After the events of the first film, Wolf (voiced again by Sam Rockwell) and the rest of The Bad Guys; Snake, Shark, Tarantula and Piranha (voiced again by Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina and Anthony Ramos), struggle to fit into society as most aren’t willing to trust them. They quickly notice that a new criminal is stealing priceless artifacts while copying some of their old tactics, and while attempting to apprehend the thief to build trust with the public, they get framed for the robbery and are forced into hiding. This causes them to cross path with the true culprits, a trio of female criminals led by Kitty Kat (voiced by Kimberly Brook), who threatens to publicly reveal Governor Diane Foxington’s (voiced again by Zazie Beetz) past life as the legendary thief, the Crimson Paw, if they don’t help them complete their plan to steal all the world’s gold with the use of a rocket ship and a literal gold magnet. Forced back into the criminal life, Wolf and the others will need to figure out a way to outfox the criminals while Diane tries to track them down before the rocket can be launched.
While still received well by critics and not doing terribly at the box office, THE BAD GUYS 2 left a far smaller splash than its predecessor, and given its overall content, it’s not too hard to see why. While still offering a lot of hectic animation, likeable characters, and a pretty thrilling climax, the lack of any strong evolution between projects while removing qualities that made the first so emotionally fulfilling, keeps it from being a great follow-up.
This movie had all the right pieces to succeed, with its original book series having follow-up stories to adapt, the original director (Pierre Perifel) and screenwriter (Etan Cohen) returning alongside the original voice cast and some cool new faces including Kimberly Brooks, Natasha Lyonne and Maria Bakalova, and DreamWorks as a studio being strangely good at sequels (some even being better than the first). The world, setting and visual style captivated kids while the chill vibes and stylish swagger reminiscent of most adult heist films appealed to adults, so there should be a steady and even creative way forward with this series, but this sequel sadly come across as very mundane and predictable.
It doesn’t do anything bad necessarily and isn’t such a downgrade that kids and adult can’t enjoy what it’s selling, but in comparison to the first film (which had some childish qualities, but was held together by its characters, style and heart), this film nixes a lot of the more sentimental aspects in exchange for more wild visuals and zanier jokes. This makes the film likeably chaotic, can get a few decent chuckles, and allows the stellar voice cast and animation to run wild, but it leaves the plot feeling very secondary and not very engaging.
While the first film had a simple but connectable set-up, this film almost starts on the right path with having the now redeemed criminals forced into a scheme by a new villainous group, but instead of opening up opportunities for unique interactions or conflicting viewpoints, the story feels strangely ambivalent and breezes through every emotional beat or stoic contemplation with enough energy to not feel lazy, but not enough to let any moment stick. Despite only being four minutes longer than the first, this screenplay written by Cohen and Yoni Brenner doesn’t attempt anything new with the familiar cast, doesn’t concoct any inventive situations to put them in, and doesn’t form the script in a satisfactory fashion.
While less engaging than its previous, the film does still contain many of its good qualities and can be viewed by all audiences without any real issue. The directing by Perifel and JP Sans (in his directorial debut) is less suave and patient, but is still lively and full of character, the pacing is okay, a sparing few moments almost come close to feeling meaningful, and the climax is a lot of fun, travelling into space and delivering a high-energy conclusion that mixes laughs with enough investment to care about how things will wrap up.
The Bad Guys themselves weren’t all treated equally in terms of engagement in the previous film (with Wolf and Snake getting far more attention than the others), but their exaggerated designs, charming vocal performances and entertaining manner of using their skillsets in a heist setting made them an endearing team you’d want to see more adventures with, but while a sequel is usually where characters should evolve, this movie mainly keeps things pretty stagnant (and even goes a little backwards).
While the film still frustratingly keeps characters like Shark, Piranha and Tarantula as glorified comic relief, it’s more bothersome now that Snake has fallen into that pit as well, devolving from deuteragonist to solely being used for punchlines. This wouldn’t be terrible if another character took his place, but even Wolf doesn’t have much new to offer, despite his struggle of battling the urge to go bad again after being rejected by society feeling like the right conflict for him to deal with.
Some of the supporting characters get to do some fun things, like Richard Ayoade returns in a brief but notably funny cameo, and Alex Borstein as the hyper police commissioner is the only one to go through an arc about warming up to the crew and having their back by the end after spending years chasing them down, it’s a nice showcase for the character. Diane Foxington is allowed to take part in more of the action, Zazie Beetz is still fun in the role, and she and Wolf do have a pretty cute romance throughout, but her involvement ironically feels less impactful than in the first, so she’s a bit uneven.
The new criminal crew (‘’The Bad Girls’’ if you will) are well designed, are likeable in a simplistic sense, and are voiced very well, with particular credit going to Kimberly Brooks who has the perfect tone and attitude for this cool but deadly panther thief. With that said, they don’t stand out as much because they don’t enter the film until the halfway point and most of their interactions are very one-note, so they don’t build a connection with the audience the same way the original team did.
The visual style of the first film was very well received not just because of the vibrant color palette, pronounced line work, and insanely expressive models and action, but because it felt like a change of pace from DreamWorks’ usual style of animation, which will prove to be more common now that they no longer independently animate their own movies and source them to be partially animated by another studio. For this sequel, the partner studio was Sony Pictures Imageworks, which is very appropriate considering they were responsible for making Into the Spider-Verse, the film that inspired its visual style, so they have no trouble bringing it to life for a second time.
It sadly doesn’t feel like anything is drastically improved (which makes the once distinct style feel more standard) and because of the heavier focus on over-the-top slapstick and insane antics, it can feel a little too wild at times, but it’s still very good animation with popping colors, smooth motion and wonderful comic book-esque framing that leads to some beautiful imagery. Because this film strangely doesn’t have as many heist references anymore, the unique camera work and editing choices aren’t as noticeable, which can also be said for the music done by Daniel Pemperton, producing a piece that’s perfectly acceptable, but missing the genre-specific quirks that made the first one stand out.
Much like a copycat criminal, THE BAD GUYS 2 carries the same likeness and trademarks as its inspiration, but can’t perfectly replicate them, so the fact that a direct sequel can’t properly emulate what came before is a tad bit embarrassing. This sequel will offer a fun, harmless waste of time with likeable characters, vibrant visuals and enough laughs and stable direction to make it through without getting tired, but the first movie’s slightly scattered but otherwise sturdy presentation matched with a genuine feeling of heart makes it a superior film by every metric. It’s a shame that it couldn’t join the ranks of Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots 2, as sequels that outclass the first, but with plans to continue the franchise going forward, there’s always more time for one last mission.
