Paddington in Peru (2024)

 

Paddington in Peru (2024)

 

4/10

 

Starring

Hugh Bonneville

Emily Mortimer

Julie Walters

Jim Broadbent

 

Directed by Dougal Wilson

 

This third addition to the Paddington Bear movie franchise is not as amazing as the previous two. The acting is still good from the adults, the voice casting is still on point, but the story feels dragged out. The first ten minutes of the movie are so boring that I was begging for something to happen. There’s a long talk about how things in the Browns' house have changed because the children are older. But that could have been done in a better way, instead of the ten minutes of screen time to know that the kids have grown up and are now acting like teenagers.

After this comes the letter, which kicks off the whole idea of the family going to Peru. Paddington 3 follows the Browns on their trip to Peru after they receive a letter from the Reverend Mother of the Home for Retired Bears, saying Aunt Lucy has been acting strange. Most of the original cast reprises their roles, except for Mary Brown. Sally Hawkins is no longer playing her, and Emily Mortimer takes over the role. It’s a noticeable change, but from my perspective, I’m not sure how other viewers will feel about it.

So, the Browns and Paddington arrive in Peru and head to the Home for Retired Bears, only to discover that Aunt Lucy has gone missing as the Reverend Mother informs them. Distraught, Paddington searches her room and finds a map and with guidance from the Reverend Mother, they conclude that Aunt Lucy has set off on an adventure, marking a specific location on the map as her starting point.

Oh my gosh! This movie does not draw you in. It drags its feet so much before anything actually happens that you feel like you’re being punished. The only highlight is Antonio Banderas, whose character and performance are memorable, other than that, the whole movie is a forgettable journey. Its badly paced and, at times, very predictable, for an adventure about finding the city of gold Eldorado, which is tied to the absence of Aunt Lucy, you would have expected better.

I can tell you nothing actually happens, even when you have gone halfway into the movie, and the lighthearted fun we usually get from Paddington’s antics, which are innocent but always wildly disruptive, is drowned in the boredom of this movie. And since the writing is poor and every character’s intention is exposed from the start, there’s no suspense to make up for it. The previous movies also didn’t rely on suspense, but they worked because of good writing. Here, without that, the whole thing just feels like a chore.

If you have the time to see this movie—don’t because it’s not worth it.