The characters of the mega-popular cell phone app get the big screen treatment, in “The Angry Birds Movie”. In the 3D animated comedy, directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergel Reilly, we’ll finally find out why the birds are so angry. The movie takes us to an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red (Jason Sudeikis), a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Josh Gad), and the volatile Bomb (Danny McBride) have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to and form a union against the strange invaders who now populate their once peaceful habitat. With additional voice acting by Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Peter Dinklage, Kate McKinnon, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale, Tituss Burgess, Ike Barinholtz, and Hannibal Buress, this all-star cast brings the popular characters to life with a big screen feel, while remaining faithful to their origins. “The Angry Birds Movie” is rated PG for rude humor and action scenes.
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that an 87 minute full-length feature is tight on script developments and story structure, but “The Angry Birds Movie” is a failure to even its youngest of audiences, mainly because it refuses to settle for being just another kids movie, and then does exactly that. The movie comes out of the gate well enough, giving me some laughs in the vocal reactions of Jason Sudeikis, and even creating some solid backstory for its main character. Where the film runs into trouble is its lack of anything that put a defining Angry Birds stamp on this script which rips off more than one film that it’s weaker than. Should I take it a little easier on a children’s movie? I don’t think so, mainly because this never feels like one. The material here is a little too risky, and if I had children, I would probably think twice about taking them to see a film that takes on a lot of adult tones in sex jokes, as well as coming straight out and saying “Pluck my life”.
The movie would feel perfect for a one hour TV special, but as a theatrical film it runs out of steam midway through, when you feel the tightness of a script that is already grasping at straws. On more than one occasion, jokes are repeated, but two major things stood out like a sore thumb in Kaytis and Reilly’s film; 1. This script is essentially “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West”, and 2. The film uses so many bird and pig puns that the only thing angry is the audience who can see this setup from a mile away. On the latter, I was very surprised how little our main character of Red is actually angry during the film. Sure, there is a twenty minute period in the beginning of the film, but that’s really just paper-thin setup for where the film wants to take us. For the rest of the movie, he is good-spirited, and I found myself scratching my head as to why the film was called what it was called. On the former, the film in a nutshell centers around the rivalry of two different animals, one of which clears the air when they make a false peace between them. This prompts our main character to seek the truth and foil their plans before the antagonists can swallow them whole (Bird eggs). Sound familiar? That’s because Fievel did it better nearly 25 years ago. If this isn’t enough, there is a scene and character ripped purely from the pages of the “X-Men: Days of Futures Past” script. Didn’t think you would hear that, huh? “Angry Birds” does it all.
The usage of puns in this film is also GREATLY suffocating. I don’t dislike puns as much as other filmgoers do, but you have to use them in appropriate and occasional uses. This movie smothers its audience with enough force that you really begin to lose interest in this movie during the second act. You can feel these lines coming from a mile away, and that’s because it’s really the only energy put to creativity for the film’s ending. I have never seen them used so much, and if you dislike puns, this is definitely a movie that you will want to stay away from.
Not all is a loss however, as the film’s animation grants the audience a faithful adaptation from the very smart phone technology that is limited in that form of media. The movie has wise thinking in that it upgrades the very landscapes and views of Bird Island into a 3D backdrop of top choice colorful palate. I didn’t see this film in 3D, but I can safely assume that the audience will want to experience this visual treat in a 2D format, as the glasses might blur the lines of some of these backdrops. Another thing that I dug about the art direction was in the hidden Easter eggs, which really gives anyone who enjoyed the movie a strong reason for replay value. Everything from our own real world pop culture is kind of spoofed in posters and pictures on the walls of these settings, and that was the part of this film that really kept me wanting more. If the film can’t stimulate its audience creatively, at least the visual effects and computer generated animation leave this a stylish treat for any fan of beautiful animation.
“The Angry Birds Movie” is a film that was made six years too late, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming the #1 movie in America. The popularity is certainly still there, but the script is lacking in variety for its level of comic material, and instead chooses to alienate itself from the children who will be the dominating demographic in seeing this film. There’s a feeling of tight desperation the longer that the movie goes on, and doesn’t give the audience half the satisfaction of actually guiding these characters on your own flat screen adventure.
4/10