Simply Perfect

Sick Product of a Sick System

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Funny, cute and sweet, Just like the cartoons growing up. Loved it.

How do you criticize a movie that you knew was going to be stupid coming in? Honestly, it's a kid movie and it's not to be taken serious by anybody older than the age of six. I'm clearly not, six year old so I'm not the target audience, but I did watch the show when younger. In my opinion, it's not the worst kid's movie out there, but gees, it wasn't the best as well. I wasn't the biggest fan of the 1980's animated TV series, or The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo. Peyo created it when his cartoonist friend couldn't remember how to pronoun 'salt' in Dutch and found a story about a group of blue humanoids living in mushrooms interesting. I don't know if Peyo was on drugs or not, but that is so trippy idea. I watch enough episodes and read enough as a kid to know about the original works and this film are somewhat different. I'm not hating the film, but gees, it could had been made a little better. The 1980s animated TV series, did had some appeal to it, as it deal with magic and the dark arts that kids found interesting as a kid. It appeal to girls, due to their cute animation. Still, the original Smurfs was pretty dumb with it's a bleak archetypes naming and awful writing. This movie had little to no appeal for me now, personally, but I did see it with my 5 year old niece and nephew who somewhat like the film. I was disappointed, it's not only the fact, that I outgrew the Smurfs for more mature films, but also the fact that it felt that the fantasy world of the Smurfs was rip apart for a cheaper budget movie with the CGI Smurfs getting lost in live action modern day New York before Gargamel (Hank Azaria) find them. There was so many ideas that could had work with the Smurf movie, if only they kept them on their world. They could had a Lord of the Ring's type of a film with a story similar to the 1958's Johan et Pirlouit story La Flûte à six trous ("The Flute with Six Holes"). The adventure involved the' Schtroumpf' AKA the smurfs recovering a magic flute from an evil wizard. Check out the 1965's Adventures of the Smurfs to know what I'm talking about. It's rare to find. Just think of a full computer animation movie of the Smurfs, compare to this film. I would take that film over this, any day. The magic plot seem tainted for more marketing plot. By putting them in New York, it's seem that they are market as a parody to make fun of the fans of the original show, rather than paying tribute to it. Why is the Smurfs dealing with a character like Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) whom job is it to make cosmetic item ads. I really doubt a six year old kid cares about how to make an ad. That whole sub-plot is not appealing to children. Another thing, why is there a sub-plot of Gargamel getting a job at the same beauty items ad company that Patrick works in, and it's never follow thought? It would pretty interesting to see Gargamel use Patrick to get the Smurfs, but no the sub-plot was tossed away for more potty humor. There is a lot of potty humor, and lot of cruelty to animals. I know it's a CGI cat, but could they at least, make Azreal look like a cartoon cat, than a normal cat. It's disturbing to see a realistic cat getting hurt. I found it to be a bit crude. Another crude thing is the voice acting. Half of the Smurfs don't even sound like the cartoon versions of themselves. I found George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf and Alan Cummings as Gutsy Smurf really dumb. I don't know how, a Scottish and Mexican Smurf came about, when most of the original Smurfs were Belgian. I found Katy Perry, a bit annoying as Smurfette, but I wasn't a huge fan of the original Smurfette's voice as well. It was suggested that Quentin Tarantino would play Brainy Smurf, but it didn't go through so Fred Armisen voices Brainy instead. I think the movie focus way too much on Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) to the point, that he became the annoying Jar Jar Binks of the film that get everybody else in trouble. I was imagining choking his neck most of the film. Rather than Clumsy learning something or having a character arch a, the film just gives up and gave us a hokey ending. Honestly, there wasn't any positive or moral message told in this life. I thought it was supposed to be about, once in a blue moon, one gets a glimpse of what's truly important in life--and it's not always what one might expect, but the film doesn't execute it well. Was the film about Patrick accepting his role as a father? It should had been. The message get lost with all the potty jokes, CGI 3D annoying shots, destroying Aerosmith and all the ads marketing. I felt dumber watching it. I know it's a kid's movie, but this movie felt like it was for the really dumbing children of the world. It felt old and recycle formula like other live action mixed with animation movies like 2007's Alvin and the Chipmucks, 2002's Scooby Doo and 2004's Garfield. It didn't give anything new or creative to the piece. In the end, I felt like I was choking and turning blue for watching it.

What a bad movie! Terrible script, bad jokes that might appeal to small kids, etc. The CGI was good, but that's about it. What i can't believe is that this film won over half a billion bucks. Why? I do not know. Kids? Families?The acting is mediocre, even if it includes talented actors like Neil Patrick Harris. The voice-acting was One of the worst i have seen. Gargamel( Hank Azarias's character) was very cheesy and dull and not funny at all. He was a complete idiot.The screenplay! Extremely predictable and lazy. The script made me wanna cry. Besides, why couldn't they just have made the movie in Smurfland or whatever instead of the real world. The movie would have probably been better! And the plot! Just bad. Cheesy, clichéd and really dumb. This movie will appeal to small kids, but parents and adults, please don't watch. Waste of time and money. So, in a nutshell, this movie had a dumb and cheesy plot, a screenplay and script that looks like it was made by a 5 year old, mediocre acting, terrible voices, jokes extremely bad, and a terrible premise.The only good thing was the CGI.

After watching the film 'The Darkest Hour' I said the following:'Either throw science to the wind entirely and just call it magic or actually obey the laws of bloody physics. Don't mix and match.'This was because the film was based on scientific principles and then went and showed a radio functioning quite normally inside a Faraday cage. The only explanation for this which I could surmise was that it was a magic radio powered by some kind of dark wizard. I have now learnt that this wizard was most likely Gargamel, the sworn enemy of the Smurfs. Though quite what he had against Russians I cannot think.The Smurfs is a film which sticks to this simple principle and bases virtually everything on magic. Assumedly it is this magic which explains why Papa Smurf somehow has just one Scottish son. Who is apparently called 'Gutsy Smurf' but pretty much may as well just be called 'Scottish Smurf' for just how many cultural stereotypes he exploits. Mostly positive it has to be said: his bravery, his charm and his ravishingly hansom appearance. Goddamn is he a sexy little Smurf.There is a very controversial book which talks about the inherent racism of the Smurfs. Mostly this seems to be based on an old story in which a Smurf gets infected by something which turns him black and makes him mute, violent and insane. This then spreads to the rest of the village. It is claimed that this reflects the offensive attitude towards black people that were commonplace in the elitist white social mores of the time. A point which would probably be more valid if the main protagonists of the Smurfs were not bright blue... I think skin colour in the Smurfs is therefore as meaningless as it is today in our cultured society. If the black smurf started speaking in an African dialect he might have a point.In fact the film 'The Smurfs' uses the skin colour to exceptionally good effect with some very effective jokes of them blending into things with a blue background. The Blue Man Group advert and another for Blu-Ray for instance. I am however disappointed to find that they missed the obvious joke to try and blend into an advert for the band 'Blue' only to find there was nothing blue on it.Ultimately I found the film to be quite entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. I saw no signs of racism whatsoever. Clearly the author of that critical book has not watched this film. Then again he also goes on to claim that Gargamel is obviously Jewish because of his nose and obsession with gold and power. This point I think is probably made null by the fact that his cat can basically speak English. If all Jewish people had talking cats he may have a point. I feel the author is simply applying his own cultural views onto the Smurfs. Just like my own opinion that Scottish Smurf is one smurf fine smurfing Smurf.