When I first watched The Emoji Movie, I thought it was bad, but not to the extent that everyone else was making it out to be. I didn't understand how it was any different than the average generic "bad animated movie". However, the more I thought about it, I realized that that is precisely The Emoji Movie's problem: it has all the elements of a bad animated movie, and executes all of them in such a horrible fashion.
The film puts so little effort in world-building, leaving open so many questions for how the smartphone world was supposed to work. Just off the top of my head: how do emojis reproduce? How does aging work for an emoji (the poop emoji's son mentions being ten years old, and judging by the age of the other emojis that would imply the smartphone is several decades old)? Why do poop emojis need to use the bathroom? How do internet trolls work?
The film is also terrible at characterization. Gene is one of the blandest main characters I've ever seen in a mainstream animated film. His entire character seems to revolve around him being "the outcast", and the film doesn't develop him much beyond that. Hi-5 is an example of the Comic Relief executed in the worst manner. Not only is he not funny, but he's also obnoxious and self-centered. Jailbreak appears to be an example of trying to break female stereotypes by being "tough", but that falls flat as the tough-girl archetype is the standard female archetype nowadays.
The film also lacks emotional resonance. Gene wanting to save Hi-5 because "they're friends" fails as the two had barely any time bonding with one other and Hi-5 had been mainly out for himself. Gene's parents reconciling fails to make an impact due to their poor characterization; Mel had been acting like a Jerkass towards Mary for no established reason other than to have a Heel Realization later on, so it makes their later make-up stale. And the climax involving Alex and Addie comes across as Narmy due them bonding over an emoji.
In addition, the film is horrible at handling its moral. For the film is about Gene learning to "be himself", the way the film presents it, it makes the other emojis shunning him seem justified. Big Bad Smiler wants Gene deleted because she fears his "malfunction" could get the app deleted, and that's exactly what happens. Gene does nearly get the app deleted, and the film barely calls any attention to it. And Mel telling Gene he should've believed him in all along at the end falls flat because all Gene had done was prove Mel was correct in thinking he wasn't ready to work on the phone.
Is this the worst movie ever made? No, not even close; there are far worse movies out there. But with that said, The Emoji Movie is still a terrible movie, with lame humor, awful world-building, horrible characters, and an incompetently-handled message.
An incompetent waste
When I first watched The Emoji Movie, I thought it was bad, but not to the extent that everyone else was making it out to be. I didn't understand how it was any different than the average generic "bad animated movie". However, the more I thought about it, I realized that that is precisely The Emoji Movie's problem: it has all the elements of a bad animated movie, and executes all of them in such a horrible fashion.
The film puts so little effort in world-building, leaving open so many questions for how the smartphone world was supposed to work. Just off the top of my head: how do emojis reproduce? How does aging work for an emoji (the poop emoji's son mentions being ten years old, and judging by the age of the other emojis that would imply the smartphone is several decades old)? Why do poop emojis need to use the bathroom? How do internet trolls work?
The film is also terrible at characterization. Gene is one of the blandest main characters I've ever seen in a mainstream animated film. His entire character seems to revolve around him being "the outcast", and the film doesn't develop him much beyond that. Hi-5 is an example of the Comic Relief executed in the worst manner. Not only is he not funny, but he's also obnoxious and self-centered. Jailbreak appears to be an example of trying to break female stereotypes by being "tough", but that falls flat as the tough-girl archetype is the standard female archetype nowadays.
The film also lacks emotional resonance. Gene wanting to save Hi-5 because "they're friends" fails as the two had barely any time bonding with one other and Hi-5 had been mainly out for himself. Gene's parents reconciling fails to make an impact due to their poor characterization; Mel had been acting like a Jerkass towards Mary for no established reason other than to have a Heel Realization later on, so it makes their later make-up stale. And the climax involving Alex and Addie comes across as Narmy due them bonding over an emoji.
In addition, the film is horrible at handling its moral. For the film is about Gene learning to "be himself", the way the film presents it, it makes the other emojis shunning him seem justified. Big Bad Smiler wants Gene deleted because she fears his "malfunction" could get the app deleted, and that's exactly what happens. Gene does nearly get the app deleted, and the film barely calls any attention to it. And Mel telling Gene he should've believed him in all along at the end falls flat because all Gene had done was prove Mel was correct in thinking he wasn't ready to work on the phone.
Is this the worst movie ever made? No, not even close; there are far worse movies out there. But with that said, The Emoji Movie is still a terrible movie, with lame humor, awful world-building, horrible characters, and an incompetently-handled message.