The Angry Birds Movie 2

Given the general message of unity in diversity, courage and bravery, the film could pass as moral, from which children could learn something.

Technical assessment: 2.5 ★★✬✩✩
Moral assessment: 3★★★✩✩
CINEMA rating: V 13
MTRCB rating: PG

When a new threat led by Zeta (Leslie Jones) emerges that puts both Bird and Pig Islands in danger, Red (Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride), and Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) recruit Chuck’s sister Silver (Rachel Bloom) and team up with pigs Leonard (Bill Hader), his assistant Courtney (Awkwafina), and tech-pig Garry (Sterling K. Brown) to forge an unsteady truce and form an unlikely super team to save their homes. Will they be able to save the island?

This sequel adaptation of a popular video game is flat and lousy in general. The simplistic plotline is executed with slapstick humor. Although there are some good laughs here and there, the fun the film provides remains to be in the surface. But the film, if not taken seriously, can be a lot of fun. Though it cannot be denied that there is a lot of talent behind this film — the voice actors that were all very good, the animators who are able to give life to a rather lifeless or flightless bird characters — still, the audience, especially the young ones deserve a better, well-thought of plot and story. It’s not that bad still because the original spirit of The Angry Birds is still there and its charm and popularity remains to be main attractions in the box-office.

The Angry Birds Movie 2 tries very hard to put into the forefront its feminist stand on women being better than men. In this film the male lead characters are portrayed at their worst — jerk, lazy, indecisive, stupid. The female characters have more wisdom and courage to face and challenge the enemy that ironically happens to be a woman as well. Zeta the villainess seems to be a strong character at first but turns out to be a weak one given her motivations for being vengeful. Still, the portrayal of a female character as more emotional and irrational come into play once again — which is more or less stereotyped. Given these contradictions, it becomes unclear whether the film is really pro-woman or it’s just trying to project itself as ultra-feminist. But then, it is not really a good idea to put down the male of the specie just to prove a point that the female creature is just as good. But given the general message of unity in diversity, courage and bravery, the film could pass as moral from which children could learn something. — RPJ

DIRECTOR: Thurop Van Orman CAST: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Danny McBride, Peter Dinklage, Tiffany Haddish CO-DIRECTOR: John Rice PRODUCER: John Cohen SCREENWRITER: Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell, Jonathon E. Stewart BASED ON: Angry Birds by Rovio Entertainment MUSIC: Heitor Pereira CINEMATOGRAPHER: Simon Dunsdon EDITOR: Kent Beyda, Ally Garrett PRODUCTION COMPANY: Columbia Pictures, Rovio Animation, Sony Pictures Animation DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing COUNTRY: Finland, United States LANGUAGE: English RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes