Movie Thoughts: Sing 2 (2021)

• Released: November 14th, 2021
• Directed by: Garth Jennings, Christophe Lourdelet
• Running time: 1h 50min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Buster Moon and his theater group dream of putting on their biggest show yet, but the evil businessman who hired them seems to have different thoughts...

My Thoughts

I don't remember if I did a Movie Thoughts on the first Sing, but regardless, here's a quick sum-up of my thoughts on that movie: I don't hate it, but I think it's painfully mediocre and just not great. And also not very funny or heartfelt.

This movie? Okay, so don't get me wrong, I don't think it's perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I do consider this a a huge step up from the first movie. I think it's a bit funnier (though still not by much), but especially the heart gets upped a lot here which I can really appreciate. I also thought the final show they put on was pretty fun to watch and it was neat seeing every character get the time to shine. Also, the villain is pretty memorable. Not great, but decent enough.

If I do have some problems? Okay, one, I would have liked to see the exact moment that convinces Clay to join the show. The scene cuts away before we see him make that decision, next scene he's suddenly on board.

Second, I don't like how Meena just gets to completely break character during the final show to talk to her potential new boyfriend. Seriously, stuff like that should ruin the show for the audience. Keep that personal stuff until after the show is over.

Also, I could've gone without all the music (usually pop) playing, especially early on in the movie. Seriously, in the first third or so literally every few minutes there's a new preexisting song either being sung by the characters themselves or playing in the background. And it goes fast and it just kind of feels like the movie is too busy throwing songs at the audience to really focus on the characters and the story.

There's also one scene where Jimmy dismisses a lot of acts, and this scene goes on for way too long. It's a joke scene with various gags in various acts happening, but the point of the scene is simple: It's meant to get across that Jimmy is stern and hard to please. We can get that across by seeing him dismiss 3-5 acts or so, but this scene just goes on forever and the gags keep coming and they're usually not even funny.

That said, there are some things I also genuinely liked here. I liked Clay, and his bond with Ash and seeing him get over his grief. And I really liked Porsha, she was just a fun and likable character (aside from our already pretty likable main cast established in the previous movie). 

So yeah, not perfect, but I do consider this a huge step up from the first one.