'The Angry Birds Movie' Review

With 'Warcraft' recently disappointing showing that video game movies still struggle to work, The Angry Birds stepped up to try and bring a bit of credit back to video game movies however on a different scale, as a feature length kids movie. 

Red (Jason Sudekis) is one of the few flightless birds who does not follow the others of leading a happy life. Daily annoyances lead to Red having to go to anger management where he meets fellow strugglers Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride). As pigs come to the island of the birds, this aggravates Red even more and when it turns out that he was right about them, he and his new acquaintances will team up to save the islands precious eggs.

The Angry Birds Movie seems like it really should of came out a few years ago, right? It was huge when it burst out onto the scene with it gaining huge popularity and you could hardly escape hearing about the simple destructive game. Nowadays, it seems to just be another game and isn't mentioned nearly as much as it once was. It must still be a massive hit with younger audiences as for everyone else, the magic has seemed to have disappeared. 

And you can clearly tell that this film is made clearly for kids. An abundance of jokes coming from bird puns fills the movies as well as jokes mainly about the characters. The traits of Red, Chuck and Bomb are constantly used as jokes throughout the film. The humour used is mainly very childish and is based towards that target audience quite clearly so the general audience may not get as much enjoyment out of this as their kids would.

In recent years we have been lucky enough to have great animated movies like 'Inside Out' and 'Zootropolis'- or Zootopia depending where in the world you are- entertain both adults and children. Now not every movie is going to look to do this and have a deeper message that will bring the adults more enjoyment than the kids will. But then you have the likes of the Kung Fu Panda series which had its third instalment earlier this year that doesn't try to do so as much. This series looks to entertain younger audiences much more than anything else which is fine. My point in saying this is that this movie does simply try to entertain younger audiences but even still, it does not do it to the same standard as others out there. It might be unfair to compare it to an established franchise but that also had to start off somewhere but without the luxury of having a well known brand behind it. 

The main part of the Angry Birds games is the destruction as you have to figure out how to cause maximum damage to the pigs settlements as you retrieve the eggs. Doesn't really seem like the most solid idea for a movie and it shows in the movie. There isn't much to the film as you will just be waiting for the moment where it all kicks off. This only actually happens for a short period of time in the film as the first hour is a basic story that is once again catered to children and is oh so predictable. The eventual destruction is quite entertaining but isn't enough unfortunately to make up for the rest of the film.

High praise has to go to the animation within the film. Now most animated films all look incredible today as we really are quite spoiled when it comes to these visuals. Angry Birds does not let down with this. What amazed me in particular was the detail that went into things like the individual feathers on the birds and also the blades of grass. They looked phenomenal in the film and were very detailed giving them near realistic looks.

Final Verdict = 

The Angry Birds follows a very predictable plot and has its jokes clearly aimed at younger audiences. The bright colours and characters as well as the final act will be enough to entertain your kids for the run time but won't do so nearly as much for adult viewers.

So have you seen 'The Angry Birds Movie'? If so what did you think of it? I hope you enjoyed this review and found it useful for if you were planning on seeing the movie! Once again, thank you for reading my review, it is much appreciated.

By Angus McGregor