Preview: The Muppets (2011)

Synopsis:

Reminiscing about their first trip to Los Angeles together, a young couple finds their anniversary ruined after the husband forgets their anniversary; however, all is made better thanks to a raft of guest stars.

• Poster: C-; B-

Review:

It's nice that Disney is sticking with its teasing sales pitch for the film, but the design is such so bland and forgettable that it doesn't serve the purpose well.

Showing us all of the multitudes of Muppets is a good decision, though one that could have possibly been carried out with a little more flash and pizazz.

• Trailer: A-; C; B+; C+; A-; C-; C+; C+

Review:

Unless you've already had the mid-trailer surprise ruined for you, this is one of the most exciting trailers made in some time. The fact that it paints itself as such a disastrous and terrible film before opening itself up to the true excitement you can expect makes for a very interesting viewing.

Trailer 2: The second trailer doesn't do much better than the first trailer in establishing the comic setting of the film. These characters are a part of a lot of childhoods, so something more exciting might have been interesting.

Vignettes: There are four vignettes/parodies available for viewing and half are good, half aren't.

The first vignette is a near-wordless endeavor that plays more like a street gang film than anything, not really telling us what film in specific it's parodying. It's the quietude and the music that sells it.

The Green Lantern parody, like the movie isn't unexceptional. It tries hard for humor without really giving us any.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo parody is just fantastic. Clever. Funny. Exciting. While the music isn't as iconic as that used in the trailer it's parodying, it's nevertheless great to watch.

The fourth vignette is less parody than advertisement. The social networking add encourages viewers to Like the Muppets page on Facebook to reveal advanced showing information at a later date. It works well enough to push the viewer onto Facebook, but as a production is has only a couple of funny bits, the rest remaining humorless.

Trailer 3: There are some cute moments, but Jason Segel's constant mugging leaves me utterly frustrated. I'd have been happy without him in the film and he's the main reason this looks so utterly clueless. Still, there's hope of some of the old Muppet magic hidden in its tedium, so it might be at least partly entertaining.

This parody of a parody also features other parodies. The initial parody of a parody is good, but the rest are hopelessly sketchy, stretching ideas to idiocy, each having been better on its own.

Oscar Prospects:

Original Song is a possibility, but the rest of the film is unlikely to pique voters' interests.

Release Date:

• November 23, 2011

Full Review Synopsis:

I have not seen this film.

-Wesley Lovell (May 29, 2011) Original

-Wesley Lovell (October 2, 2011) New Trailers; New Poster

-Wesley Lovell (October 30, 2011) New Trailers