I felt that this film worked much better as a trailer than as a full-length feature. Movies frequently don't live up to the promise of their trailers. They can appear to be funnier than they actually are, or even make it seem like the film belongs to a different (often more accessible and crowd-friendly) genre than it really does. That wasn't specifically the issue here. The trailer does a decent job of communicating the film's quirky nature and shows off its inventive set pieces. It is not, on the surface, misleading in any way. In the form of a trailer, the wealth of visual creativity on display is fresh and entertaining. The trailer almost functions as a work of art in its own right. The actual film, however, can't maintain such a rapid pace, and it starts to feel stale after a while. It is too self-aware about its own visual style. After visiting several quirky locations, they start to feel obligatory--they're artistically strange for the sole purpose of being artistically strange.
This wouldn't matter if the story itself had grabbed me more. Unfortunately, while not quite boring, it also seemed content to be merely quirky, never meaningful. I liked some of the characters well enough, but not enough to care deeply about what happened in the story. Had the story had more of an impact, the impressive visuals could have supported it and helped the film to stand out. As is, the visuals were forced to stand on their own as the movie's primary attraction, and while they were enough to make for a great trailer, they could not carry the full feature by themselves.
I was engaged for the first half, then started to check out when it became clear that the film had played all its cards and was only going to be offering more of the same. It has some catchy songs and manages to get by on its charm for a while before the thin plot and hit-or-miss celebrity cameos start to become repetitive.
I did enjoy Ricky Gervais' performance. Even without his usual sidearm of hilariously inappropriate humor to rely upon, he still managed to be entertaining. He fully committed to all of his scenes, very important considering that most of them involved him playing opposite only puppets.
Lots of "kids' films" attempt to either tell a universal story that can be enjoyed by all ages, or to put in a second level of humor, more adult jokes that kids will not notice, let alone understand. "Muppets: Most Wanted" tries to do both to a degree, but doesn't pull off either as well as it could have.
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