Defending The Emoji Movie: am I crazy or is this actually decent?

Ok so I know The Emoji Movie is like the most hated animated movie of the past decade, it's sitting at 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and everyone calls it a soulless cash grab. But here's my defense: I watched it with my niece and nephew last weekend (they're 7 and 5) and they were completely hooked the whole 86 minutes, which is more than I can say for most kids movies that try to be clever for adults. The world building inside the phone actually has some fun ideas, and the scene where they go through the spam filter is genuinely creative. Now I'll admit the plot is basically Inside Out with a phone instead of a brain, and the product placement is rough, they literally stop the movie to show you a Candy Crush ad. So my question is this: does a movie that successfully entertains its target audience deserve credit even if adults and critics hate it? Or does the lazy writing and corporate shilling cancel that out no matter what? Where do you all fall on this one?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

ryan_shah381mo ago

I heard the director actually said in an interview that critics just didn't get it, which is pretty funny honestly. My take is if a 5 year old sits through the whole thing without asking to leave, that counts for something lol. Doesn't make it a good movie though, a Candy Crush ad in the middle is still wild.

0