[Review] Angry Birds

It was inevitable that the mobile game sensation Angry Birds would expand its brand by launching onto the big screen. The movie aims to please short attention spans, but any sense of charm gets lost in the frenzy of feathers.

Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), the bird with big eyebrows, has a bit of a--you guessed it--an anger problem. After a number of altercations around town, he gets assigned to--you guessed it--anger management. There, he meets the Adderall pecker Chuck (Josh Gad), the Gandolfini-esque Bomb (Danny McBride), and the anti-social Terence (Sean Penn, who literally does nothing but grunt). Their island gets shaken up when a ship of Bad Piggies (green Minions with snouts) land ashore.

The film displays some polished animation, and you wouldn't really expect anything different at this point. It's bright and vibrant, with Mountain Dew-flavored colors bursting all over the settings. The problem is that the laughs are few and far between. The script lobs up a bunch of airballs and rotten eggs. The soundtrack blares with a couple of old radio rock songs (I get it--ANGRY), but the tracks don't really gel with the tropical paradise backdrop. And I can't believe they had the audacity to use a Limp Bizkit song for a full montage... and it wasn't even "Break Stuff".

Even though the climax is pretty fun, and there are a couple of nice moments near the end, Angry Birds just isn't funny, clever, or inventive enough to be celebrated. And the bird characterizations are unlikely to leave much of an impression. As I was watching this subpar flick, it actually made me want to whip out my phone, open up the Angry Birds app and start playing the game instead. So, for better or worse, I guess you could say the movie does its job.

( 5.5/10 )