While on a grand world tour, the Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit lookalike and his dastardly sidekick. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: James Bobin
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Debby Ryan, Christoph Waltz and others
Not just every animated movie is fun, as this one clearly shows.
No, I can't even see how young kids could possibly be entertained by this movie. The comedy is bad...just bad. And not necessarily just because it's mostly being some very formulaic and predicable stuff but also because of its poor execution. It's as if the movie made no real effort to be a good, creative and original one and everyone involved did it for just the paycheck.
The movie never really has a pleasant flow to it and it's hard to get into it. The movie simply expects you to get behind its characters and go along with its story but without giving you any good reasons why. There isn't a very good buildup to either its story or characters, which causes you to also loose interest in this movie, pretty early on already. I therefore also believe that this just isn't a very good or effective movie for kids, since they'll most likely eventually end up getting bored with it, despite the fact that there is always something happening on the screen and the movie is filled with lots of bright colors.
And despite that there's always something happening, it still feels like there just isn't enough going on in this movie. It's possibly because it's a movie by the numbers, so you already know how things are going to play out but it's also really because the movie its story is lacking any sort of depth or true emotions. The wife and kid of the movie its main character are for instance underused and potentially could have provided the movie with some more depth and emotions. But also the villain feels weak and surely they could have come up with someone more original and effective. Having just an army general as your main villain isn't going to be enough, whether he's being voiced by William Shatner or not. Especially not when you have a movie that's already filled with all sorts of crazy, big and far more dangerous and powerful looking aliens in it.
The movie actually has a very surprising and big voice cast. Lots of well known names were involved and it seems that this movie spend more money on getting big name actors, rather than on the actual movie. It really shows. Not that the movie is a terrible looking one but it isn't an incredibly detailed looking movie. Just like it writing, it comes across as somewhat lazy film-making at times and especially all of the character designs and the way they appear and interact in the eventual movie is something that feels specifically lacking and disappointing. Lets just say I don't expect kids to bug their parents about getting them a Gary Supernova toy or a Scorch Supernova lunch box.
And speaking of Scorch Supernova, that Brendan Fraser is really doing a poor Patrick Warburton impression! No idea what he was trying to do there but it was very distracting and annoying. Luckily he isn't being the main character though, though I still have to admit that his character in potential still could have been a far better and more interesting one than the movie its actual main character Gary Supernova, voiced by Rob Corddry.
I also don't really see what people are supposed to take out of this movie. There are no real good morals or messages in this movie, as these type of kid movies often tend to feature. I don't think it's because they weren't trying but I do think it was simply because their attempts at it all were very poor and ineffective ones. It only works if you actually feel remotely engaged with the movie, its story and character, which just never is the case with this movie.
No matter if you are a 4, 6, 12, 16, 22, 40, or 97-year old, or any other age in between, below or above, you're simply better off not watching this movie.
This is one great entertaining movie to watch for the entire family! The movie features a very simple but oh so fun and effective concept of a museum that comes alive at night, to the obvious great surprise of the new night guard, played by Ben Stiller.
It's not necessarily a Ben Stiller flick and it most definitely not your standard Stiller or even comedy movie, so I think this movie is also perfectly watchable for those who don't particularly are fond of Ben Stiller.
It's a rare and unique comedy that is being helped and uplifted by its special effects. An approach previously attempted by "Jumanji" (also starring Robin Williams by the way) but that movie was only halve-halve successful, since the technology was obviously not at its best yet at the time. No wonder that this movie with an estimated $110,000,000 budget is one of the most expensive comedies ever made. It really can be seen back on the screen, which is a real positive thing to note and also one of the reasons why the movie works out so well.
The story is obviously kept deliberately as simple as possible and it actually more or less features a "Scooby-Doo" sort of plot. This was obviously done to also make this movie perfectly watchable for the more younger kids. No doubt producer Chris Columbus his influence. It works out perfectly but it of course is also a reason why this movie just isn't exactly a perfect comedy must-see.
The concept and main story of the movie also really seem like a great advertisements for museums and its image, especially among young children of course. Appereantly this was also the case, since visitors to the real American Museum of Natural History increased by 20% during the holiday season following this movie's opening.
The movie is of course not just made entertaining through its concept but also with its jokes and events happening throughout the movie. It's a great comedy and I even dare to say one of the better ones out of recent years.
Ben Stiller is in his element and he seems to be holding back a little, to allow to let the visuals more tell its story, which I think was a great and right approach for this movie. It was also fun to see movie veterans Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney in this movie. Same goes for actors such as Ricky Gervais, Robin Williams (obviously) and Owen Wilson, in an uncredited but quite big role nevertheless.
Great fun to watch! Any reason why you shouldn't be watching it right now?
