Animated blockbusters are a tried and true genre, one that moviegoers can bring the whole family to. And aside from Disney animated features, other studios are bringing their own titles, such as Universal’s burgeoning The Bad Guys franchise. Critics have seen the Sam Rockwell sequel, and their split about which of the movies is the superior installment. Let’s break it all down.
CinemaBlend’s The Bad Guys review was mixed, but the 2022 animated movie was a success. The Bad Guys crushed at the box office, and a sequel was quickly greenlit. And now we know what journalists who got early screenings thought of the follow-up. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman praised the sequel’s action sequences, writing:
It’s not until halfway through the movie that the rocket ship blasts off, at which point our heroes attempt to board the ship by flying next to it…on a helicopter. They leap aboard the surface of the speeding rocket, even as it’s casting off stages. I confess that this sequence stunned me, because up until then I thought “The Bad Guys 2” was mild and cutely comic and not much more, and suddenly we’re watching animated characters act as if they’re in the middle of their own Tom Cruise stunt.
The Bad Guys 2’s marketing referenced Tom Cruise and his impending space movie while promoting the animated sequel. But how does the new movie compare to the original (which was a big hit in the midst of the pandemic)?
The Associated Press’ Mark Kennedy seems to think that the second film failed to hit the same beats as its predecessor. What’s more, he even pokes fun at some of the dialogue from the sequel. He wrote:
The joy of The Bad Guys was that it was a respectful send-up of the movies of Quentin Tarantino and caper flicks like Ocean’s 11. This time, the Fast & Furious series gets mocked, as does Silence of the Lambs, Men in Black and maybe Moonraker, which is now 46 years old. But the subversion is painfully flat now: The first film in the franchise would have laughed at one climactic line in the second: ‘We’ve got one shot to save the world. Let’s make it count!’
On the other side of the coin, MovieWeb’s Julian Roman actually thinks The Bad Guys 2 “surpasses” the original movie. He praised the movie’s plot and the way it utilizes the Bad Guys cast, and how each of the characters was served. He also wrote about the visuals of the follow-up, saying:
The Bad Guys 2 has eye-popping animation that builds to a truly impressive finale. The opening scene is spectacular, as Perifel sets his own bar high and then joyfully hurdles it with a climax that’s literally out of this world. The slick blend of sharp CGI and 2D hand-drawn animation is enhanced by stunning camerawork and editing.
It certainly seems like there are some thrilling action sequences in the sequel, which are visually pulled off by the animation teams. Although its story is getting criticism from some folks online.
For instance, The Seattle Times’ review by Hayden Mears said the sequel was not as fun as the OG. He wrote about why the two movies feel so different from each other, offering:
The Bad Guys 2 is a parade of flipped priorities. Where its predecessor made sure its humor never strayed from service to its heart, this sequel, as amusing as it can be, is gunning for the opposite. The first film had a tight handle on its many moving parts, but the follow-up loosens its grip, crowding out meaningful takeaways to make space for new characters who won’t leave an impression. The result is a sporadically fun but ultimately hollow return to a world that didn’t need more than one movie.
The discrepancy between The Bad Guys 2‘s visuals and script is also at the center of the response from Roger Ebert’s Christy Lemire. She took shots at the franchise as a whole, saying:
Thankfully, the film’s look is always wondrous, from the haunting, spare lighting of a phone booth in the desert at night to the lustrous lowriders bopping up and down outside a stadium. When there’s a Bad Guys 3–and the ending very much suggests there will be a Bad Guys 3–at least it will be pretty, if not necessarily good.
Ouch. Clearly, critics have mixed feelings about The Bad Guys 2, so it should be interesting to see how moviegoing audiences react when it arrives on August 1st. We’ve seen some projects feature a juxtaposition between audience ratings and critical response, so we’ll have to see if this happens with Pierre Perifel’s animated sequel.
The Bad Guys 2 hits theaters on August 1st as part of the 2025 movie schedule. And yes, a third movie is already being planned.