The Smurfs (US) - Boring & Strictly for Kids

 The Smurfs
Synopsis
The movie started with a magical world where tiny blue creature, 3 apples high Smurfs lives happily and harmony in a village. They are protected through a layer of force-field that prevents the evil wizard, Gargamel and his cat, Azrael from capturing them and extracting them for his magic power. When Gargamel accidentally found out about the village, the Smurfs escape to the forest. However Papa Smurf, Clumsy, Gutsy, Smurfette, Brainy, Grouch and Greedy get suck into a portal together with Gargamel and Azrael and came out in the middle of Central Park, New York. The Smurfs unexpectedly bump into the home of Patrick Winslow and beg for his help to get them back home while Gargamel still in pursuit to make magic potion out of them.    
Review:
I like the Smurfs cartoon way back during my childhood time and as i grew older, the interest disappear altogether with the TV program. Then, i saw the preview trailer of the Smurfs and it looks beautiful with the 3D form and some funny moments. But after popping the movie to my DVD set yesterday, i was engrossed. Engrossed on my tablet because the movie somehow does not have any sensible storyline. It merely were created to shows the Smurfs and the Smurfs are cute but once they open their mouth, they were so boring and didn't sound cute. In face, all of them sounded so adult like and that is a turn off. I felt the voice casting is bad and they should make some cute voices for the Smurfs. The only commendable Smurf is Clumsy while the rest are more of a nuisance. The CGI is also not as good as previous "cartoon combine real person" type movie and the flaws can be seen when the human character physically interact with the Smurfs. Neil Patrick Harris is wasted as Patrick Winslow while Hank Azaria as Gargamel excel exactly as in the cartoon. But as mentioned, in the cartoon, this character plays very well but that doesn't happen in the real world & real life. The movie director should incorporate real life character and not dishing out 100% from the cartoon unless they wanted this to be a 100% cartoon movie for kids and not to worldwide viewers. Overall, a poor movie with weak plots and silliness overboard.

Verdict:

I give this a 1.5 star out of 5.