Reviews by:
@ryan_the_nixon
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2021
PG
director: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon.
Starring: Charleze Theron, Oscar Isaac, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bill Hader, Javon Walton, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, Wallace Shawn etc
Everyone's favourite spooky family is back in the animated comedy sequel, The Addams Family 2. In this all-new movie, we find Morticia (Charleze Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) distraught that their children are growing up, skipping family dinners, and totally consumed with "scream time." To reclaim their bond, they decide to cram Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz), Pugsley (Javon Walton), Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) , and the crew into their haunted camper and hit the road for one last miserable family vacation. Their adventure across America takes them out of their element and into hilarious run-ins with their iconic cousin, It, as well as many new kooky characters. What could possibly go wrong? For me this was a pleasant surprise!
My first few positives would be the great animation and humour. As well as the fun strange tone, great family dynamic and voice cast. With a great soundtrack. This film’s animation was very impressive. It expanded the universe, and it went bolder and brighter. And was really a visual treat for the eyes embracing the weirdness of the world. I also thought the humour was stronger along with the strange tone this time around. This film really dialled up the strange interactions between the family and how they communicate with each other, I felt like they played it safe the first time around but this time they embraced the kooky and dark nature of the characters, with some clever and funny jokes that will go over a lot of children’s heads. What helped with the humour was the more focused family dynamic. Each character got their opportunity to shine whilst also having the conflict and themes around the family as the focus. I also thought the voice cast was amazing as always. They bought the characters to life excellently, with charismatic and fun voice performances that gave so much life to the characters. And the soundtrack was delightfully spooky and fun and added a lot of entertainment value to particular scenes. With the iconic Addams family theme always being a bonus.
However, the film was far from perfect and still flawed. My few negatives for the film would be the underdeveloped and rushed set up. The lazy and unneeded plot points. As well as the generic elements and lapses in the logic with some characters. I thought that the film didn’t lay enough groundwork for the setup, due to the frantic pacing. They didn’t really reintroduce us as the audience to the characters again or with clear villains or reasoning behind their travels beyond the one dimensional. I also felt like the film had some lazy and unneeded plot points. The film did sometimes feel very incoherent and messy and was stuffing as much as they could in such short amount of time, it was hard to keep up. And certain elements added to characters such as Pugsley felt forced and didn’t really hold much of a purpose to the plot. I also felt like the film did fall into a lot more genre tropes then the first instalment. Especially with the jokes aimed at pop culture that felt jarring and often out of place. And the film did fall into more of a safe and generic animation which impacted my score for it. Finally, there was some lapses in the logic where it was obvious something was wrong with Uncle Fester and the movie made the characters seem dumb, and the film didn’t link the plot point or really include it until later on so it felt messy.
My final few positives would be the fun scenes and development to the plot. As well as the more focused conflict with the family and the good development between them. Whilst also having great pacing and villain plus strong themes. The film had a lot of fun scenes that allowed the characters to shine in their delightful strangeness, playing around with their powers and added to the films more focused tone. I also thought the plot development was strong, the film did a good job at balancing the fun scenes establishing the family dynamic and adding more layers to the plot with the villain and connecting them as the film transitioned into the final act. I also appreciated that the film had more focused conflict between the family and stronger themes. the first film felt unfocused with its themes and the specific conflict. But this time they chose a specific character aka Wednesday and built the conflict around her character, focusing on parenting and feeling out of place within the family. For me it was a more clear and better developed source of conflict for the family, and it worked a lot better, raising some heart-warming themes on family and acceptance. Finally, I thought the pacing and the villain was strong. The film didn’t overstay its welcome, moving at a fast pace whilst still including a good amount of plot, I was consistently entertained and there was never a dull moment. I also think the villain was a lot stronger this time around. His reasoning and connection with Wednesday was fascinating, and he was a lot more campy and over the top which fitted much better with the characters and the tone of the film then the villain in the first film.
Overall, Addams family 2 still suffers from some weak writing and being slightly too chaotic. But this for me was an improvement over the first film. It felt more focused and embraced the strangeness of the characters and it just worker better for me. This is a great Halloween film for the family and I had a good time with it.
Overall score 77/100
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