This was a sneak preview screening. That means that in return for some movie schwag (stickers, in this case) you are asked to fill out a questionnaire for the studio's edification.
Filling them out is a drag, what with all the tiny boxes to check and the teeny golf pencils, but sometimes the questions are accidentally illuminating.
There was a section that asked what made you want to see the movie, and the first option was that the movie was created by "the South Park Guys." The studio was right. That is precisely why I went. The South Park movie was the best musical in a decade, and probably the funniest feature cartoon I've ever seen. The show wanders in and out of brilliant territory, but it's more than worth checking out.
The questionnaire also wanted to know if the fact that the cast was all puppets affected my decision. Right again. Puppets are funny.
So the studio brings me Trey and Matt and puppets. Certainly looks like they have me dialed in. On paper, that combination is infallible.
On screen, meh.
I'm not saying it sucked. It was funny in places. Watching puppets hump is funny, any way you stack it. Hearing puppets swear is funny, at least the first several times. Kim Jong Il reprising the lonely misunderstood role filled by Satan in the South Park movie is an amusing conceit. The songs, although there weren't many, were catchy and giggleworthy. The technical aspects of the puppetry were awe-inspiring.
But there's something lazy and half-assed about the writing that I just couldn't shake. There were plenty of people laughing around me, so it's possible i'm just not in the mood for terror and WMDs to be played for chuckles yet. Maybe it's the generic nature of the celebrity mocking (see Matt Damon in the movie for an example.)
Whatever it was, it kept me from enjoying it as much as I wanted to. It was way better than Stuck on You and all, but it felt like the great technical work was betrayed by phoned-in writing.
There's always the chance that it's just me.
