‘Angry Birds’ fly higher in sequel

Posted on August 23, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Back in June, when I reviewed “Men in Black International,” I mentioned how I had managed to convince myself I didn’t like “Men in Black III.” My memory is far from perfect, and it turns out that I sometimes mis-remember my impressions of movies in the other direction as well.

Going into “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” the second film based on the once-popular mobile game, I remembered liking the first film, especially the ending. To my credit, in my review back in 2017 (which I have since reread), I did mention how I enjoyed the ending, but I was much less complimentary of the rest of the movie.

Whether or not my faulty memory had anything to do with my reaction to “The Angry Birds Movie 2” is something I’ll never know for sure, but I found the sequel to be quite enjoyable – and this time from start to finish. The original film was essentially a stream of bird puns for the first two acts as part of a slow build-up to the one story element actually taken from the games — the birds sling-shotting themselves at the green pigs who stole their eggs.

With the sequel, the filmmakers developed a story not on the games, but on the world and characters they established in the original movie, giving much more depth than we got the first time around. Helping matters is that the comedy is based on more than just a lot of bird puns, and I found myself laughing more at this movie than just about any other summer movie this year.

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