The film lacks the comedy of the first film in the form of gargamel, and basically re-writes the smurfs in a politically correct image, with a focus on female empowerment.
It's clumsy in doing so, painting the new all female village as a sort of utopia, where the smurfs historically were known more for their flaws.
That of course is not atypical of either modern political correctness and female writing, writing women with less flaws, and men with more. It does so, fortunately in a gentle fashion, which may disappoint some anti-male feminist commenters, but alas, without being entirely even handed either.
It muddles and confuses the basis of the smurfs - a village of people with outstanding flaws, united by an older wiser leader - a model of actual youth, free of cultural agendas, and the basis of it's simple comedy.
Overall, its not the worst kind of pandering, and its biases are mild, but in the process it also loses a great deal of its charm, coming off quite Luke warm comedically, and dramatically.
As with most movies, feminists should really stay away. It would have made more sense to introduce a smaller number of core female smurfs, and made them as 2 dimensionally flawed as the male smurfs. That could have made for better comedy, and it would have been fresh.
It's clumsy in doing so, painting the new all female village as a sort of utopia, where the smurfs historically were known more for their flaws.
That of course is not atypical of either modern political correctness and female writing, writing women with less flaws, and men with more. It does so, fortunately in a gentle fashion, which may disappoint some anti-male feminist commenters, but alas, without being entirely even handed either.
It muddles and confuses the basis of the smurfs - a village of people with outstanding flaws, united by an older wiser leader - a model of actual youth, free of cultural agendas, and the basis of it's simple comedy.
Overall, its not the worst kind of pandering, and its biases are mild, but in the process it also loses a great deal of its charm, coming off quite Luke warm comedically, and dramatically.
As with most movies, feminists should really stay away. It would have made more sense to introduce a smaller number of core female smurfs, and made them as 2 dimensionally flawed as the male smurfs. That could have made for better comedy, and it would have been fresh.