The Addams Family 2- A family vacation that's tough to be apart of
Where to watch: Rent (Amazon and Microsoft), and in theatres
Listen, the 2019 animated Addams Family may not have been great but atleast there was some really fun gags to enjoy. In fact, I gave it a 60% and raved about the voice cast, as well as the way Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan absolutely embraced the insanity that is the titular family and threw all the hijinks that the ghoulish family could possibly get themselves upto. The comedy that the entire family could enjoy was strong enough to make up for any holes in its plot.
So when I saw there was a sequel, and I read the plot summary- I thought this could have enough potential to be equal too if not even better than its original. After all, a family comedy that takes part on a cross country road trip throughout the states- in an attempt for Gomez to bring Wednesday closer to her parents? There is so much room and so many possibilities for hilarity and chaos to ensue. After all, the Addams aren't any normal family doing a cross country, they're the nearest thing to the ghouls, goblins, and things that bump in the night- what could be a paranormal roadtrip had all the ingredients for a fantastic story that could make family members of all ages laugh.
What we got in the end in the follow up? Was a nonsensical story, that could not be saved by its jokes. The movie relies on fart humour and vomit humour to get cheap laughs, and the gags are the most obvious possible scenarios. They crack a Death Valley joke, and hang onto that as a great punchline far longer than they should have. Uncle Fester who in the original had the perfect blend of gross, and dumb jokes- was reduced to a walking punchline of all the nastiest possible things to try and get a laugh.
While other characters, namely Morticia and Gomez- who each had their moments in the sun in 2019, are reduced to a bare minimum. Gomez has a singular personality trait that our writers try and hammer home as if expecting their viewers to have some sort of amnesia and forget that he's a concerned father who is sad his daughter is growing distant from him. While Morticia is nothing more than a background character, a once strong part of making the first one as passable as it was- the filmmakers choose actively to not give her much lines, and thus waste the time of having great actors that embodied their personas- Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron, fully. Having Finn Wolfhard not reprise Pugsley hurt fully as well, he had such a strong impact and chemistry with Moretz' Wednesday- which you could tell the filmmakers realized as they reduced his role to just as much a background character as his mother.
The lone bright spot for me was once again Chloe Grace Moretz, who is transformative as the voice of Wednesday Addams. Her voice being the perfect tone for the dark, intelligent, often teetering on murderous deadpan of the Addams daughter. The few jokes that land come from her because she's able to have this almost sarcastic monotone unimpressed tone throughout the stupidity of her families acts. If a third is made, they will rely once again on Moretz to carry the comedic portion, as well as the heart of whatever story they're capable of telling, and that's fine to expect because clearly after two movies- she has proven she can play a strong Wednesday.
Save your money and wait for this one to hit streaming near you sometime soon. 43%