Smurfs Review | Flickreel

Throughout the 21st century, Hollywood had rebooted The Smurfs about as many times as Fantastic Four. We’ll see if they finally get Fantastic Four right in another week, but the Smurfs remain blue in the face. For a film that tries to succeed where its predecessors fell short, Smurfs retreads much of what we’ve seen before. Like the 2011 film, it sees the animated Smurfs venture to our live-action world. One of the destinations is Paris, which we saw in the 2013 sequel. Like 2017’s The Lost Village, the story centers on a Smurf trying to figure out what makes them unique. As is always the case, Smurfette is voiced by a trendy pop star (Rihanna this time), which comes in handy whenever the film randomly decides it’s a musical. Although this film establishes a new continuity, it assumes that the audience is already familiar with these characters. As such, it speeds through information like Smurfette being molded by the evil wizard Gargamel (JP Karliak), who is more of a side villain here. Karliak also voices Gargamel’s more successful brother Razamel, although they’re essentially the same character. Razamel is seeking a talking magic book (Amy Sedaris), which Papa Smurf (John Goodman) has hidden away. When Razamel
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