The Smurfs 2 (2013) Directed by Raja Gosnell

Amazing! Everything I liked about the first movie is missing from this one and I blame all of you for it!

The first movie "The Smurfs" made its money back but I don't think it was both the critical and financial success the studios were hoping for. So things needed to change for its sequel, in order to be a more successful one! Well, unfortunately that in this case meant that everything I liked about the first movie was dropped and this movie is filled with exaggerated comedy, such as bad slapstick, cheesy one-liners and a whole bunch of other childish stuff, that I hate seeing in animated movies.

For some reason the movie also felt to need to oversimplify things even more. This time around, the story truly doesn't matter and most of the time is pretty much nonexistent anyway. Gargamel's big plan never really makes any sense to me, purely due to the way how its being handled in the movie. It's actually a very messy and far from focused movie, that puts all of its effort and focus on its lame comedy, rather than ever on its story or characters.

Were the Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays characters truly needed again in this movie? Don't get me wrong, I still (for most part) like Jayma Mays and Neil Patrick Harris in this but I really do feel that this movie would have benefited from the presence of some new fresh characters and actors portraying them. Sure, they introduce Brendan Gleeson as a new character but that's not enough really. Besides, all of the human characters (aside from Gargamel) feel pretty pointless in this. Even more so than was the case for the first movie.

Thing I also really didn't like about the movie was that it was trying to throw in some modern elements to make the Smurfs all hip suddenly, for today's young audience. Just look at the cover on which Papa Smurf is wearing some sunglasses. Not that that's something that's happening in the actual movie as well but still, it should tell you something about the movie its intentions. It introduces some new Smurfs for instance, better known as Naughties in this, who are dressed up- and behave more like modern Smurfs. Totally unnecessary, uncreative and lame.

It also makes tons of, not so very clever or subtle, references, which works out mostly annoying. It's also weird how this movie is featuring a lot of sexual innuendos in it again, just like its first movie. All things that were put in there for the adult audience and keep them entertained, while they are watching it with their kids, who are still too young to catch any of the sexual innuendos. It's always a cheap and lame thing for a kids movie to do in my opinion. If you make a kids movie than don't worry about the adults and just make it entertaining and fun for kids to watch, without worrying about anything else.

Too forced, too lame, too messy..no, this is not a good sequel or fun and entertaining children's movie at all.

4/10

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