It may be hard to believe, but it has been a decade since Angry Birds launched as a mobile game. Even harder to believe? That said game has now launched not one but two animated films, and it appears that unlike its predecessor, The Angry Birds 2 may actually be... good?
Ahead of a film's release, it's not unusual for a studio to release multiple TV spots highlighting critical praise. Occasionally, one of these TV promos may be edited to make it appear as though the film itself is reacting to the critical response. However, it typically tends to be a line or two rather than the whole 30-second commercial, which is why the latest one for The Angry Birds 2 is rather amusing.
Rather than trying to sell the film for its plot and/or characters, the television spot opts instead to act surprised to the response from critics and fans -- on Twitter, specifically -- alike.
The Angry Birds 2 is the rare sequel that manages to impress. Given the meager 44% rating of the 2016 original film, it's surprising to see the sequel secure a pretty impressive 71% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The move is made all the more impressive by the fact that the decade-old game continues to thrive now. Even crazier? The Angry Birds 2 is now the highest-rated video game movie.
Realistically, the addictive game should not have managed to successfully launch one movie, let alone two. And Sony seems just as surprised as the rest of us that the second film has managed to be so well-received. It's actually a pretty genius marketing move as it's sure to catch the interest of general audiences more -- and well, let's face it, given how poorly the first film was received, it's going to take some coaxing to get audiences into theaters for its sequel.
As it stands, the current box office projections have The Angry Birds 2 hatching somewhere between $16-$18 million during its first six days in release. For comparison's sake, the 2016 original opened to $38 million and went on to earn $352 million worldwide. So, unless a miracle happens and The Angry Birds 2 manages to over-perform, Sony may just need to sell the film using its own surprise that it's actually pretty decent. Because despite a lower budget than the first film -- $65 million -- the Angry Birds have a long way to go if they want to stick around a bit longer.
Directed by Thurop Van Orman, from a script by Peter Ackerman, Eyal Podell, and Jonathon E. Stewart, The Angry Birds Movie 2 stars the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Leslie, Jones, Bill Hader, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Danny McBride, Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson, Zach Woods, Dove Cameron, Lil Rel Howery, Nicki Minaj, Beck Bennett, Brooklynn Prince, JoJo Siwa, Colleen Ballinger, and David Dobrik, in theaters now.