XPost: rec.arts.movies.current-films, rec.arts.animation
From: YourName@YourISP.com

Movie review from the New Zealand Herald newspaper (21 September, 2017) ...


The Emoji Movie
---------------
2014's The Lego Movie has a lot to answer for. In concept,
it was a pointless cash-in, born solely out of wide
familiarity with a certain consumer product. Yet it ended
up being a surprisingly heartfelt, witty film bouyed be a
perceptive portrayal of our collective experience with
said consumer product. That turnaround, and the resulting
massive commercial success, has given rise to the idea of
making a movie about more or less anything. And so now we
have The Emoji Movie, a CGI-animated film based on those
tiny cartoon images available via your smartphone's
keyboard.

The story mostly takes place inside the phone of a teen
boy named Alex. We learn that each and every emoji has
their own little life, and we are primarily concerned
with "meh" emoji named Gene, voiced by former Silicon
Valley star T.J. Miller.

When Gene's actions result in a disaster at the heart of
Alex's phone - which then begins to embarrassingly
malfunction - Gene must head out beyond the texting app to
solve the problem. He is joined on his adventure by a
high-five emoji name Hi-5 (James Corden) and a hacker
emoji named Jailbreak (Anna Faris).

The Emoji Movie is never able to get ahead of its craven
reasons for existing - there are endless visual and word
puns (such as "poop" emojis chanting "We're number two!"),
but they only ever induce groans. There are some inspired
voice-casting choices (such as famously deadpan comedian
Steven Wright as Gene's father), but they fail to elevate
the film.

Although this clearly attempts to emulate The Lego Movie
with its knowing tone, it remains a nakedly hollow
exercise throughout. Less fun than a break-up text.

Rating: 1 star (out of 5)

Verdict: >:-

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* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)