Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.
Paddington 2 is a rare family sequel that genuinely surpasses its predecessor in warmth and craft. The acting is exceptional — Hugh Grant's gleefully hammy villain is a career highlight and the ensemble Browns are uniformly charming. Cinematography is visually sumptuous, with Paul King and cinematographer Erik Wilson delivering a storybook London of saturated colour and inventive framing, including the gorgeous pop-up book sequences. The plot is cheerful but conventional — a stolen MacGuffin, mistaken imprisonment, jailbreak — serviceable but familiar. Novelty earns a solid mid-score: the film has an unmistakably distinctive voice and warmth that sets it apart from most family fare, though it doesn't radically reinvent anything. The ending is satisfying and sweet but comfortably predictable, wrapping everything neatly in the film's trademark cosy optimism.