Review of Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) by Bob S — 07 Apr 2017

To tell a Smurf story well one must overcome some serious conceptual hurdles. Especially since your core cast are all two-dimensional characters defined and named by one attribute and one attribute alone. To overcome this obstacle you would need to come up with some creative storytelling to make the movie work. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't have any creativity and reeks of another studio attempt to milk more money from a well-known franchise with a pointless reboot.

With the exceptions of Jack McBrayer, Mandy Patinkin, & Frank Welker the entire cast stinks of stunt casting. Take as an example Joe Manganiello's casting as the weight-lifting pompous Hefty Smurf. Sure, if this were somehow a live-action Smurfs movie he'd probably look the part as well as anyone due to the physical presence he brings to a role. Here, he's just a voice. If you want to get a noteworthy voice for that role, why not H. Jon Benjamin? Granted he lacks the physical gravitas of the character, but who cares; it's animated.

The titular Lost Village doesn't even appear until late act two and the cast for all the new female Smurfs is impressive: Michelle Rodriguez, Ellie Kemper, Julia Roberts, Ariel Winter, & Meghan Trainor. And with the exception of Julia Roberts, all the characters they play are completely interchangeable. So while male Smurfs are forced to be defined by one attribute, female Smurfs all share the same mixture of traits. Does this mean female Smurfs get to opportunity to be three-dimensional characters? The movie chooses to go the other way making them one-dimensional. Regrettably, they don't even have the single identifying attribute to define them.

Most this movie is about the journey to the Lost Village. A journey in which a collection of two-dimensional characters make inane mistakes while being pursued by Gargamel (whose defining characteristic appears to be stupidity). At no point does the audience care about any of the Smurfs and and no point do we ever sense Gargamel is a genuine threat to them. Eventually, the movie teases that an actual sacrifice may have been made. However, don't be alarmed; it is not beneath these filmmakers to employ deus ex machina.

If your looking to take your kids to the movies, there's no reason to waste your time here when Power Rangers and Beauty and the Beast are still out. Of course, these movies have issues too, but at least they have stakes and character development.

If moviemakers go to the trouble of making a film then why don't they care enough to try to make this material work? Consequently, if "Smurfs: the Lost Village" is the result, why should the moviegoers be bothered to watch it?