SMURFS

Here's the honest answer: this one can wait until it's streaming. SMURFS means well. It's built around a genuinely good message — that you don't have to have a flashy talent to matter, that loyalty and courage count, that failure isn't fatal. There's sacrifice here, and forgiveness, and a village that shows up for each other.

But the execution doesn't match the heart. The plot is predictable, the tone lurches between heartfelt and slapstick without warning, and the humor is hit-or-miss. A blend of animation styles — 3D, Claymation, 2D, live action — sounds inventive but plays confused on screen, and the marketing doesn't help viewers know what they're getting.

Add in some light occult trappings — magic spells, portals, an origin story that quietly replaces God's creation with four magical books — and this becomes a movie best watched at home, where you can talk through it, rather than a must-see in theaters. Good bones, disappointing build.

No Name is the one Smurf in Smurf Village without a "thing" — no special talent, no role, nothing that makes him stand out. When a beam of magic he accidentally unleashes draws the evil wizard Razamel straight to the village, Papa Smurf is kidnapped, and No Name and his friends are pulled into the real world on a rescue mission that carries them from Paris to Australia, gathering unlikely allies along the way.

Three stars means real strengths sitting alongside real disappointment. The animation blend is ambitious, the message is sincere, and moments between No Name and Smurfette land with genuine warmth. Razamel and his sidekick Joel have decent comic chemistry.

But the film doesn't know what it wants to be. Tender scenes get undercut by tonal whiplash — including a traumatic flashback played for laughs — and the story leans on "smurfisms" so heavily they wear thin. The climax resolves through a convenient magic fix rather than through the loyalty the story spent its runtime building up, which undercuts its own theme. It's a colorful, well-intentioned movie that never quite pulls itself together.

SMURFS gets a lot right at its center: a strong moral worldview where good triumphs over evil, characters who are loyal to and support one another, a character who gladly sacrifices himself for his friends, and others who forgive a friend who hid the truth from them. That's a genuinely Christian shape for a story to take, even if the film never names it as such.

Where it departs from that shape is worth knowing before you watch. The village's power comes from magic spells, evil chanting, and portals to other worlds — light occult content throughout. More notably, the film explains its universe's origin through four magical books rather than a Creator, which quietly counteracts the biblical account of God making the world. A humanist multiverse, where characters hop between universes at will, sits underneath the story as well.

One more note, stated plainly and once: the film leans on pop star Rihanna's involvement in its marketing, but her more mature vocal style is a mismatched fit for the optimistic, friendly Smurfette she voices — a casting choice that works against the character rather than for her.

Underneath the plot is a real ache worth naming: the desire to know you have a purpose, a "thing," even when you can't yet see it. Scripture answers that ache better than any magic book can: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

SMURFS has a kind heart and a message worth teaching — but a messy, frustrating film wrapped around it. Save this one for a home viewing where you can pause, talk, and steer the conversation toward the good stuff. Our answer stands: wait for home. Looking for something to watch together this week instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.