The Ice Age gang are back for the fifth film which really is a surprise to me. However with the fourth film 'Continental Drift' grossed a massive $877,244,782 worldwide. To put that into context, Batman v Superman grossed $872,662,631 so that shows that there is clearly an audience out there craving this series- mainly kids. Pretty mad to think of that so surely there must be some redeeming qualities to the series and hopefully, to the new film.
Scrat is once again pursuing and trying to keep his acorn which leads him to set off a series of events that may end the world. Manny (Ray Romano) and the gang must head to a certain location to try and prevent the disaster that could end the world. Reuniting with Buck (Simon Pegg), they will have to face off against new enemies who look to get in their way.
Didn't they already do this story in 'The Meltdown'? Wasn't the second one a story of the gang travelling to a location to try and provide safety? That's what I kept on thinking throughout this movie which makes it seem so lazy that they are rehashing the same plot lines from a previous instalment. I know it's been 10 years since that movie but come on.
Like quite a lot of the animated movies, this is clearly for kids. Unfortunately, the film isn't like a Kung Fu Panda where it is still highly entertaining despite this. I can't slag it off too hard for this as it is clearly aimed for children which is apparent from the whole load of immature slapstick humour. Due to this and with it being the fifth film, it feels really repetitive and you feel as if you've seen it many times before. This formula has been used throughout the whole series and it may finally be time for them to look elsewhere for comedy.
I feel that something that really affects this film is the constant going back to the character of Scrat. Now it is fine to do wee small clips of the character getting into bother but that should be it. The ones involving him in this movie seemed tediously long and took up far more of the run time than was actually necessary. The film is hour and 40 minutes long so I don't see why it was necessary to have so much of it within the film.
There is one aspect that the movie handles really well and that surrounds the family elements. With Manny's daughter Peaches in a relationship with fellow Mammoth Julian, Manny struggles to come to terms with this that leads him to act nastily to Julian who just wants to impress him. It's quite realistic in the way the parents react to the change in their daughters life which was actually done quite well. These moments do connect well with the older members of the audiences as it may be relatable to some. If the film had solely made it about this rather than going to other subplots, it may have been more enjoyable. However we were given another pointless story for Sid as well as Diego and Shira deciding if the choice to become parents is a good one which really hurts the movie.
The villains in the form of dinosaur birds are really terrible in this film. One of them knows that their plan is bogus yet they still go to carry it out until it is convenient. It is completely lazy and predictable which didn't really add anything to the film other than disposable useless characters.
Final Verdict =
Entertainment for the kids will be in this film but unfortunately not a lot for the rest of the audience. Not really worth seeing unless you are taking little ones.
So have you seen the latest Ice Age movie? If so what did you think of it? I hope this review was useful for if you were deciding on seeing the movie. Once again, thank you for reading my review, it is much appreciated!
By Angus McGregor
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