hero of the previous movie as he and his friends continue to protect their home from the pranks of King Leonard (voiced by Bill Hader) and the pigs that live across the way.  When the pigs discover a third island made of ice ruled by Zeta (voiced by Jones), Leonard and Red must put aside their differences to save their homes from Zeta’s path of destruction. Starting with what the film does right, the voice acting and animation actually aren’t that bad.  Sony’s cleaned up their act a lot in the last year, including the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, which put them on the map as a major player in the world of animation.  While the animation here is closer to The Emoji Movie, it still stands out and provides clear, colorful images to the audience for the entire 96 minute runtime.  Regarding the voice acting, some of the casting choices were spot on and are the main reason why this movie isn’t a complete failure.  Specifically, Sudeikis and Jones do a good job of capturing the inner voice of their characters and creating a world where the two of them would actually exist.  This is a star-studded cast from the leads to characters with one line, but regardless these are the two that stand out the most with their tone, demeanor, and ability to accurately represent their world.  Where the film falls apart is it never feels special and feels more like a mish-mash of generic, money-seeking plot elements and devices.  This is a movie with an incredibly poppy and recognizable soundtrack that only serves to attract viewers and doesn’t necessarily enhance the film.  For a movie that’s allegedly a comedy, I can’t remember one joke from this movie that made me laugh or that I took home with me.  Everything about this movie seems recycled from other more successful movies.  From the characters, to the concept, to the sub-plot, there’s nothing unique about The Angry Birds Movie 2 that would compel anyone to go see it.  The only people will be anxious to see this movie are younger audiences who are in love with this franchise and continue to allow it spawn off more generic and tacky puzzle games and merchandise, but everyone else will know the deal far before they ever step foot in a theater.

Overall, it’s tough to rate a movie like The Angry Birds Movie 2 because to some portions of the population it will provide enough entertainment to keep you occupied the whole time while others like myself should have no business watching this movie.  It doesn’t necessarily do anything poorly, but there’s not one original idea put into this movie and everything we see has been done significantly better elsewhere.  While it is an upgrade from the original film, The Angry Birds Movie 2 fails to provide anything that would make it stand out in an already bloated summer lineup.

Overall Score: 5/10