The star vocal turn of the very moderate new Smurfs film is Rihanna, phoning in an undemanding audio contribution as the female character named “Smurfette”. But there is little to no music in this laborious slice of content, one of the many frustrating and disconcerting things about it. And for me, this film shows yet again that there is something about the Smurfs, those little Belgian creatures with blue skin and floppy-protuberant hats, which is basically kryptonite to comedy and entertainment.
The script by Pam Brady (justly respected for her work on South Park and Team America: World Police) follows the template of being pretty bland for the sweet Smurfs themselves, but is sharpened up with one or two properly funny lines for the all-too-brief scenes featuring the evil wizard characters Razamel and Gargamel (both voiced by JP Karliak) whom the Smurfs are up against.
