This was a solid family film and recommended for a good time for sure! I'm just slightly disappointed because I had high hopes since I had liked the first one so much.
The first was also quite goofy and silly; and the sequel retains some of that. But the draw of the first movie was that it had the thematic undercurrent of a changing world in which your old rules won't work and you are forced to adapt. This current one didn't really have that much of a theme. Also, having watched the first one and the sequel back-to-back, I realized that the sequel retconned a few elements from the first movie (bananas, grandma's backstory) and if a story doesn't care enough about what it already established, it makes me feel no desire to care.
What I will say about the story though is that while the writing wasn't stellar or thematically rich, at least it wasn't lazy, which easily it could have been. The plot was set up with tons of opportunities to rely on tropes, but these tropes are actively subverted. However, when certain characters change their behavior/views by the end of the movie, it feels unearned, unlike Grug's evolution in the first movie.
But a solidly entertaining movie. But I don't feel like I want to return to this again like I did with the first one.
The first was also quite goofy and silly; and the sequel retains some of that. But the draw of the first movie was that it had the thematic undercurrent of a changing world in which your old rules won't work and you are forced to adapt. This current one didn't really have that much of a theme. Also, having watched the first one and the sequel back-to-back, I realized that the sequel retconned a few elements from the first movie (bananas, grandma's backstory) and if a story doesn't care enough about what it already established, it makes me feel no desire to care.
What I will say about the story though is that while the writing wasn't stellar or thematically rich, at least it wasn't lazy, which easily it could have been. The plot was set up with tons of opportunities to rely on tropes, but these tropes are actively subverted. However, when certain characters change their behavior/views by the end of the movie, it feels unearned, unlike Grug's evolution in the first movie.
But a solidly entertaining movie. But I don't feel like I want to return to this again like I did with the first one.