Angry Birds Movie Review Roundup

The next video game movie, Sony's Angry Birds film, comes to theaters on May 20, but you don't have to wait that long to find out what critics think of it. Reviews for the animated movie have started to show up. We've now collected these into a roundup, which we will continue to update with more as they come online later this week and month.

Gallery

Angry Birds was directed by Clay Kaytis (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph) and Fegal Reilly (Spide-Man 2, The Iron Giant), who made their directorial debuts with the project. The script was written by comedy veteran Jon Vitti (The Simpsons, King of the Hill) and features a cast that includes Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolph.

For more on the critical reaction to Angry Birds, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Film: Angry Birds
• Distributor: Sony
• Release Date: May 20
• Rating: PG

GameSpot

"The themes and juvenile humor are clearly aimed at a very young audience, but some jokes are a little too edgy to recommend for the very young, while none of the ideas have enough bite to register as subversive satire.Angry Birds is instead, an unintentional copy of the mobile game it's based on: a short, forgettable time-waster." -- Justin Haywald [Full GameSpot review]

Variety

"While not quite as inspired or subversive as The Lego Movie, it's a comparably cheering standout in the generally cynical gallery of product-inspired product--at every creative level, it certainly knocks the fluorescent spots off the harmless-but-charmless Ratchet & Clank video game adaptation that recently hit theaters." -- Guy Lodge [Full review]

The Guardian

"This movie is driven by a naked commercial imperative--though perhaps no more than any other film--and it doesn't match up to the hyperactive, clever surreality of The Lego Movie. Yet there is a kind of pleasure and fascination, mixed with exasperation, in seeing how the game has been mangled and bent into the shape of the conventional animation narrative, with zappy little dialogue moments, funny characters, and some sophisticated touches for the grownups (including a nod to The Shining, of all things)." -- Pete Bradshaw [Full review]

The Wrap

"A screenwriter friend tells an anecdote about a colleague of his who went in for a studio pitch meeting, only to be told that the company was less interested in storytelling than in brand management. The Angry Birds movie and Sony's announced/threatened upcoming Emojis cartoon, represent game-changing triumphs for marketers and accountants everywhere. As for moviegoers, we've just been encouraged to spend 90 minutes playing with our phones instead." -- Alonso Duralde [Full review]

IndieWire

"Maybe at this point it's too much to hope for an animated film like the Angry Birds movie to exist as anything other than marketing fodder, but hopefully it's not too much to ask for that #content to have a shred of substance to it." -- Steve Greene [Full review]

The Hollywood Reporter

"The storytelling is not in the league of Pixar or Disney at their best, and with the male-dominated cast it's a bit embarrassingly retrograde in terms of gender balance, even compared with Ratchet & Clank. But the animation punches well above its weight with properly Looney Tunes-standard sight gags; polished, highly expressive character design; and rendering so intensely computed nearly every barbule and rachis on each individual feather is visible." -- Leslie Felperin [Full review]