The Addams Family 2

• Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, Co-Directed by Laura Brousseau and Kevin Pavlovic
• October 1, 2021 (US)
• Based on the characters created by Charles Addams

Voice Cast

• Gomez Addams-Oscar Isaac
• Morticia Addams-Charlize Theron
• Wednesday Addams-Chloë Grace Moretz
• Pugsley Addams-Javon Walton
• Uncle Fester-Nick Kroll
• Itt-Snoop Dogg
• Grandmama-Bette Midler
• Lurch-Conrad Vernon
• Cyrus Strange-Bill Hader
• Mr. Mustela-Wallace Shawn
• Big Bad Ronny-Brian Sommer
• Pongo-Ted Evans
• Ophelia-Cherami Leigh

In an effort to strengthen the bond between he and Wednesday, Gomez takes the Addams family on a cross-country vacation.

Ever watch a movie and feel it just doesn’t know what it wants to be or that it misses the point of the source material? Or both? Much like in The Addams Family 2019 that’s what we get in The Addams Family 2. Only here this effort comes off as much more generic and further from the source than its predecessor did.

I can offer many reasons why this movie is not good which would be virtually identical to why its processor was not good. I can but I will try to avoid those. Often first films can act as a rough draft for the second. The creative minds see what does and does not work and uses that to make an improved second movie. The live action The Addams Family from the 90s was followed by a sequel in 1993 called Addams Family Values which did just that. It was a more polished version of not only elements of the fictional universe introduced in the first movie but a much more polished version of the director’s style.

This, however, does nothing really to improve upon the mistakes or any possible strengths of its predecessor. For the most part anyway. It does manage to have a slightly more centered narrative though that would not be all that hard.

In this movie Wednesday is a scientific genius and her ability to transfer properties from an animal to a human being draws the attention of an evil corporate mogul named Cyrus Strange who seeks to use the process for his own nefarious ends. His scheme to trick Wednesday into believing she is his child doesn’t come off possible in even a comedic sense. You need to sow some doubt and this just doesn’t do it. Even if you know what the ending is you need to have doubt in the story otherwise things do not work. 

Much like the last film there are a couple of competing narratives though they are very minor in comparison the Wednesday portion. Pugsley is lonely in love and seeking advice from Uncle Fester. When the family goes on their cross-country trip Grandmama throws a house party to make some extra cash. Do either of these have an impact on the Wednesday story which appears to be the main narrative? No. It’s as if somebody looked at the script and said they needed to stretch things out. The two subplots are fluff to make this a theatrical release.

There is humor but it is not very funny. You know what you’re seeing as a joke but it’s just not funny. There is a running gag of a couple with the man attempting to propose to the woman and the proposal keeps getting interrupted by something the Addams family does. It wasn’t funny the first time but the next two or three times they use it it’s still not. It’s not even done in a way where a bad joke is repeated until it becomes funny. That is something comedy films often do but it takes some skill to make the repetition of something unfunny funny and the writers here just don’t have that.

I give them props for going for a visual style when it comes to the Addams family characters of looking like something from the Charles Addams strip but much of the rest of the characters are not macabre but rather done in a generic style. You could see this in one of a dozen CGI films.

There’s nothing about special about the script. It’s something you could find in any TV movie or multipart episode of a TV show. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing but considering that they do nothing to make it special or unique to the Addams family it becomes rather unnecessary to watch. 

Wacky road trip movies are a dime a dozen. They can be rather entertaining. We are the Millers and National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation off the top my head are rather good and take the wacky road trip in two very different directions. One they’re running from criminals and the other it’s just a vacation where everything that can go wrong does go wrong in the worst possible way. Despite plot elements introduced in this movie nothing gets too crazy beyond a talent show in Texas.

The Addams Family 2 much like the first film goes through the motions. Some character development is set back almost to beginning of the first film making this movie more or less a repeat of last. This one you can skip as well.