My Review of The Bad Guys · 6:02pm Sep 29th, 2022
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing DreamWorks' latest movie entitled: The Bad Guys of 2022. So, I had some fairly moderate expectations for this movie, and I was really interested to see what DreamWorks had to offer at the table once again. I mean, whatever movie they produce, it's gonna be awesome, right? Or at least most of their movies have been pretty great aside from a couple of exceptions. So just two nights ago, I was able to watch it for the first time and prepared myself to see some form of awesomeness they seemingly made. To my disappointment, it was just.......not that good. I'm sorry, guys, but I do not like this movie whatsoever regardless of the positive reputation it has gained since its release.
This is about the "bad guys" who just run around robbing banks, stealing things, blah, blah, blah, until suddenly Mr. Wolf unintentionally does one good deed that resulted in triggering a sensation within him, making him wag his tail. Trying to hide his true feelings, he creates a scheme that would earn them more riches under the guise of reformation. But will their plan work if their leader isn't as bad as he says he is?
Okay, I have a lot to say here: first of all, seriously, DreamWorks? You really couldn't think of a much more original premise to make this kind of movie? The film felt like a carbon copy of Megamind (same company btw), and tried to use the same concept but with a radically different approach. I get that Hollywood is running out of ideas, but I did not expect DreamWorks to almost repeat the same formula from a movie they have already made from 2010. Second of all, none of the main characters were remotely well-grounded, relatable, or interesting. Granted, they have distinct personalities, but I don't like any of them because their development felt underwhelming at best. Wolf and Snake were the only ones who had more focus when it came to character chemistry and growth. Still, neither of them were that interesting because the movie didn't take the time to give some well-grounded backstories that explains how they became criminals.
Megamind is a perfect example of how you do a well-written reformation; we see how he grew up, how society made him the way he was growing up, and why he had a life-long rivalry with Metro Man in the first place. In this movie, we've only gotten some snippets of their background--that's it. The writing just felt so rushed.
The only positives I have for the movie are the following: the voice acting, the soundtrack, and the animation. All three of these departments were well-executed, made, and composed.
Honestly, I really wanted to love these characters. Believe me, I really wanted to...but I couldn't and I don't. It's just really hard for me to love characters from a movie that felt the need to copy the homework of an older DW movie and make it seem different.
But the other main thing I hated the most was the villain. Are you kidding me?! No, are you actually kidding me?! That insignificant guinea pig felt like he came from a Disney movie, considering the fact that Disney is obsessed with making twist villains appear out of nowhere. So when the guinea pig (can't even remember his name) made the typical "I was the real villain all along!", I wasn't even surprised in the slightest. His plans were so cliche, his motivations suck, and his entire personality was so generic. The way his plans worked so well didn't make any sense at all because how did he know Wolf was going to take that purse full of money, only for him to hesitate (since he had to stick to the heist plan) and help the old lady (who was the guinea pig in disguise)? How did he know Wolf was feeling something good inside him? Was he watching him or stalking him his whole life? Never explained! All I'm saying is that this twist villain made no sense and was rather uncompelling. Poor ass writing!
In conclusion, The Bad Guys is one of DreamWorks' worst movies that deserves no love or praise whatsoever. It is unoriginal, uninspiring, uninteresting, predictable, and not entertaining. I will rate it a 3/10. And again, this is my opinion, so please drop your stones and your pitch forks. If you love it, great! If you want to watch it for yourself, go right ahead!
Peace out, and do better, DreamWorks.
What other movies and shows do you believe doesn't deserve love or praise despite positive reception and reputation?
5689349
Uh, don't you remember my negative reviews of The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022), Paw Patrol: The Movie, and Shazam? These were all films many people love so much.
5689350
I mean besides those.
5689353
Snow White, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid just to name a few. Again, please go back and read my reviews of those to help ease your curiosity.
5689354
Any shows you believe doesn't deserve love or praise despite positive reception and reputation?
5689355
I would include Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents, but those shows have been affected by seasonal rot which many folks agree on. Aside from that, not much else...yet.
Have you considered checking out "Puss in Boots" and "Over the Hedge", by any chance?
5689397
I grew up watching both of those movies. I’m saving those babies for 2023.
5689401
Lovely.
5689355
5689397
What do you guys think of this movie?
5690346
I haven’t seen it, although I wouldn’t mind giving the movie a look someday.
5690346
A pretty well written movie that not only has an awesome cast, stunning animation, thrilling music, and a perfect blend of emotions, but also giving the audience two strong aesops to learn from and a subtle allegory on how apex predators are important to an ecosystem.
Recently I finally watched The Bad Guys(only halfway due to time), and I have to say that I mostly agree with you. There were a lot of weird parts that made this movie less enjoyable, but it is just "weird" to me. The heist scenes were pretty fun, the animation looks pleasant, and there were some pretty moving moments, too.(Actually those scenes look kind of forced because I just somehow feel very disconnected from these characters, but I get feels from a lot of simple things so they just don't bother me THAT much.)
You are right about one thing, this movie was not really worth it, and let me tell you about my process of mind.
A few weeks ago when this movie popped up in my video feed I realized how popular it was, but the other thing I had in my mind was "This is furry bait". Later I recommended it to my little brother because he likes to watch movies and seeing him always watching Marvel hero movies is tiresome, so when I see some good movies, I recommend it to him. When I had to stop watching because I have work, I made it through the heist where Wolf didn't push the button like their plan, but after seeing the robber, the police, and the little adorable one (which is the guinea pig Professor Marmalade, his name is the only special name I remember because it's stupidly cute) there was another thing in my mind: "This looks very similar to Zootopia."
Then I found your review blog here, and your opinion (kind of) shocked me, so about a few days ago I recommended Megamind to my brother. I watched it through, and it was really fantastic, and I had to say the story and the world building was brilliant, and I especially like the usage of the transformation watch and the dehydration gun, these moments were perfect. (I kind of wished that Metro Man would actually show up during the battle so I can see that he still cares, but him watching Megamind's success in the end was pretty good, too.)
Anyway, I realized why the movie felt out of place, and to me it was because of the world building, where humans and anthro animals live together. That is VERY strange because in the movie they became The Bad Guys because they were afraid of and felt mad about that, but why? In Zootopia there was a scene in the start that told us that the animals became more intelligent and stopped being each other's natural enemies, but in this movie it was never explained, and it just felt like plain racial discrimination. How long have this been going on? Why didn't anything happen before? Why aren't there more predators like them? Like I said, I watched it halfway, but I don't think these questions are going to have a legit explanation. Also, the movie's development felt very rushed, and it felt like that since they rescued the kitten.
In conclusion, that movie was really overrated and I don't know how it got so popular (unless furries pushed it up or something).
P.S.: Even though I only watched half of the movie, I already saw two callbacks to Megamind (again, I say, great movie!), specifically the "fish surprise" and the "we're the good guys now", so I can see why you are reminded of Megamind.
P.P.S.:Maybe you should put up a master blog post to put up all of your previous reviews? Like the first comment here, finding a specific review where you gave something a specific rating is hard to find. Perhaps you could make a tier list like this?
Anyway, I am just a regular reader on this site and I only pop in if I had something interesting to say, hope I didn't offend you in anyway!