'Ted 2' review by Captain Raptor

'Ted 2 review by Jake Boyle

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Ted movie when it came out, but it's highly likely that a large contributing factor was that I was 15 at its time of release. Now that I'm a little older and supposedly a little wiser, I was wary that being bombarded with jokes about weed and genitalia might not hold the same appeal it once did, especially given Seth MacFarlane's rather lacklustre form lately. However, the trailer suckered me in with something I could never refuse, a joke about Samuel L Jackson, and it'd been so long since I'd been to see anything that it still sounded like a good option. 

I guess I'm still actually 15 because I had a pretty good time with Ted 2. It's not that I'd misjudged it, entirely - the film's two funniest scenes (by a considerable margin) both revolve around semen - but there is evidence of craftsmanship to MacFarlane's method. There's a lot of puerility (although, to be fair, not as much as there easily could have been) but the scenes containing them are all precisely timed and built around the reveal of the grossness to provide a greater reaction from punchline moments. Not the most intellectual of techniques, perhaps, but certainly an effective one. Ted 2 doesn't provide as many moments of brilliance as its predecessor, partially from the law of diminishing returns, but the joke rate is high with most of them sticking to varying degrees. The whole affair is classic MacFarlane - race jokes (much less shocking than he's shown himself to be capable of, for better and for worse), pop culture references galore and a plot that more closely resembles a series of skits and asides than a focused story. These aren't always the best ingredients but MacFarlane knows his tools well, and while it does feel like he's playing it safe, the result is a film with a real sense of confidence that gleefully rhymes off joke after joke with very little flab. 

The myriad of references and in-jokes (Patrick Warburton redonning his Tick costume just to beat up nerds at Comic-Con is a particular treat) show the effort that's been put into this film, but sometimes it feels like overcomplication and a distraction; there are far too many earnest moments for a film that delights in cynicism and mocking. Amanda Seyfried's heartfelt plea for Ted's right to personhood is, to a point, a genuinely touching moment, but Morgan Freeman doing the exact same thing (with far less effort) 30 minutes later is totally void of any real substance. The sense of humour is very on point but in the moments where it's dropped it quickly becomes evident that there's nothing else to this film. The strength of MacFarlane and his cowriters' comic material is heightened by a cast that (barring Freeman's aforementioned pointlessness) gels well together and deliver every line with reassurance - Mark Wahlberg continues his impressively game performance in the series, and Seyfried helps form a strong trio dynamic with the Thunder Buddies. The weighty themes of identity and humanity make the non-comic scenes mismatchingly pensive, but they provide ample framework for humour to be built around, and the early scenes about Ted and Tami-Lynn trying to become parents are inventive and hilarious in equal measure. 

The verdict on Ted 2 comes down to a glass half-full or half-empty approach. You could view it as a retread of familiar. simplistic jokes with nothing new to offer or as a return to form by someone with a genuine passion for something so unashamedly dumb. I'd skew towards the latter, but whichever way you cut it, Ted 2 is a consistently funny movie with enough energy and panache to survive most criticisms. It's obviously not suited to all tastes, and if jokes about Jay Leno having "gay bathroom sex" don't sound appealing, then you'd be wise to steer clear of this. It's not as wild or inventive as one might have hoped for, but it's still far from disappointing and a reliably good source of laughs.