Review of Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) by Patrick L — 17 Aug 2016

"The "Ice Age" franchise is on a collision course alright, a collision course towards extinction".

Movie Review: Ice Age: Collision Course.

Date Viewed: July 22 2016.

Directed By Mike Thurmeier (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Continental Drift) and Galen T. Chu.

Screenplay By Michael J. Wilson, Micheal Berg, Yoni Brenner, Story By Aubrey Solomon.

Featuring the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Wedge, Adam DeVine, Keke Palmer, Wanda Sykes, Melissa Rauch, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jessie J, Nick Offerman, Michael Strahan, Stephanie Beatriz and Max Greenfield.

The "Ice Age" franchise is on a collision course alright, a collision course towards extinction. This sequel is another example of 2016's creative bankruptcy, the filmmakers didn't even try to bake a fresh new story for these characters, the only thing "Collision Course" gives them is old leftovers. For a big animated franchise such as "Ice Age", the franchise started off so promisingly, four sequels later, "Ice Age" has basically become an franchise for little toddlers.

Not only is "Ice Age: Collision Course" by far the worst film in the 14-year franchise, even Scrat the Squirrel (who was the biggest asset of the franchise) has grown stale. I hate to insult extinct mammoths but making a fifth "Ice Age" film is like beating a dead mammoth. The franchise also had it's share of mediocre villains including dinosaurs and Peter Dinklage who provided the voice of a Gigantopithecus pirate but here, the villains this time around are so forgettable, I completely forgot who their names were or what species they are. All I can remember was that the main villain was voiced by Nick Offerman who is a go-to-guy for voicing supporting characters in big animated properties. If you recall, he also voiced Metal-Beard in "The LEGO Movie".

Speaking of "The LEGO Movie", for the past few years, animated films have grown stronger and more creative and original. From "LEGO Movie" to "Inside Out" to "Zootopia" to the two "How to Train Your Dragon" movies to "Shaun the Sheep Movie" and "Frozen", as animation has moved to a much bigger direction, the "Ice Age" series is somehow disinterested in getting better.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked the first "Ice Age" film when I was a kid but I have seen these movies since forever and I think it's finally time for Manny, Sid, Diego and their herd to move on.

As usual with every installment, the nut-loving squirrel, Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge) gets caught in another implausible situation where he has to save his nut from certain danger, this time he travels to space on a spaceship (obviously poking fun at "Gravity") where he causes all kinds of trouble like scattering all of the planets and unwittingly create a meteor shower that's heading straight towards Earth.

The rest of the plot devolves into a series of sitcom-like situations involving Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) forgetting about his wife's anniversary party and also being not happy about his daughter's new fiance, Julian (voiced by Adam DeVine).

Meanwhile, Diego (voiced by Denis Leary) and his saber tooth tiger wife, Shira (voiced by Jennifer Lopez) want to have children but they're afraid that their mean-kitty nature might scare the little ones away and Sid the Sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) is grievingly dealing with the break-up of his latest girlfriend. All of the key supporting players are back including Queen Latifah as Ellie, Manny's wife, Keke Palmer as Peaches, Manny and Ellie's daughter, Seann William Scott and Josh Peck as Crash and Eddie, Ellie's two opossum brothers, Simon Pegg (who is in two of this week's movies, "Collision Course" and "Star Trek Beyond") as Buck, the one-eyed weasel and dinosaur hunter and Wanda Sykes as Sid's 80-year-old sloth granny.

When the meteor shower strikes their home, Manny and his herd find Buck where he tells them through an ancient stone pillar that a big asteroid is heading towards Earth and they may not survive it's aftermath. However, Buck has a plan to save them all. Their only hope is in a yoga-loving llama named Shangri Llama (voiced by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) who lives in Geotopia, an animal community that has lived inside a giant crashed meteorite for years. This leads Buck to a brilliant idea, use the city's crystals and send them into space in order to prevent the giant meteor from crashing into Earth.

I know this a cartoon in all but this plan beyond impossible to accomplish. It's also hard to believe that we are at number five in this hugely successful animated franchise.

Also among the new characters here are British singer Jessie J as a female sloth who could finally be the love interest Sid was looking for and Neil deGrasse Tyson as a wise weasel astronomer who exists just because his name Neil deBuck Weasel.

With tired pop culture references and unfunny jokes, "Ice Age: Collision Course" is the weakest chapter in an animated franchise that ran out of steam after "Continental Drift".

Why isn't Ray Romano doing other things? Okay, he was on NBC's "Parenthood" but should he be doing other movies besides "Ice Age"? He is like the rice cakes of movie stars today, he rarely shows up in anything except for his stand-up shows. During the screening I attended, there was barely any laughter because besides me, there was only a mother and her little girl in the audience and that's it. With only twenty minutes left to go, the mom and her little daughter decided to walk out of the screening. They didn't want to know how it ended?

"Ice Age: Collision Course" will probably do well overseas but even great box office returns won't be enough to justify bringing the franchise back into the ballpark and hit a new base. Children as young as seven will enjoy it, as for adults, that's another story.