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Let's ignore for the moment the bizarrely unfunny racial humor and the subplot about the popular girls, easily the most disgusting subplot to any movie we're likely to see all year.
Remember how in the first one it was committed (for the first half of the film) to being a complicated and interesting look at how grounded real-life superheroes are likely psychotic and likely to die? It takes a look at vigilantism, and while the final act devolves into typical comic-book stuff, by turning McLovin into the bad guy, I was hoping it would give the sequel some interesting stuff to play with on the consequences of vigilantism.
Mostly, it's just a set-up for McLovin to rock leather and make a series of bad jokes, including a super-ugly rape joke sequence. (It both hurts and helps the film that he's totally unbelievable as a villain: helps in that it keeps the film only moderately unpleasant, hurts in that it gives the nastiness a comedic goofy tone.)
The best stuff here are two action sequences which would be fun in a movie not set in the real world. However, they adamantly insist aloud how "this isn't a movie, this is the real world" over and over, while shunning all actual consequence and shooting more ridiculous action. You can't have it both ways.
Taylor-Johnson is bland beyond repair. Moretz deserves so much better. Carrey has fun, but his role is so small that I wonder why he signed on in the first place (maybe they cut some of his stuff once they heard he wasn't publicizing). Maybe he stopped publicizing because he saw the movie.
The worst part is how oblivious the film is to real world, despite all its insistence. In a world where George Zimmerman gets off, how are we supposed to watch these vigilantes looking for trouble cruising the streets and then cheer when they attract attention from someone and consequently beat the shit out of them? Just because they make the villains as one-note villainous as possible and surround the heroes with rousing patriotic music (Henry Jackman, killing it on a score that deserves a better film) doesn't make the issue any less complex. The hero strolling down the streets of NYC rocking his baseball bat looking actively for "bad guys" who is accepted by the mainstream masses doesn't feel right at all.
For a movie that keeps shouting about how real world it is, it's just an ugly, unpleasant, unfunny comic book movie, full of horrific misogyny and oversimplification of complex real world morality. My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide
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