Muppets Most Wanted Review Roundup: Kermit the Frog and Co. Leave Critics Wanting More

"The missing ingredient is clearly Jason Segel," Variety says of the sequel

By Alyssa Toomey Mar 21, 2014 9:38 PMTags
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The Muppets Most Wanted is finally here!

The Disney flick, which stars Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, Ty Burrell and of couse, Kermit the Frog, hits theaters today, and we could not be more excited to watch our favorite fuzzy characters come to life on the big screen.

Directed by James Bobin, the PG-rated movie centers on The Muppets, who, while on a grand tour, happen to find themselves at the center of a European jewelry heist which is headed up by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his crazy sidekick.

The early reviews are pouring in, and if you head to the theater this week, it seems as if you may not be fully charmed by the follow-up flick to the 2011 film The Muppets. Here's a sampling of what the critics are sayin': 

Variety says of the sequel, "On the basis of a simple side-by-side comparison of the two films, the missing ingredient is clearly Jason Segel, the improbable creative force whose writing, acting and singing talents were so pivotal in reviving the franchise the first time around. But Segel has left the premises, and he's taken the movie's spark and sense of purpose with him...What's missing, ironically—and what The Muppets had in abundance—is the human element, specifically an understanding of how the human actors are meant to interact with their soft-fabric co-stars."

The Hollywood Reporter states, "The liveliest thing about Muppets Most Wanted is the score. The songs are not uniformly great, but they possess energy, some clever lyrics and an old-school, eager-to-please pizzazz that alleviate the mild tediousness of the arguments over criminal pecking order between Constantine and Dominic and the mildewed refrains of mutual love, respect and support among the perennially insecure Muppets. Even talents as formidable as Gervais and Fey become a bit wearisome here in one-note parts that force them to be loudly over-the-top nearly all the time. Ty Burrell gets a couple of laughs as a sub-Clouseau inspector trying to get a handle on the serial robberies."

The Los Angeles Times provided a more positive take, writing, "The only thing better than one Kermit is two. And the only thing better than two Kermits is one with a Russian accent. Throw Tina Fey into a gulag, force Ricky Gervais to play second fiddle to a nefarious frog, stick Ray Liotta in a chorus line and you have a sense of the zany extremes to be found in Muppets Most Wanted."

The New York Times declares, "The whole film seems to have a vague heaviness to it. The best Muppet movies have been great because they had charm. There's no charm here, really; just self-referential jokes, decent but not memorable songs, and lots and lots of cameos (again, for the adults; not many children are going to be impressed by the presence of Stanley Tucci or Frank Langella). It all adds up to an eventful entry in the Muppet film library but not a classic one."

While the opinion of USA Today was on par with the L.A. Times: "Refreshingly wholesome and cleverly campy, it's a family film that should appeal to a wide age range, though not every joke hits its mark...Following in the tradition of the original Muppet movies, Muppets Most Wanted is a good-humored, star-studded spoof that likely would have met the approval of the gang's late creator, Jim Henson."