Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Muppets Most Wanted Review

The Muppets... again! Er, um... no. That was the old title of this movie. They changed it to Muppets Most Wanted, which is probably a better title. But seriously! It's the Muppets again! It's always a good time when we get a new Muppets movie. Muppets Most Wanted is a sequel to the 2011 reboot of the Muppets. That one was simple called The Muppets. I actually wrote a review for that movie. But you won't find it on my blog. That was back during my month-long stint with Blue Box that got me to start this blog. Check that out right here. And while you're at it, check out more of Jeremiah's stuff on Blue Box. The man knows his stuff when it comes to movies. But anywho, I digress. We're here to talk about a new Muppets movie! So let's begin!

Muppets Most Wanted picks up right where The Muppets leaves off. Like almost exactly. The last scene in that movie is the practically the first scene in this one. Then they have this whole sequence on sequels. What are we going to do next? We're back now, what should we do? If you remember, that reboot was all about the return of the Muppets. Not only was it literally the return of the Muppets in this actual world, but the story line of that movie was all about them returning. The whole movie essentially broke the fourth wall. It was great. Muppets Most Wanted starts out the same way. After deliberating what they should do, they break out into a song about sequels. It was one of the best songs of the entire movie, actually. Oddly enough, they joked around about sequels never being as good as the first. I don't think they really did this intentionally, but this sequel wasn't quite as good as the 2011 reboot.

Like I mentioned, The Muppets was an excellent film in terms of story. The return of the Muppets story was genius. Muppets Most Wanted tries really hard to have a fun, clever story to keep the newly found Muppets momentum, but it's fairly sub-par compared to the story of the first. After the amazing introduction, it kinda gets lost. After becoming a huge success, The Muppets get duped by Dominic Badguy (played by Ricky Gervais). He convinces them to go on a world tour. The only one really opposed to this is Kermit, but shortly after getting started, Kermit gets replaced by criminal mastermind Constatine, a Kermit look-a-like. Constatine escapes from prison, frames Kermit, and the police throw Kermit in Prison in his place, thinking he is Constatine. Meanwhile, Constatine and Dominic put into play a sinister plot during this Muppets tour.

Yes, this is fun. And the kids especially should love it. But it's just not epic. And it didn't make me laugh as much as the previous one did. But hey! I'm being too harsh. This is a Muppets movie that I enjoyed. And it did have plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Just not as many. One thing I will say, though, is that the human actors were a lot better. With The Muppets, the story was great and the movie made me laugh, but I really didn't like the main human cast. Jason Segal and Amy Adams just didn't seem all that invested in the movie. The main human cast here consists of Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, and Tina Fey. All three of them looked like they were having a ton of fun interacting with the Muppets in the movie. And they did a great job. And as is typically the case with the Muppets, there were plenty of cameos. While not used as epically as say Jim Parsons and Jack Black in the previous one, there were a lot of huge names. Part of the fun is letting these cameos surprise you, so I won't spoil anything, but there was one specific cameo that made me laugh out loud. If you've seen the movie, talk to me in private so we can discuss these cameos. Finally, Muppets Most Wanted is an all-out musical. And it is a great musical. I don't know if they have any songs as strong as "Man or Muppet" from the previous movie that are strong enough to win best song, but as a complete body of work, the music was excellent.

Overall, if you are not a Muppets fan, this movie isn't going to convert you to Muppetism. Muppets are one of those things that you just have to have grown up with to enjoy. That's the case for me. I've always liked the Muppets. And thus I liked this movie. But if that is not the case for you, then I wouldn't give a strong recommendation for this movie. However, if you are a Muppets fan, than this movie is a must see. You may not walk out of the theaters with a new favorite Muppets movie. You may not even like it as much as the previous one. But you will have a lot of fun it. Why? Because it's the Muppets. And the Muppets are great. My grade for Muppets Most Wanted is an 8/10.

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