Film Preview: The Angry Birds Movie (2016)

Page Revisions:

(September 27, 2015) Original
(January 31, 2016) New Trailer (#2) / New Poster (#2)
(May 15, 2016) New Trailer (#3) / New Posters (#3-#20)

Release Date:

May 20, 2016

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Plot unknown.”

Poster Rating: C / C / D (2) / C / C+ / C / B- / C+ (6) / C- (7)

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Review: (#1) I suspect that this may be the first in a long line of character designs. If so, then I may approve once I see the others. Otherwise, I’m stuck with the feeling that we’re not going to be so well treated.

(#2) While it plays on the anger-making concept, it’s unnecessarily simplistic when plenty of other children’s films are creating more visually rich poster designs.

(#3-#4) This pair of holiday-themed posters are exactly how not to create such designs. They aren’t corny or cheesy, they are just dumb. (#5 & #7) These foreign language designs are good, but not nearly as interesting as one would have hoped. (#6) An interesting design that plays better into the source material’s mechanics. (#8) Finally, we have some angry birds flying at us. This is more in line with what we would expect from a film about flinging pissed off avians at pugnacious porkers.

(#9-#13) These foreign language character posters show us the primary characters of the film, but give them poorly varied background and color schemes. The name tags are interesting, but that’s about as far as these designs go. (#14-#20) These characters aren’t precisely familiar enough to deserve their own character posters, though I give the studio some credit for giving them their own dues.

Trailer Rating: C+ / B- / C

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Review: (#1) This trailer has a couple of poorly placed jokes that don’t do a sufficient job as selling this as a must-see event for fans of the game and non-fans alike. It’s plodding, unmotivated and lacks important details of the plot, like why anyone should care.

(#2) A lot of the key scenes from the prior trailer are here, but they double-down on the kid-friendly humor as well as the gross-out humor that doesn’t seem to fit into this film’s wheelhouse. Amusing at times, but needlessly childish in others, it will certainly appeal to fans of the animation medium, but might not be enough for fans of the game.

(#3) After two trailers with precious little plotting (strange considering the plot’s rather simplistic in its premise), we finally get a trailer that gives the audience some idea of the stakes involved and the process of resolution. Whether that’s enough to entice fans of the game to the theaters is another story, one without a happy ending.