‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ Review: Still Square
I’m no stranger to Bikini Backside. I could not have a pineapple house there, however I do know the residents and native spots. Although after my unlucky latest go to, for “The SpongeBob Film: Sponge on the Run,” I’m packing up my swim trunks and heading elsewhere.
In “Sponge on the Run,” directed by Tim Hill, our favourite undersea fry cook dinner should journey along with his greatest pal, Patrick, to rescue SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary, who has been snail-napped by King Poseidon. They’re headed to the Misplaced Metropolis of Atlantic Metropolis, a “scary, vice-ridden cesspool of ethical depravity” (sorry, Jersey, you didn’t hear it from me).
“Sponge on the Run” desires to be intelligent in nodding towards style conventions: Patrick suggests they’re on a buddy journey whereas SpongeBob thinks he’s on a singular hero’s journey. It’s each — and each executed poorly. With the web’s boyfriend, Keanu Reeves, utilizing his celeb clout to no avail as SpongeBob and Patrick’s non secular information, the duo go by means of a Western saloon-style underworld inhabited by cowboy-pirate-zombies dancing to Snoop Dogg. If that final sentence confounded you, let me simply say that’s solely one of many inane and illogical narrative turns on this stubbornly unfunny movie. However that Snoop tune? A jam. With Weezer covers and a reggaeton-style remix of the present’s theme, the film at the very least is aware of learn how to drop a beat.
The remainder is studded with references to the primary (and vastly superior) SpongeBob movie, from 2004, and chokes up its third act with an countless, overly sentimental lovefest. All this rendered in C.G.I. animation so nauseatingly garish and synthetic it’s like inserting LED lights straight into your eyeballs. “Sponge on the Run” might take us again underneath the ocean, however this sponge is all dried up.
The SpongeBob Film: Sponge on the Run
Rated PG. Working time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and on Paramount+. Please seek the advice of the rules outlined by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention earlier than watching motion pictures inside theaters.
