The Emoji Movie Review

Spoiler Alert: Be ready for a ridiculous concept for a movie.

Buckle up, ladies and gents, technology rules the world and phones have taken over the minds of people, young people to be specific. Honestly, these kids in the movie are as stupid as the poop emoji. Ah, yes, Emoji Movie. Does it even sound like a good idea? No. No, it does not. In fact, it’s a terrible idea. It was a horrible movie with an awful plotline.

Join Gene (T.J. Miller), your resident Meh emoji, on an adventure only to get lost in a really complicated, nonsensical ‘romance’ with an emoji called Jailbreak (Anna Faris), our wannabe badass feminist. With them is the trusty and comical (not really) Hi-5 emoji, voiced by an overly enthusiastic James Cordon. James Cordon, you’ve ruined your movie career, dear. Please, accompany us through this hellish nightmare, we don’t want to go through it alone.

First, we will start with the jokes. Oh God, the jokes. They were horrible. Here are some examples here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrzr0hQVHbk.

There are so many pop culture references made in this movie that really should not have been there and have ultimately ruined them. For example, Star Trek (“beam me up” says the alien at 11:53), he movie Friday (“Bye, Felicia” at 12:40), by N’Sync, Casablanca (“We’ll always have Paris” 55:56), just so many.

“Words aren’t cool,” says random hollow-in-the-soul teen number one. The utter brilliance behind those words are just astounding, considering the fact that he was speaking with actual words. God, nothing in this movie made any sense. There are so many questions. Starting with emoji reproduction. What is the point and how is it done? Or do we really want to know? (ha!) If emoticons exist, then are there emojis of the alphabet hanging out? Do they have their own world too? Probably, but where is any of the logic?

Anyway, onto the whole reason this movie was even made. Some guys up at Sony headquarters had the most amazing idea. Kids like emojis and kids like staring at screens. It’s essentially the washed-out version of the profoundly inspiring Inside Out (2015). Sony was merely riding the coattails and threw whatever fancy voice actors into the fray, hoping, praying, that something awesome would come out of it. News flash, nothing did. At all. Not even a little bit.

Emojis and emoticons live together with the sole purpose of pleasing their user, Alex. It’s a strange setup. The whole premise should have focused on the kids connecting with one another beyond their phones, (awesome) but instead the focus was on the emoji who was unlike the rest: Gene. This movie smacks of schmaltz. It elicits heartfelt “awws” from the audience but doesn’t deliver any deeper meaning. Hell, it doesn’t deliver any meaning.

Instead, it is a cash grab and begs to be talked about so it can make even more money while being ridiculously stupid. Candy Crush? Just Dance? Really, they aren’t getting recognition. So, I guess we fell right hook and sinker, huh?

Works Cited

Deveney, L. (2018). How Do You Movie Sticker Gene. Retrieved from Pintrest:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/598978819162166568/

McNary, D. (2017, July 28). Box Office: ‘Emoji Movie’ Goes to Battle With ‘Dunkirk,’ ‘Atomic

Blonde’ for Top Spot. Retrieved from Variety:

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/box-office-dunkirk-emoji-atomic-blonde-1202509550/

The Emoji Movie. (2017). Retrieved from The Movie DB:

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/378236-the-emoji-movie/images/posters