Angry Birds 2 (2019)

Angry Birds 2 (2019)

5/10

Starring the voices of

Jason Sudeikis

Josh Gad

Leslie Jones

Bill Hader

Directed by Thurop Van Orman

I wasn’t a big fan of the 2016 Angry Birds video game animated adaptation. It felt mediocre to me, and this sequel is just a small step up. Honestly, I found it hard to keep my eyes open through the whole movie.

I wasn’t expecting much based on how I felt about the slapstick comedy in the first movie. If you enjoyed that style of humor in the first one, then this second part might be for you. This time, we’re introduced to another island run by eagles who want to destroy the other two islands—the birds’ and the pigs’. So, the focus isn’t just on the birds; the pigs join forces with them to take on the eagles. If you’re like me and wondering, “Aren’t eagles also birds? And if they want the bird island so badly, why can’t they just fly there like Mighty Eagle?”—well, this is a kids’ animation, and that’s just my adult mind overthinking things.

The movie’s plot picks up where the first one left off. Red is now a hero, happy to no longer be alone and glad to be needed. The birds continue their battles with the pigs until one day, the pigs find a huge ice ball hurled at them. They investigate and discover there’s another island filled with eagles who want to destroy both the birds’ and pigs’ islands. The pigs offer a truce to the birds so they can face this new enemy together. Red, afraid that this truce will end the conflict with the pigs and, in turn, his stardom as a hero, doesn’t want it to happen. But the pigs force his hand by showing evidence of the impending doom for the bird island during a raid on his home.

Red, along with Chuck, Bomb, and Silver (Chuck’s sister and later Red’s love interest), teams up with the pigs to visit their island. The pigs have stepped up their game, using next-level, sophisticated equipment. They come up with a loopy plan to stop the eagles, but like I said, you’ll need to suspend your adult mind to watch all this unfold.

In the end, I wasn’t impressed, and I don’t see this movie being commercially successful enough to justify a third installment. Maybe that’s a good thing, who knows it does not take much for Hollywood to start working on anything, all they need is a few people to say, “we want to see this.”