Movie trailers are like free samples at Costco: The good ones excite you and leave you wanting more, while the bad ones make you cringe. Each week, A&E columnist Matthew Fernandez will dissect movie trailers and analyze the Hollywood fare to come.
The hellish phenomenon of “Minions” took over cinemas last year. It infected merchandising racks, billboards and television advertisements with its yellow, oblong creatures and their migraine-inducing babble. The movie was a blatant money grab targeted at young kids and their parents, riding on the successful coattails of “Despicable Me” while the minions were still relevant in popular culture. After releasing its newest trailer, the once giant mobile game “Angry Birds” looks like it wants to try to use the same game plan before it’s completely forgotten. Be prepared, “The Angry Birds Movie” is coming.
“Angry Birds” is a physics-based game app developed by Rovio Entertainment in 2009, in which players launch colorful birds via slingshot on a kamikaze quest to kill green pigs that have stolen their eggs. The game’s popularity exploded, spawning clothing lines, toys and 14 sequel games, including “Star Wars” and “Transformers” spinoffs. The filmmakers are trying to milk a dead series, hoping for at least one more golden egg.
However, for me, this egg seems kind of rotten.
While “The Angry Birds Movie” trailer is initially arresting with its vibrant scenery and cute, big-eyed birds, it immediately lapses into tired tropes and childish physical comedy. The story is one we’ve all heard before: an outcast hero and his friends must find a way to combat a villainous force despite no one believing them. So far, the film has nothing new or even remotely interesting to offer.
The physical comedy doesn’t try to be innovative or show a single iota of creativity. Everything seems like a cheap riff on “Looney Tunes” cartoon violence, except it comes across as disingenuous and lifeless in the hands of the “Angry Birds” team. The trailer’s big bathroom joke takes too long to reach the payoff and lingers uncomfortably on the thought of drinking bird urine, turning a promising joke into a blunder.
Like many trailers, “The Angry Birds Movie” ends its promotion by vomiting a list of famous names at the viewer, as if having some A-list voices would be enough to save itself from its bland material. The film’s biggest star is probably Peter Dinklage (of “Elf” and “Game of Thrones” fame) voicing Mighty Eagle. However, the trailer only shows him yawn and hum, giving no indication of if his voice acting lends anything to the movie.
The only potentially interesting aspect of the film, the slingshot, is briefly addressed. In the game, the slingshot is the player’s weapon against the dastardly pigs; however, it only makes a brief appearance in the trailer. There is no real indication of how the birds plan to get rid of their green nemeses, but presumably the slingshot will be involved. What I want to know is if the birds and pigs will explode on contact like they do in the game, or will they just get battered and bruised?
“Angry Birds,” as a series has fallen by the wayside. At a time when phone apps and games are a dime a dozen, Rovio’s once viral physics game no longer carries much clout in pop culture consciousness. There is considerable competition for “The Angry Birds Movie” to stand out amidst the several other big-name animated pictures releasing this year including “Kung Fu Panda 3,” “Zootopia” and “Ratchet & Clank.”
It’s ironic that the trailer ends with Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” as if it’s warning audiences in advance not to waste their money. At worst, “The Angry Birds Movie” looks like a shameless, capitalist money grab. At best, it’s an uninspired film worth a few chuckles, but not the price of an admission ticket.
– Matthew Fernandez
Are you also skeptical about “The Angry Birds Movie”? Email Fernandez at mfernandez@media.ucla.edu.
That trailer was really good and funny, hopefully the film itself is good too. Also, a film doesn’t always have to bring something new to the table, it just as to be a good film. There are a lot of animated movies that are good to great films that don’t bring anything new to the table.