Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Bad Guys 2

The Bad Guys 2 is finally here, continuing one of DreamWorks’ newest franchises after the huge success of the first film back in 2022. One question that is brought up every time a sequel comes out is whether it is able to stack up to the original.

While second installments in franchises can very often feel like a cheap imitation of the original, DreamWorks has made a name for itself over the years by making incredible sequels to properties that seemed like they could have easily gone wrong. Some, like Shrek 2 or Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, have become even more beloved than the first film.

The first The Bad Guys was great, and while it hasn’t gone down as the absolute peak of DreamWorks’ best movies, it was a solid family film. It includes great voice acting, animation, and characters. Thankfully, The Bad Guys 2 managed to mostly live up to the first.

However, while The Bad Guys 2 was solid, it made one big mistake that, to be fair, many sequels have fallen victim to. It stops the new movie from joining the ranks of DreamWorks’ best sequels, despite all the solid moments it has.

The Bad Guys 1 Felt More Unique And Original Than The Sequel

The Bad Guys 2 Retreads A Lot Of The Same Ground

One of the best aspects of The Bad Guys was that it felt pretty fresh, telling the story of a group of villains that need to be reformed, while also showing off some of the more entertaining aspects of the heist genre. This made for a fairly unique family movie experience, even if the story was still fairly predictable.

On the other hand, The Bad Guys 2 felt like it was retreading a lot of the same ground as the first movie when it came to the movie’s overarching plot. It also revolves around a series of heists, but more importantly, it felt like the character arcs it presented were pretty similar to what already happened in the first movie.

The continued heists felt like a natural extension of the franchise, as it is a heist series. Simply moving away from that aspect of the movies would feel pretty jarring. However, the issue arises when those heists feel too similar to what has already happened, such as during the wedding, which felt like fairly standard heist fare.

When it came to the returning characters, it felt like The Bad Guys 2 didn’t really know what to do. Most of the central cast doesn’t get the opportunity to change all that much throughout the movie, and the majority of the characters end the film pretty much the same people as they started.

Wolf did have a small arc, but it essentially just rehashed what happened in the first movie. We see him again grappling with whether turning bad would lead the team to better lives. Realistically, it makes sense for him to doubt himself, and it could have been interesting, but it pᴀssed by so quickly and had such little effect on the plot that it felt superfluous.

The rest of the characters felt pretty static. Even though Diane underwent a significant change from governor to secret agent, it felt like it just happened with no real time to focus on what she was thinking, other than when she and Wolf revealed their true feelings for each other.

The Bad Guys 2 Ups The Stakes And Spectacle Of The First

The Second Movie Tells A Much Bigger Story

However, it is still worth pointing out that The Bad Guys 2 is nowhere near terrible. The film still very much succeeds at being an entertaining time for audiences of all ages. The voice cast and animation are still stellar, and the film manages to increase the stakes in a way that feels believable despite its zaniness.

The Bad Guys 2 ends with a fight in outer space over a giant magnet that attracts all the gold in the world towards it. While that sounds completely insane, and like the series has mᴀssively jumped the shark, this is already a very heightened universe, and in the context of this series, the ending works extremely well.

Even outside The Bad Guys 2‘s ending, it has a lot of great set pieces. The opening chase scene is a wonderful way to start the movie, reintroducing this universe and the characters in a way that feels like it fits in perfectly with where we saw them at the beginning of the first film.

While the action in The Bad Guys franchise tends to be less focused on hand-to-hand combat than other action films, there are a couple of straight-up fight scenes, mostly involving Diane, which are excellent examples of animated brawls. Using the framing of the anthropomorphic animals makes these moments work well.

However, great action and set pieces can’t make up for weak and repeтιтive character arcs, which this sequel unfortunately suffers from. It’s a solid summer family film, but it doesn’t manage to surpᴀss the original, making The Bad Guys 2 slightly worse off when compared to what came before.