It’s The Angry Birds Movie 2, and I don’t know if any single person asked for a sequel, to begin with. Especially me since when the original movie came out three years ago, it was one of those animated movies that came off as mildly forgettable and lame, which doesn’t come as a shocker since it was based on a mobile game app that people deleted from their phones before it came out. Now that this sequel came out this past summer, I can’t say I was impressed.
What’s the Story: After saving Bird Island from the evil pigs, Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) is continuing the day-to-day war with Leonard (voiced by Bill Hader). But when an unknown third island is discovered called Eagle Island is attacking with these giant ice balls lead by purple bird named Zeta (voiced by Leslie Jones), it’s up to Red, Leonard, and the rest of the birds to team up and put a stop to their fighting to save their respective islands.
I didn’t know what to expect from The Angry Birds Movie 2 since I wasn’t thinking this was going to be good in the first place. Granted, not a lot of people were probably thinking that too. But let me answer this question: Is this better than the first movie? Just barely, but it’s about on par with the first movie, for me. For a video game movie, it can be somewhat considered a good attempt, although I can’t say this sequel was pretty much “meh.”
The biggest strength this has is that it has good animation, especially the detailed feathers on each of the birds. That’s something I can give credit to movies that come from Sony Picture Animation because even when most of their movies from their filmography aren’t the greater, it’s colorful animation is usually a bright spot.
The voice cast is fine and knows what they have to get through since most of them are known for comedy. Sudeikis reprises his role alongside Hader, Josh Gad as Chuck, Danny McBride as Bomb, and Peter Dinklage as Mighty Eagle. Then it adds some new voices and characters into the mix that includes Jones, Rachel Bloom as Chuck’s brainiac sister Silver, Awkwafina as Courtney, Sterling K. Brown as Garry, and Eugenio Derbez as Glenn, just to name a few.
The way the slapstick humor is played out in a movie that’s meant to kids, a large handful of them were pretty bad. Both of these movies had a lot of jokes that fell flat in what was meant to be for kids and adults, but I had to roll my eyes on a few occasions. There were a few times of laughter from myself, and it did kind of caught me off guard, but these were just stupid. The part where the characters had to disguise themselves inside a giant eagle costume that the potential to be hilarious just based on the look alone, yet it didn’t get there for me.
It’s a predictable story that can be seen from every which way. Though I think the best thing I can say about that is this one is that it has somewhat of a coherent plot unlike the first one where it barely had one. Even from the first movie, this still doesn’t give me the chance to really care for Red as a character. Yes, he’s claimed a hero after the events of the last movie, but he’s still just unlikable. There’s a clear message about teamwork, of course, but you know how things will start and end. But if there was anything that can be taken out completely in this, how about the entire subplot with the Hatchlings trying to get the eggs back to their home? That wasn’t funny in the slightest of efforts.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is never boring since it has that quick pace, but there was nothing about this sequel that made it fun. I just didn’t think this improves significantly over its predecessor due to not being that funny. Maybe I’m in that small minority of people when I say I wasn’t a fan of this sequel. In no way is this bad, but put it in front of your children and they’ll enjoy it.
DC's Take 