Movie Review: The Muppets

Hello, Spongey here.

This movie is big. It’s been anticipated for years, there has been promotion up he wazoo, and it currently has 97% on Rotten tomatoes. Clearly this is an epic motion picture that deserves an epic introduction if you do a review of it.

So I will..

The muppets were big. There were some movies. They were good, but none topped the first one. There wasn’t much of the muppets in film for a while. They made a new one. This is it. Let’s review it.

PLOT: On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets' former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways

SONGS: Of course, it’s a musical. There are many great songs, from the opening number “Life’s happy song” to the emotional “pictures in my head” and, of course the muppet classic, Rainbow Connection. It’s hard to choose a fave, but the BEST is “Life’s a happy song”, but my favorite was the villain song, “Let’s talk about me”. Especially the soundtrack version, which has a…well you’ll see.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Normally I don’t say what has been said already, but since this movie is only a day old, I’ll say what I want.

If you are even SLIGHTLY aware of the muppets, in any way, then this movie was made for you. The movie is made in a way that it will appeal to adult who grew up on the muppets, as well as kids who have heard of them through…the internet I guess. They give you the low down on the muppets and their popularity, as they show Walter as he discovers the muppet show for the first time. So this way, kids won’t get confuse. So the criticism I heard of the writers ignoring kids for the sake of catering to nostalgia hogs is a load of fucking bullshit. (Besides, my love for the muppets was not due to nostalgia, and I liked this movie)

Anyway, on to the rest.

To keep it simple, everything is done as well as it should be. The characters are exacty how you remember them. Of course, within the situations the movie puts them in, they have to act differently as part of their character development, including Kermit. I’ve heard some complaints about Kermit in this movie, and frankly I disagree. He’s the guy I found myself caring about most. He even sings a song early on, that would have made me cry…if I wasn’t a MAN!

Oh, and the other people are great too.. jason and Amy do great whenever they are on screen, and while Siegel isn’t exactly a born dancer, he and amy are good actors who give great performances, making their character very likable.

Walter was a great addition to the cast. He’s the classic promoted fanboy, and he’s of course likable and he has mad *SPOILER* skills. The villain, is a nice parody of cliché villains. He chews the scenery is every scene and enjoys it as much as the audience did. Oh, and the little thing that goes on with his henchmen was nice. (Spoiler avoiding ftw!)

You get it, the characters are good. Moving on, the story is done well too. They really make suck you into the movie right from the opening scene. Yes, the plot is basic but the movie takes no shame in that. It knows what it is, and rolls with it. When I heard the plot, I thought the worst. But it’s done quite well, and has that…touch that makes it good.

This movie is also quite emotional. The last 10 minutes alone could make a lesser person cry. Meaning, anyone who isn’t a man like me. I can’t say much more than that.

As for criticisms….well, maybe they could of use Mary a /bit/ more, since she kinda goes away once the plot kicks in, but I didn’t mind. Besides, she shows up later, song and all. The humans do add to the story in the long run, but the movie belongs to the muppets. Also, early on, our favorite hecklers Statler and waldorf show up with villains, and make a couple snarky comments…then they disappear never the show up again until much later. Minor issue, but I wish they had more to do. Perhaps if we are really lucky, they’ll do the DVD commentary. As long we don’t do anything stupid while we wait for the DVD

Waldorf: Too late, you already did

Statler: By seeing the movie in theaters!

Both: DO HO HO HO HO HO!

Ah, they don’t care for most things.

So to sum it up, this movie was great. It was everything I could wish for. It was really funny, entertaining, and heart…felt.

*RIMSHOT*

…Ya, that’s all for now.

GRADE: A

Waldorf: Just when you think this review is terrible, something wonderful happens!

Statler: What’s that?

Waldorf: It ends

Both: DO HO HO HO HO HO!