The Angry Birds Movie 2: Not as entertaining as its predecessor

As the second spin-off film from the once-popular puzzle game opens, Leonard (Bill Hader), the disgruntled leader of the Bad Piggies, is still throwing random objects at Bird Island, following his unsuccessful attempt to scoff all the bird eggs in the original 2016 film.

Red (Jason Sudeikis), the franchise’s heavily-eyebrowed avian hero, is deeply suspicious when his former porcine adversaries abruptly request a truce, but the showering of icy boulders suggests that pig and bird-kind have a common foe. Enter Zeta (Leslie Jones), the megalomaniac purple queen of hitherto undiscovered Eagle Island. Zeta, as assisted by Debbie (Tiffany Haddish) and various terrified minions, is apparently determined to take over both Pig and Bird Islands, and has a particular beef with the Lebowski-alike Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage).

Red and a mismatched crew comprising hyperactive Chuck (Josh Gad), volatile Bomb (Danny McBride), and Leonard, are joined by actual female characters, including the smart Courtney (Awkwafina) and the smarter engineering whiz Silver (Rachel Bloom): because all girls in family films are STEM girls now. Fair enough. Cute hatchlings provide a Scrat-alike subplot.

Nobody expected The Angry Birds Movie (2016) to become the third highest-grossing film of all time to be based on a video game, behind Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed. But it was unpretentious and funnier than it had any right to be. The second film is not, alas, as entertaining as its predecessor and it’s very much a smaller person picture. It does, however, have some great voice talent attached, it breezes brightly along, and it has a nice anti-Thatcher message: “There is no such thing as the individual; there is only society.” We’re paraphrasing. But not by much.