Muppets Most Wanted Review

So I will be the first to admit that I was a little nervous that this movie wasn’t going to be too great.  The reviews have been rather lukewarm, and I loved the 2011 Muppets movie so much I didn’t think it could live up (which the Muppets fully admit in their opening song, where they sing that “The sequel’s never quite as good”).  Despite that, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie and how good it actually was!

I think the reviews out there are too harsh on the film.  The only criticism I agree with is one review that said the movie was rather “light on Muppets.”  And it’s true that a lot of the focus seems to be on the human cast rather than the Muppets.  Miss Piggy, Kermit, and Walter get a decent amount of time, but many of our favorites don’t do too much at all.  The Muppet that seems to get the most airtime is Constantine, our bad guy – and while his shtick is funny, I miss my classic Muppets a bit.

But that aside, the movie was an absolute delight.  It was filled with great Muppet humor and had us laughing out loud the entire time.  My husband actually enjoyed this movie more than the 2011 one, and I thought it was almost as good.  He commented that it’s a bit less corny than the first one.  I think that’s probably true, but how much you like this sequel will depend on how much you like that cornball factor (though don’t worry, it’s the Muppets – there’s still plenty of corniness!).

The plot is both fun and ridiculous, as a good Muppet movie should be.  Predictable but in a good way, and in the end it’s really about the laughs, which they bring in full force.  The three main humans were good in their roles, and the Muppets were their typical selves.  Constantine, our “bad frog,” was a funny edition as the Kermit imposter.  I don’t want to say too much about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it!  But let’s just say that when you have Russian prisoners singing and dancing to A Chorus Line, you know you’ve got a hilarious Muppet movie on your hands.

The music is fun and literally had me dancing in my seat.  I don’t know that the tunes “stick” quite as well as the 2011 movie, I think the soundtrack is not quite as good, but it’s fun enough that I’ll probably buy it.  Music is a huge part of Muppet movies for me, so I figured I’d talk about it a bit here.  I think my favorite was actually the opening number, “We’re doing a Sequel.”  It had the classic Muppet sound to it, and the lyrics were hilarious: “We’re doing a sequel/The studio wants more/ While they wait for Tom Hanks to make Toy Story 4”.

“I’m Number One,” the duet between Dominic Badguy and Constantine, was a fun villains number.  “The Big House,” done by Tina Fey, had a few laughs but was nothing too memorable.  “I’ll Get You What you Want,” Constantine’s song trying to woo Miss Piggy, is really dang catchy.  It’s a little hard to listen to because of the horrible Russian/Kermit accent, but that song definitely has me dancing.  The other two songs worth mentioning are “The Interrogation Song,” which is more spoken than sung but absolutely hilarious.  And then there’s Miss Piggy’s duet with Celine Dion, which started off slow but picked up in the end.

All in all the Muppets Most Wanted is definitely worth going to see!  Though it doesn’t quite live up to the first one, the sequels never do, right?  And this is about as good as you can get without being “as good.”

Have you seen this movie?  What did you think?