In 2016, The Angry Birds movie was released. It was one-of-its-kind. We seldom used to see movies taken from games and were faithful to their source. Usually, it was the other way around, like Angry Birds Rio. Three years after the release, a sequel to the movie hit the screen. Read on as we compare which Angry Birds movie is better.
The first film is closer to the true spirit of Angry Birds
The two movies are based on the game series, Angry Birds, whose gameplay primarily involves flinging birds in a slingshot through the fortifications of some pigs to kill them. Some birds have abilities and are better if used on certain materials. If the player succeeds in killing all the pigs in one level using the birds, they win and advance to the next level. If at least one pig stood and the player ran out of birds to shoot, they lost and had to redo the level.
Of course, the player did not just kill pigs for nothing. The games usually had a storyline primarily involving the pigs stealing the birds’ eggs to (probably) consume them.
The first movie stayed with that premise. The plot was about pigs taking away eggs, and the birds had to return them. And guess what? The first movie introduced the slingshot! The slingshot was a staple in the Angry Birds games because it was how one could launch the birds toward the pigs’ defenses. The birds launching themselves using the slingshot was also a great pegging of the movie to its inspirations.
However, the second film quite strayed away from what made Angry Birds, Angry Birds. Not a lot of “anger” was shown. Sure, Red was angry, as always. But in the first movie, Red asks the birds to be angry and release their fury to motivate them to attack the pig kingdom. In the second movie, the concept of anger seemed to only remain on Red. There could still be anger, like in Zeta, but she was a new character.
Characters in a movie without a title
Unfortunately, the second movie felt like the second installment of The Secret Life of Pets. Both animated movies had great storylines but were no longer worthy of their titles. The Secret Life of Pets 2 did not sound like “secret life” anymore, and The Angry Birds Movie 2 did not feel like “Angry Birds” anymore.
To begin with, the second installment of the movie had a good story. That’s undeniable. It utilized the idea of a common idea to finally bring peace between the birds and the pigs, as who would have thought that that was what it would take?
However, The Angry Birds Movie 2 was like a movie just using the Angry Birds characters as characters. Where was King Leonard’s revenge? Why were the eggs hatched? Isn’t it a trope in the Angry Birds games that the eggs never hatched? Where was the slingshot? Where was the fight? Where was the animosity between the pigs and the birds? Where did those qualities of the Angry Birds games go?
It also felt like the negatively angry bird was Zeta, who felt like she was forcibly inserted into the movie franchise just because she was a boss in Angry Birds 2. If the king pig was the boss of the first game, it made sense to have King Leonard Mudbeard as the antagonist. Meanwhile, if Zeta was the boss of the second game, did she have to be the antagonist of the second film? The introduction of her and her creations felt so sudden in the movie.
Conclusion
Ultimately, if you prefer a movie closer to the source material, the first movie is for you. However, if you were more into character development and the storyline, and did not want to stick to the usual cliché story where the pigs steal the birds’ eggs, then the second movie is better. The second movie can be better because of its unexpected elements that one would not find in usual Angry Birds settings.
