**
This film picks up straight from
where ‘The Muppets’ left off. Eager to continue with the success of their
rekindled showbiz mojo, the Muppets start a world tour under the watchful eye
of Dominic Badguy. At the same time, the world’s most dangerous criminal
mastermind, Constantine the Frog, escapes from prison – robbery, mistaken
identity and a plethora of cameos follow.
Let me get one thing straight to
begin with: I rate ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ and ‘The Muppets Treasure
Island’ as two of my all-time favourite films. I watched them from an early
age, and they remain true classics in my eyes – they are funny, visually
interesting, adventurous and witty, and contain some very memorable musical
numbers. I even rather enjoyed the last Muppets film – it was humorous and had
some catchy songs… but the same cannot be said for this utter shambles of a
film. The opening dialogue was cringe-worthy – it felt as though I had stumbled
into one of those awful primary school plays – and it rather set the tone for
the rest of the film.
I did not laugh once. I was in a
relatively full cinema and I only heard a couple of chuckles from the adults,
whilst the children remained mostly silent. The songs were instantly
forgettable. The whole experience was rather joyless. And what’s worse, is that
the film-makers seemed to know that it was a poor effort, with the opening song
making a point of telling the audience that the sequel is never as good as the
original. The whole plot-contrivance of paying off journalists to write good
things about the Muppets’ show should have been amusing (I suppose that was
what they were aiming for!), but instead it just made me feel uncomfortable
because no journalist/critic seeing this film will conclude that this film is
anything other than poor. I suppose it wasn’t offensive, and there were some
rather amusing moments, but it is a mere shadow of the glory days of the old
Muppets films.
I actually feel a little bitter
just thinking about it.
Comments
Post a Comment