Rio 2

Voices of: Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Leslie Mann, Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, Jamie Foxx, Will.i.am, George Lopez, Tracy Morgan
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) take their three kids deep into the Amazon rainforest, searching for more of their kind.

Review:

Tim: The original Rio was a decent film, but it certainly didn't offer much to get excited about. It was a far, far cry from the best animated movies coming out of Hollywood. The film made some money, but the quality was suspect. That does not bode well for this sequel. Sadly, this movie is exactly what you would expect- a film that is worse in every way than the original. I really did not care for this at all.

The original film at least benefited from a love story (albeit a half baked one). This film really has no compelling central story. The script is an absolute mess. We have Blu and family finding a large group of macaws in the rainforest. This puts Blu in a fish-out-of-water scenario, as he's a city dweller- a "pet". He feels sad because he doesn't fit in. The human characters from the first film (way too forgettable to even know their names) are back, and they run into people doing illegal clearing of the rainforest. There is also a subplot about Blu trying to win the approval of Jewel's father. There is also a subplot about a group of red macaws who fight the blues for their territory. There is a subplot about Jewel's childhood friend who is now in love with her, much to Blu's chagrin. There is also the revenge subplot from the villain in the first film, who lost his ability to fly and has a weird secret admirer as one of his companions. The other birds from the first film are back and doing tryouts for some carnival performance. I'm sure I am forgetting some other subplots. Read back over everything that is in this 101 minute animated movie. It's way, way too much. The story is an absolute mess. It jumps from character to character, subplot to subplot. None of it is especially interesting or memorable. It makes for an absolutely atrocious viewing experience. The amount of fun I had watching this film approached 0 at a few points.

I'm still shaking my head at everything that was crammed into this film. The writers needed to excise some of the unnecessary subplots and spend more time on what actually mattered. The sheer number of characters in this film is amazing (in a bad way). This is a film that tried to do way too much and as a result, it doesn't do anything well. Man, this movie was tough to watch.

Luckily, the film is beautiful to look at. The colors are incredible and the animation brings this crazy, colorful, exotic world to life. If the writers spent a fifth as much time/energy as the animators did on bringing this world to life, you might have had a good movie. Rio 2 is unfortunately, all style and no substance.

Jesse Eisenberg got on my nerves as Blu. His whole shtick is great in small doses, but I got very annoyed with him here. Anne Hathaway was fine, but Jewel became very selfish and unlikeable in this film. Andy Garcia was fun as her dad. The rest of the supporting cast is fine, but their characters had a weak script to deal with, so it didn't really matter. Animated films need to be about more than fancy visuals and big name voice talent.

I thought the first film was okay, but Rio 2 is very bad. It wasn't entertaining, funny, or fun. It felt like a film where everyone involved just went through the motions to collect a paycheck. I can't imagine anyone but the youngest, most naive audience members finding this film enjoyable. This is a film that should be avoided.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Rio, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who!, Robots, Up