After Ted gets married to Tami-Lynn, they decide they want to have a baby. However under the law, Ted is not considered a living person and will have to prove it in a court of law...
Comedy sequels are often very difficult to pull-off. There's a simple reason for this, at least to me and that is often the first film makes best use of its set-up and is crammed with as many jokes as possible. However, in a sequel, particularly one like this where the set-up has been established you need to make the second film either cleverer and certainly as funny. Sadly, on both levels, Ted 2 is lacking.
The basic story, of Ted having to prove he is a living person, mirrors in many ways the plot of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called 'The Measure Of A Man' where the character Data has to prove he is a sentient being rather than property. The basic idea may come from a story much older than that, but this was the one that sprung to mind watching the film.
Surrounding this plot, the writers (Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild) have approached the film in a similar way to MacFarlane's Family Guy series, by having random cameo moments, cutaways to a throwaway scene for a quick laugh and such-like. And at times it works, but at other it doesn't. Likewise a large number of the jokes in the film didn't work for me, but I did laugh a number of times as well.
The cast is not too bad. Mark Wahlberg is good as Ted's best friend John. Amanda Seyfried plays their lawyer Sam and is not bad, though doesn't get enough chance to show any comedic ability. There are smaller roles for Morgan Freeman, Sam Jones (playing a version of himself), Giovanni Ribisi returns as Donny, who again is after Ted.
Seth MacFarlane directs the film again and does it well once more. The big musical dance sequence over the opening credits, is very well done indeed. He keeps the film moving at a good pace, and the film might be a little too long, but to be fair is never dull.
However...
The film script is a problem. To begin with, as I mentioned the film is never funny enough, but also the tone of the humour is off too. The climax of the film takes place at the New York Comic-Con and the film can't decide if it's poking fun at those who attend these types of events, or not. As a result, we see two characters, essentially bullying some of those there. If it is supposed to be funny, then it is not, even if one of them is played by Michael Dorn, who played Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
But if the script has issues, it is nothing to the biggest one; both Ted and John come over at times so unlikeable that you do not care what happens to them. In fact, you hope someone would give them a slap around the head to knock sense into them and because you find them unlikeable, you don't care what happens to them during the story.
Ted 2 is not a terrible film. But it is not a good one either. If you liked the first film, which to be fair I did, you might enjoy this one more than I did. Like I said, I did laugh several times watching the film, which being a comedy is the minimum you should get from a film designed to make you laugh. But and it's a big one, you do expect much more than that.
Disappointing.
Rating - 4/10
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