Muppets Most Wanted Press Reviews

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Not looking good, but since when are reviews a guarantee of quality/success?

(DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS)

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...ritics-20140312,0,7177737.story#axzz2vnnewDXH

IGN (Positive)
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/12/muppets-most-wanted-review

The Wrap (Positive)
http://www.thewrap.com/muppets-most-wanted-review-tina-fey-ricky-gervais

Telegraph (2/5)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10692266/Muppets-Most-Wanted-review.html

Variety (Negative)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10692266/Muppets-Most-Wanted-review.html

Screen Daily (Mixed)
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/muppets-most-wanted/5068525.article

 

[Drtooth]

The negative reviews are laughable. Here's why.

This is very much the first Muppet movie that's a direct sequel. The Muppet films have always been single, self sustaining stories. The closest thing a movie has to a follow up is that MCC was followed up by MTI.

From all non-spoilery things that we know about the film, it's a continuation of the last film, but one that's a self sustained story. And the reviews are clueless in that aspect. Half the crap reviews are whining about the lack of the human stars of the last movie that, for all intensive purposes were not even the stars of the film. They were there to be the catalyst to Walter's adventure in getting the Muppets back together. They're gone. As direct a sequel as this is, that's like complaining that Doc Hopper didn't pop in for GMC, or that Michael Cain wasn't Long John Silver. And the other complaint is that the Muppets dare change the genre of their movie. Something they've... okay, the sarcastic answer is to say they never did it before when they totally did. Anyone who understands Muppet films knows that.

I'm sure there's some substantial complaints somewhere, but these reviewers do not know how a Muppet movie works, and they're expecting it to be exactly like The Muppets, rather than its own thing, and condemning them for just that.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

^That was exactly what I thought of the negative reviews, actually. The audiences go to see Muppet movies for the Muppets; the human co-stars are bonuses. The Muppet Movie didn't have famous starring roles outside the Muppets themselves. Same with MTM.*

I give the negative reviews 1 out of 5 stars.

*By this I mean the human characters weren't the focus of the dramatic action, or, in MTM's case, the human co-stars weren't celebrities (Jenny, Pete.)

 

[Drtooth]

Jason was on hand for The Muppets to use his star power to get the film made. While I enjoyed him in the film overall, the human characters were nothing more than to help Walter get to the main plot. While they had their fair share of time, the film didn't completely focus on them (which is the major problem with every kid friendly movie reboot, so I'm starting to think it was done tongue in cheek). Even then, they weren't really defined, as it would have distracted from the rest of the film.... which most fans, especially ones that really liked the movie, felt had too much screen time.

But the thing that baffles me completely is that they're essentially condemning the film for being a sequel and doing it's own thing. Like they're completely ignorant of how Muppet films work. The Muppets never made the same film twice (intentionally). The Muppets was emotional because it needed to be. This film doesn't seem as emotional because it doesn't need to be. GMC was a lot less emotional than TMM, and it worked for the film. Not to mention the fact that the reviews aren't calling this a bad movie, they're basically treating it like a mild disappointment... which is somehow worse than a bad movie. Not only are the reviews absolutely clueless, but they're far more negative than they should be.

 

[dwayne1115]

I'm not so worried about these reviews. I will be more worried about how well the movie does a week from now when it is released. I'm hoping that it grosses more then The Muppets and that we can finally get the last two seasons of the Muppet Show on DVD, and the Muppets back on there own TV show.

 

[minor muppetz]

Both Toughpigs and The Muppet Mindset have reviews:
Toughpigs: http://www.toughpigs.com/mmw-no-spoilers/
The Muppet Mindset: http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/2014/03/muppets-most-wanted-film-review.html

Both reviews are positive.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Half the crap reviews are whining about the lack of the human stars of the last movie

Actually this reminds me of a surprise I got the other day. I asked a friend (life long Muppet fan) if she wanted to see MMW. And the first thing she said was she wasn't happy Jason Segal was gone, since it was because of him the Muppets had such a big comeback in the first place. I totally get that, but I had no idea how well received Segal's presence really was. It can as quite a shock to me.

Frankly, it tells me that perhaps The Muppets (2011) did spend a little too much time on him and Amy Adams. I said from the beginning that film needed more funny and less Gary (& Mary).

As for the Telegraph review, yes I know I haven't seen the movie yet, but I will definitely agree with this:

"Of course, that film benefited from the presence of Charles Grodin, who played a suave international jewel thief and heaved every line to the back row of the stalls like a champion shot-putter. Here, the human co-star is Ricky Gervais, who by contrast burns through just enough energy to send a biscuit wrapper halfway to the nearest waste paper bin"

It's not the Muppets' fault, but the caliber of celebrity has severely dismissed in the past few decades, lol. Hopefully when I finally do see the film, the Muppets can rise above that.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Actually this reminds me of a surprise I got the other day. I asked a friend (life long Muppet fan) if she wanted to see MMW. And the first thing she said was she wasn't happy Jason Segal was gone, since it was because of him the Muppets had such a big comeback in the first place. I totally get that, but I had no idea how well received Segal's presence really was. It can as quite a shock to me.

I found it weird, too. I remember a lot of reviewers complaining how underdeveloped Gary and Mary were.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I found it weird, too. I remember a lot of reviewers complaining how underdeveloped Gary and Mary were.

Frankly back then I remember thinking they were in the film too much, lol.

 

[LouisTheOtter]

It's not the Muppets' fault, but the caliber of celebrity has severely dismissed in the past few decades, lol. Hopefully when I finally do see the film, the Muppets can rise above that.

Quite frankly, one of the reasons I'm looking forward to MMW is the human cast that was chosen. Apart from the fact that they're all unabashed Muppet fans, I've loved Ty Burrell's work on Modern Family (he's one of the few people on that show that consistently gets me laughing out loud) and Tina Fey has entertained me in pretty much anything I've ever seen her in.

As for Ricky Gervais, I'm not a fan but I expect him to take a lot of abuse from Constantine, so he'll keep the John Cleese-Jack Black "a celebrity is not a people" continuity going for me.

Not worried by a few early negative reviews (haven't even read most of them as I'm determined to keep the next week spoiler-free), especially those written by people who don't get that this film is actually separate from the last one and that the Muppets have never needed to carry over non-Muppet performers from their various productions to make them work.