The Addams Family 2 Smothers Creepy And Kooky With Clichés
In 1993, Barry Sonnenfeld pulled off one of the toughest tricks in film-making: creating a great sequel. Addams Family Values, the follow-up to the much-loved 1991 hit The Addams Family, is arguably as good, if not a smidge better and more re-watchable, than its first installment. It’s practically required viewing around Thanksgiving for Wednesday’s biting speech about people who drink highballs and people who live in reservations.
Since those two films, the creepy-and-kooky franchise, based on Charles Addams’ eccentrically charming comics, has been featured in a poorly-received live action movie (1998’s Addams Family Reunion) and a truly atrocious TV series (1998’s The New Addams Family). The 2019 animated The Addams Family breathed some much-needed new life into the franchise, modernizing the setting and leaning into the freaks-vs-normies angle. And now, just in time for Halloween comes The Addams Family 2 from returning director Greg Tiernan (Sausage Party).
After a science fair project where Wednesday Addams (Chloë Grace Moretz) creates a DNA martini to imbue the best qualities of her pet octopus into Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll, delightfully over the top as always), she is vexed when the blue ribbon goes to… everyone who participated! Her clearly superior talents don’t get the recognition she expects, leaving her highly receptive to the avuncular suggestions of super science guy Cyrus Strange (a perfectly cast Bill Hader). In a fit of teen ennui, Wednesday skips dinner, leaving Gomez (Oscar Issac) dejected that his little girl is losing interest in daddy-daughter time. Misunderstanding her emotional state, he instantly concludes that the way to restore the family dynamic is… a cross-country road trip. What follows is an extended montage of inter-city shenanigans: Niagara Falls! Grand Canyon! Death Valley! When everyone eventually winds up at Cyrus Strange’s Tony Stark-inspired mansion/secret lab for the final showdown, the plot points converge in a roller-coaster ride of a set piece (thankfully not in 3-D).
So, does The Addams Family 2 achieve the same sequel glory as Addams Family Values?
Not by a long shot.
The Addams Family 2 manages to be both frenetic and somewhat dull. It trades heavily on cliched sitcom tropes. It is occasionally funny, but overstuffed with unironically bad dad jokes and #hashtag humor. It makes a few weak attempts at topical jokes that smack of comedy-by-committee: when Wednesday dryly quips “I’ve been social distancing since birth,” the line screams “enjoy this covid-era buzzword!” (though it is entirely apropos to her character). And the science fair prize going to “everyone who participated, because every single one of you is special” is another tired groaner about how no one is special because they all get gold stars.
Rather than mining laughs from the Addams’ unflappable disdain for social norms, Tiernan drives a highly contrived wedge into the family notorious for its “us against the world” camaraderie. By centering the story on Wednesday’s teen angst bumping up against Gomez’s well-meaning but clueless hug-happy dad, the rest of the family become sideshows; Morticia (Charlize Theron) wrings her hands while occasionally offering sage advice, Pugsley (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, replacing Finn Wolfhard) is practically non-verbal, and Uncle Fester is relegated to corny slap-schtick. At least Granmama (a delightfully unhinged Bette Middler) gets to throw an epic party. Perhaps most egregious is Snoop Dog as Cousin It, a hip-hop player’s player with moves like Spider Man and an army of fans. He’s Poochie with a bowler. He closes the movie with a music video so absurd and contrived it feels destined to win every VMA award.
Tiernan goes all-in on several overused tropes: Family road-trip! Teenage girl vs clueless father! Super scientist run amok! While there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those story arcs, writers Dan Hernandez (The Tick) and Benji Samit (Pokémon Detective Pikachu) toss their ideas in a blender and hope for a delicious arsenic and eye-of-newt smoothie. Instead, it’s a jumble of contrived set pieces (a flamboyantly cliched musical dance number at a biker bar in Death Valley!) and overwrought storylines (does the super scientist have ulterior motives for championing Wednesday’s experiments mwah hah hah!).
It also leads to some obviously missed opportunities. Why stick with the brilliant plan of visiting Salem — where the genuinely eccentric Addams family could interact with the cosplay eccentrics of Witch City — when you can detour to Niagara Falls for some tired schtick about going over the falls and teen girls OMG’ing about social media photos? Tiernan completely misses (or avoids) the timeless passion between Gomez and Morticia, who are about as romantic as Mike and Carol Brady. They made me yearn for the magical on-screen chemistry of Raul Julia and Angelica Houston. Somehow, everything comes together reasonably well by the end, but getting there isn’t as fun as the creators think it is.
The animation is competent and eye-popping, with character designs that hearken back to the Charles Addams original cartoons. Wednesday and Gomez have clear, if highly predictable, story arcs. The spectacle of everyone’s favorite gravel-throated man of few words, Lurch, belting out “I Will Survive” in a melodious Bruno Mars soprano is amusing, albeit likely to cause exaggerated eye-rolling. So why isn’t The Addams Family 2 more enjoyable?
Perhaps it’s because that set piece, one of three over-the-top musical dance numbers ala “I’m a Believer” from Shrek, comes off as too intentional, a formulaic device engineered to pull in the kiddies. It contributes to the sneaking sense that we’re watching a Dreamworks film pulled from the bottom shelf in a desperate attempt to wring more money out of Charles Addams’ beloved characters.
The Addams Family 2 (BRON Studios, PG, 1hr 33mins) is showing in theaters and on various video-on-demand streaming platforms on October 1st and gets a 6 out of 10.
