Aug 17, 2016
I think that 85% of people who have ever owned a smartphone and tablet, at one point or another, has played Angry Birds. That's how popular the game was at its peak. I remember going through a phase like two years ago where I got hooked on the game for, say, 2 weeks. I played it for that period of time and I erased it and I've never played it again. And this was at the time when the game's popularity was already past its peak. Maybe saying that's the wrong term to use, since it was still popular, but it was on the downward slope of its popularity. A lot of people wondered why you'd make a movie based on a smartphone/tablet app, but it really made perfect sense. The app literally has no story, so the film could really be just about anything, so it actually made perfect sense in that you didn't have a pre-established universe that you could do very little with like in other game franchises, like Doom, Halo or Mass Effect. I will say, however, that the movie is a couple of years too late in terms of cashing in on the massive success of the game. If this movie came out in 2013-14, it would've been even more successful, because the app was still at its peak of success. But I do realize that films are difficult to make and there's negotiations, the writing and revising of the script, pre-production, the actual production, post-production etc, etc, etc. So it's understandable that the movie took a while to come out. And, yes, you saw that rating right, I actually enjoyed this movie. Of course, it doesn't even come close to some of Pixar's or Dreamworks' best, but it's fast-paced and it's got so much shtick that a lot of them ended up hitting while also having a lot of misses, so, yes, I ended up enjoying this. Of course, I'm not trying to suggest, that even on its own merits, that it's a great movie and, realistically speaking, this feels more like a TV movie for Nickelodeon than anything else. And there's nothing wrong with that at all, of course, but that's just what it felt like. Honestly, this was a film made for kids and kids alone, not that parents can't enjoy the film, but the way it was structured, to the animation, to the humor seems like it was designed to appeal strictly to kids. Again, there's no problem with that. The problem with that approach comes in the fact when those films dumb themselves down, like Turbo, to make it so kids can enjoy them. I wouldn't necessarily call this a smart movie, not even close, but it's not dumbed-down to where you still can't find some enjoyment from it. I will say, however, that I felt that this was just a little bit too long of a movie. There's parts of the film, when the pigs arrive but before they leave with the birds' eggs, where I just felt that it was getting long in the tooth and they needed to get to the point. But, at that point, I was feeling a little tired and I shut the movie off and I went to sleep for a bit and continued it in the morning. And that really helped, when I came back to the movie, it didn't bother me as much. And, really, once the birds go to Piggy Island, very creative names too, is when the movie really hits its stride. The attack on Piggy Island is actually really fucking entertaining, it's definitely got a lot of action, which was surprising, but I thought the third act of the movie has some of the more inspired bits in the entire movie. Simply too many to mention, but Chuck has one really cool scene, imagine the Quicksilver slo-mo scene from Days of Future Past. It's, actually, literally kind of a rip-off from that scene, but I still thought it was cool. The voice acting is also quite solid, like Bill Hader, as King Mudbeard did a great job. Josh Gad as Chuck is entertaining as hell. Maya Rudolph is also really good as well, shame her character didn't get more time. Peter Dinklage is always good. So, really, no complaints whatsoever when it comes to the voice-acting. That's the least of my worries. The film isn't perfect, of course, it doesn't really have a great story to speak of. They try, but the film isn't overly concerned with having a great plot, it's more about making sure that the film is fast-paced and entertaining. And, maybe I was in a great mood, but I found this to be an entertaining movie. It's more of a diversion, of course, and not something you watch because you'll remember it for years to come and there's no problem with that. Films like this, escapist entertainment, need to exist. They just need to. So, yea, I had fun watching this movie. It's not even close to greatness, but it didn't need to. This is a solid rental, no more, no less.
Verified