From the creator of "Family Guy": What were you expecting?

Rating: 4/10 (30 July 2013)

When I first saw this film and wrote up my original review of it on this site, I only viewed it as a dumb, unfunny comedy created by Seth MacFarlane that I had an extreme hate for. After so time passed, I came to realize that my problems with "Ted" came from more than just the fact that I did not find it to be all that funny. To be fair, I will say "Ted" is one of Seth MacFarlane's better works, easily surpassing his animated TV shows "Family Guy" and "The Cleveland Show", but not reaching the level that "American Dad" is at.
After thinking about it a little, I realized that my main problem with the film was not the humor, as the first twenty minutes and the last thirty minutes had sufficient enough humor from me to warrant at least a positive view of the film. The middle of the film is bogged down in so much of the humor style that MacFarlane has become known for that I lost interest in the humor and moved my full attention on the plot, which I had even less interest in.
The plot of the film is not too original for a comedy film. It is a typical romance versus bromance where John's (Mark Wahlberg) girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis) wants Ted (MacFarlane) to move out of the apartment in hopes that their relationship will become more mature. Ted does move out but John finds himself blowing off Lori and other parts of his life to hang out with Ted. When John ditches a party thrown by Lori's boss (Joel McHale), it's Lori's last straw and she breaks up with John. John, with occasional help from Ted, tries to make up with Lori and rekindle their relationship.
There were several problems I noticed with the middle chunk of the film when the comedy died down to almost nothing with a few chuckle-worthy moments every now and then. The biggest problem was that John and Lori had no chemistry together. I did not buy the fact that they were a couple and I could not muster an iota of investment to their story. If the film had focused on John and Ted trying to remain friends because of John's relationship with Lori, the film would have worked because the two had good chemistry. I never felt like John and Lori were emotionally connected on any level, so I did not care if they got back together or not.
Next, the film felt like an elongated episode of "Family Guy", but with a beginning and an end that was at the very least a little funny. The film was filled with pop cultural references and other comedy that MacFarlane has become known for, a really stupid plot line with bad attempts at drama, and scenes that try to be emotional but are either ruined by trying to insert comedy or played for laughs. The beginning of the film is not like this and the ending tones it down a little, but for the most part, the entire film is like this.
While my opinion of "Ted" has increased to a level where I can see what people find funny about it and why some do like it, my opinion has not changed to the point where I actually like this movie. It is still dumb and boring with nothing to care about, complete with the usual junk that gets worked into MacFarlane's work. It had some fun moments and it shows that MacFarlane can be funny, but that is about it.