It is fine. It will not replace either previous adaptation (the ingrained-in-one's-cultural-consciousness television special and the bizarre, lavish Jim Carrey version) in my mind when people say "The Grinch," but I enjoyed watching it. The animation is consistently vibrant and crowded with Christmastime detail. There are clever visual gags here and there. And Benedict Cumberbatch's nasal, American-accented vocal performance is distinct enough from Grinch actors of yore, though his version of the character registers more as neurotic than enigmatic or menacing.

Pharrell Williams' voice-over was a dreadful choice, however. I know he and Illumination made a lot of money together with "Happy" from Despicable Me 2, but as a narrator here? No. A statelier, deeper voice is needed, perhaps Idris Elba or even Cumberbatch using his own accent.

In all honesty, this was a bit yawn-inducing besides the creative and fun stealing of Christmas. If you're over 12 I doubt you will find much here, and it kind of feels like a waste of time if you've already seen and loved the superior Jim Carrey version. Illumination would be great at making shorts, but they keep churning out these feature-length pictures that have as much gravity as a whoopee cushion. But they're great at marketing, so they succeed. Plus the fact that this film's run time is a measly 1 hour and 26 minutes, it's no surprise they made bank.

Pretty incredible this has so little reviews on here for a $500m film.

I was shocked that David was the only person to review it. I thought there would have been multiple negative posts by zwackerm.

Yeah, but unlike you having an open mind towards CRA, zwackerm would never let his soul be infiltrated by this.