First Impressions: The Addams Family (2019)

Animated Antic said that this was the biggest disappointment of the year for him.

Anim8Ball titled his review of the movie "Me-Di-O-Cre *snap* *snap*"

Now, I'm sure they both have valid arguments and criticisms towards the movie, but going in, with reasonable expectations and a lack of experience with the Addams Family, I can personally say that I disagree with them.

I thought the movie was pretty good, not great, but pretty good.

I kind of enjoyed the main arcs for each character, and the themes of tradition and fitting in the plots have. Now, I am not saying they are really deep or nuanced, what I'm saying is I enjoyed them. I really liked the film showing that Wednesday and Parker weren't all that different, and that Morticia was just as restrictive and controlling as Parker's mother. Of course, the difference between the two is still obvious, one goes to an extreme of keeping her daughter from leaving the house, and realizes she's done wrong. The other goes to the extreme of trying to straight up murder the entire family, and thinks she is justified, like I said, there really is not a lot of nuance here, so I don't think this movie will win any awards for plot.

That being said, I can take a lousy plot if the characters and jokes are good, so how are the jokes? They're mixed. A lot of the jokes are not really funny, but the ones I did find funny, I really found funny. The science class scene for an example, while the Frankenstein reference is cute, albeit a little predictable, the following reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I found hilarious, though I like reference humour. I think the humour as a whole was mixed, I found it funnier than some, but some of the jokes were pretty lame.

As for character, I think Wednesday was a really strong character, the way she works off of the others was always entertaining. I don't think there was a character I didn't enjoy in some way. On top of that, I really like the designs of them. The villain being this "standard" of beauty contrasts very well with Morticia Addams being very slender and monotone. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the characters in this movie, especially Wednesday, no wonder everyone likes her.

Maybe I'm more forgiving of this movie than others, I have not really indulged myself in The Addams Family outside of internet memes, so maybe there is something else I am missing. However, I did enjoy my time, and you know what, this movie was not The Secret Life of Pets 2, so, that is something. Does it have it's flaws, yes. However, I did enjoy my time, and I do think some others will too, so with that, I can safely give this movie a Slight Recommendation.