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| "I didn't see the first movie either..." |
Slipped by my, I guess.
Well, I did go see part two. And I felt fairly certain that I didn't need 103 minutes of character development to understand who the characters were or what kind of people they were.
I mean... their names. Although the kid named Blue seemed happier than you'd expect.
I'm going to the stars system for this one. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Now, I'm 39 years old, and yes I remember watching the original smurfs waaaaaaay back when children's cartoons were really just 11 minute commercials for... oh....yeah. Well, anyway. I had to humour my sister and muddle through the smurfs before getting to G.I. Joe and TMNT. And it's because this movie stayed so true to the theme of the original that I give it the praise I do.
Listen. I SAID LISTEN! This movie is not for you. It's for your children. Too many people go into these movies based on things they saw when they were children expecting to be as entertained now as they were then. FYI folks. You are not 8 years old. As a man that often reverts to that glorious age in his mind, I recommend this movie.
When the movie was over my wife looked at me a bit concerned that I'd just totally bash this film. I said, "Actually I liked it. And it was a thousand times better than The Lone Ranger."
High praise folks.
It stars Neil Patrick Harris, some lady from Glee, some kid, Hank Azaria as Gargamel, and Mad Eye Moody. For the Smurfs there's a smattering of celebrities but the one that got me was Jonathon Winters. That gloriously hilarious man passed away shortly after recording his performance as Papa Smurf. I had to look this up (I'm not a Smurf aficionado) he was in the original Smurfs too! Katy Perry was not.
The action was silly. The kids laughed. The puns were groan-worthy. I can't share them with you without spoilers but I will point out that there was a Star Wars one that made me and the guy behind me laugh.
My favorite Smurf? Passive-Aggressive Smurf.
I took away an entire star for the over-the-top, in-your-face, repetitive, moral of the story. I know the original cartoon always ended with a "and this is the moral of today's story", but not this movie. Over and over again, like Dora finding her way to Somewhere, they spelled it out for us. I suppose small children need the repetition, but come on.
The half star was taken because they filmed it in Paris, France. Not because it added to the story, but because they got a tax incentive. Said so in the credits and I thought that sucked. Gargamel was a world class magician and he takes up shop in Paris? This movie should have taken place in Las Vegas based on that premise alone.
That being said both my children loved the movie, laughed a lot, and talked about it on the way home.
So did anybody else go see this movie? What did you think?
written by Eric
Disclosure: We received four free tickets to see Smurfs 2 in exchange for a review on the movie. All reviews as always are honest and our own opinion (in this case the man of the house). No other compensation was received for this review.
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