When we initially heard that there was going to be an Angry Birds movie, we all sighed at what looked a lot like another “destined to fail” game to movie adaptation from Sony. But we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Very few people can attest to not having seen or heard of Angry Birds, being as popular as it is. The Angry Birds franchise has had multiple games spanning the years going from Star Wars to whatever have you franchise crossover Rovio can think of. They even went and made a game based on this very movie. Wow.

At any rate, the story follows Red (our misanthropic main character) as he struggles through life on this peaceful, idyllic island populated by colourful, perpetually happy birds.

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They make it very clear early on that he doesn’t quite fit in; he has trouble managing his seemingly bottomless anger and his thick eyebrows have been a cause of scorn since he was a wee chick.

Following an incident, he gets sent to Anger Management class where he meets the other two main characters, Chuck and Bomb, a speed demon with a penchant for fibbing and a rather large bird with an explosive problem.

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Suddenly, their island is invaded by friendly pigs, who seem to just want to have fun. Red notices something is amiss, however, and despite his warnings that the pigs are up to no good, he’s pretty much ignored by everyone else. So it lands on his lap to save his island from the pigs after they steal all the island’s eggs.

This doesn’t fall very far from the plot of most of the franchise’s games, where the birds are fighting to get back from their eggs but they’ve repackaged it surprisingly well.

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I didn’t go into the cinema expecting all that much, what with it looking a lot like just another colourful kids movie. But the movie is home to a couple of rather adult jokes and it is fiercely peppered with references to the original Angry Birds game and other pop culture references either blatantly sticking out like a sore thumb or slightly more artfully hidden.

The movie does require a fair bit of slapstick to run, with the movie cumulating in the rather violent use of a slingshot to rain down punishment on the pigs, but it is still rather satisfying so watch all the chaos.

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Of all the game to movie adaptations I’ve seen, this has to be the ONLY ONE that I’ve actually enjoyed. The pacing was decent enough, though it started a wee bit slow at first as the movie very quickly went through the paces of explaining Red’s backstory. But once it picks up, it literally doesn’t stop till there’s no crate left standing.

All in, its still a good watch, even if it is a rather silly movie. If you have played any of the games before this, you’ll probably catch more of the gags (and references to Angry Birds if you had played the game) but if you haven’t, its still a pretty good movie about a bunch of pissed off birds out to save their eggs.

Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Peter Dinklage and Sean Penn.

Directed by: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly

You can check out the official site here.