Review of The Angry Birds Movie (2016) by Mrmoviebuff — 19 May 2016

'The Angry Birds Movie' is, in short, harmless. We all know as adults, we tend to dread these kinds of animated films because they seem so obnoxious, and rather pointless. I say pointless simply because the game, which you can download on your iPhone, which was released in 2009, peaked in popularity through the early 2010s. Had this movie been released at least 3 or 4 years ago, it would seem more relevant.

"Angry Birds" focuses on a bird named Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), who has pretty much been ridiculed his entire life due to his short temper and thick eye brows. When an incident occurs at a little child's birthday party, Red has been told he needs to attend an anger management session. This is where he meets the fast-paced Chuck (Josh Gad), and Bomb (Danny McBride) who share their stories of how they can;t control either their speed, or how Bomb can't control not being able to explode.

The plot kick-starts as soon as we meet Leonard (Bill Hader), a leader pig who comes to the birds' hometown, and starts holding parties and begins to win the community's respect. However, Red isn't so sure about this, and himself, Chuck and Bomb discover that they are hiding something in the ship that they travelled in.

The rest of the birds' think that they are lying, and Red tries his best to convince them that the group of menacing pigs are trying to steal the birds' eggs.

Red, Chuck and Bomb travel far to meet the Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) and ask for his help. This scene, strangely enough and without spoiling it, leads to nowhere. The plot speeds up as soon as Red, Chuck and Bomb convince the bird population to go to war with the pigs, and develop a massive slingshot to hit their castle. Anybody who has played an "Angry Birds" game on their iPhone will know that's the aim of the game, assemble your bird onto a slingshot and sling them against the pigs and their obstacles. It's admittedly addictive, but to put this into a film, it can be hard to make it interesting and convincing.

The main problem with this film is that it seems to have trouble balancing the jokes and the plot. There are times where the plot will move for about 10 minutes, and then the film grinds to a sudden halt to make a joke that has nothing to do with the premise of the film for about 5 minutes, then the film wakes up and the plot continues. The fact that it keeps stopping to make jokes in order to get laughs seems forced. Plus, the nature of the jokes are predictable. Let's just say that there is a scene in which a main character lands in a small room full of dynamite and he gets up and says "Well, that's dynamite". Or take another scene, where we see the main characters bathing and drinking in some holy lake, only to discover that every morning a certain character urinates in that lake every morning, the urinating joke goes on for about 3 or 4 minutes. If you wanted those jokes to be a surprise, then I'm sorry I spoiled it for you.

The only character that made me laugh the most would be Bomb, voiced by Danny McBride, but even then, his joking time seems to be limited. The rest of the talented cast do seem wasted in their roles, Sudeikis, who is very funny, doesn't have much inventive material to work with. The same can be said for Josh Gad and BIll Hader, two actors who can be funny with the right material, but they are weighed down by cliched, animated kids movie, predictable jokes.

Like I said before...this film is harmless...children will definitely have fun with its fast-paced and colorful tone, and adults will tolerate this enough, but you will forget this film existed. It's funny at times, but the predictable jokes are noticeable, plus the fact that the plot has to stop in order to make these jokes can be a distraction.