The Addams Family 2
MGMVery little should be expected from The Addams Family 2, with the directing duo Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan returning in their follow-up from predecessor The Addams Family. A franchise that turned the splendid gothic humour of Banny Sonnenfield's franchise and destroyed the living, breathing dark comedy heart – placing it into a prism of animated sheen.
The latest foray into this lifeless franchise is a ninety-three-minute bore that derives much of its second-hand material from the sequel to the live-action Sonnenfield feature from 1993. Taking the Addams family out of their iconic comfort zone and bringing them on a road trip/elongated car chase of sorts does little in any way for the audience to immerse themselves into this world. Little pause and reflection are integrated with arguably the notion to move on as quickly as possible, a devilish attribute for viewers not to realise they are watching a complete mess. Settings and locations are floundered about in seconds and almost instant inclusions with their presence being nothing but placeholders for the dismal story to take place, only relegated as comedic set-pieces that have little sense of humour to be found in – a notable example of House of Pain's Jump Around feeling notoriously out of place.
It is that very sense of humour that does little but, ultimately, comes to define the feature. This is in part down to the screenplay and issues of the target audience. The former from Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit is arguably the biggest issue in correlation with the latter. The sense of humour and projection of such is incredibly dissonant to who this project is ultimately aimed. Jokes and the humour overall are incredibly out of place alongside being tonally atrocious throughout. If this is aimed at a younger generation with its depiction in animation, then that does not seem to be cohesive in certain attributes that will largely go over their heads. However, even the more farcical nature is too light and ditsy for the younger audience, who are undeniably going to yawn and kick and scream to get away from this nightmare.
What keeps this audience even remotely interested? The plot of a possible DNA mix-up does little to capture attention, especially when the game is up within minutes; the sense of humour tonally all over the place; the animation does little to impress or have any sense of iconography or even character. The presence of the cast – bar Finn Wolfhard, who has been recast due to his age or is just the lucky one – return in the like of Charlize Theron, Oscar Issac, Chloë Grace Moretz and Nick Kroll – with the latter arguably the only voice that has any form of impressionistic take albeit thrown in the viewers face for a prominent amount of the running time. Nevertheless, aside from perhaps Issac, who injects a conscious amount of charisma, few of these performers’ energy or magnetism is found in their individual roles.
Even worse for fans of its predecessor – the slight few – many if not all characters who are introduced in the 2019 feature are missing here, presumably to crack on with a different storyline entirely and not be bogged down in previous weight. Laughable, considering that little is left here to actually give a significant infusion of fun or chaos that this family pertains. And with all things feeling strained, The Addams Family 2 slowly but surely devoids into being a thematic music video with a soundtrack so on the nose and half-arsed it beings to feel condescending before long.
For a franchise and property that has proved to not only have legs but charisma and character bursts out of its gothic seams, The Addams Family 2 continues the disappointing venture of this lifeless franchise that seems so far gone it is hard to tell where the issues begin and end. Little is evident here for audiences to give a remote secondary ounce of interest to proceedings ten minutes in, and when Bill Hader is involved and makes all but a dent into proceedings, the state of affairs is evidently clear.
