by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.99
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Alex Borstein
Intro:
… focuses more on style over substance, the action is beautifully rendered, the characters are funnier than ever, and the way it balances mirth with legitimate kid-friendly thrills is impressive.
Even though it was overshadowed by DreamWorks’ other 2022 animation triumph Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Bad Guys has maintained a respectable shelf life in the years since. The adaptation of Aussie Aaron Blabey’s popular books was a slick presentation with surprisingly gutsy racial subtext (damn-near Zootopia-level commentary), making for a solid refresh of DreamWorks’ M.O. of storytelling about individuals being more than just the surface. And its sequel is just as much an artistic success, albeit for slightly different reasons.
The first film’s biggest standout aspects, namely its examination of prejudice and delivering genuine twisty-turny heists, aren’t as prominent in The Bad Guys 2. There are still world-building moments that further those same talking points about morality and judging on superficial attributes, but they are much more background here. But given the first film occasionally dipped into the Goofy/Pluto problem (anthropomorphised animals in the same world as non-sentient animals and regular humans), maybe not putting as much focus on that was the right move for those who tend to overthink media like this. We don’t judge.
Where the first film flirted with Ocean’s Eleven clever-clever storytelling, this leans hard into being essentially Fast & Furious for a younger audience. The animation by DWA Glendale and Sony Pictures Imageworks (whose efforts on Into the Spider-Verse were a main inspiration for the first film’s aesthetics) maintain an irresistible smoothness while allowing more emphatically comic-book style visuals to pop through.
They also do well in selling just how high the stakes get with the story here, resulting in genuine nail-biters as Wolf and his crew get involved in ever-increasing scales of capers, until they quite literally leave the atmosphere. The detail put into everything on-screen, from the sets to the energetic characters to truly amazing particle effects during the climax, gives even the more outlandish moments sufficient grounding.
It helps that, while not as focused on the thematic side of things, returning writer Etan Cohen and new co-writer Yoni Brenner instead zero-in on the character dynamics, which really bring it all together. The character banter is as delightful as ever, and there’s commendable nuance put into some of the characterisation (Alex Borstein as Misty in particular might be this film’s secret weapon), and while the drama is solid, the comedy shows a considerable upgrade. Part of that is down to how out-there the set pieces are, from wrestling to weddings to an all-out mad science scheme, but even the smaller moments make for gut-busters, like a surprisingly graphic kissing scene, and one of the most tragically hilarious hard cuts ever put into an animated family film. Bohemian Rhapsody could only dream of something like this.
The Bad Guys 2 focuses more on style over substance, the action is beautifully rendered, the characters are funnier than ever, and the way it balances mirth with legitimate kid-friendly thrills is impressive. Sure, there’s a couple gaps in the narrative patchwork, and there’s a definite feeling that this is still a set-up for more entries in the series going forward… but given the note this ends on, the future is looking good for The Bad Guys.
