By Mac Spain
Paddington 2 is directed by Paul King, with Ben Whishaw reprising his role as the voice of Paddington bear. The film also stars Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Julie Waters, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent and basically every single British actor or actress you can think of! I mean the original already boasted a star studded cast, but in true sequel fashion Paddington 2 appears to raise the bar and I feel that’s reflective in just the casting alone.
It’s coming off the back of the original’s success, only this time it’s taking us on another adventure that’s clearly intended to be bigger, bolder and better in every way. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to so far who’s seen the film agrees that it trumps the original by many a mile, so I just seem to be sitting over here on my lonesome in the minority. Now before grabbing your pitchforks and torches, please, hear me out! Paddington 2 was by no means a bad film, I wouldn’t for a second dare to insinuate that. I just feel as though it was a lousy sequel, that spends the entirety of its run time playing it safe and in the end all we’re left with, is a by the numbers sequel rather then something really special.
Paddington 2 is a film that does exactly what it says on the tin, it will satisfy your expectations without a shadow of a doubt, but it won’t exceed them. I realise that by now you’re probably reading this and thinking of me as being overly harsh, after all it is a kid’s film. But to me that just comes off as a massive cop out, I mean let’s take Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ for example. That was a film which managed to be deep, intelligent and informative, but above all else it still managed to keep children entertained. I feel as though a very important lesson can be learned from that and that’s this…. Just because you’re putting together a film fit for a child, that doesn’t always mean you have to dumb it down, it doesn’t always mean you have to play it safe, you simply need to find an angle and work from there.
So Paddington 2 for me was largely forgettable, I can pretty much guarantee that if you have children they’ll love it, even I was chuckling to myself a couple of times. But overall I just didn’t feel like it had the same staying power as some recent efforts from Disney and Pixar or even the original Paddington for that matter 6.8/10.
