Ice Age: Collision Course, is the fifth film in the Ice Age film franchise and follows on from the previous film, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The film brings back much of the original cast including the original trio, Sid (John Leguizamo), Manny (Ray Romano) and Diego (Dennis Leary), the trio’s extended family consisting of Manny’s wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah), his daughter, Peaches (Keke Palmer), Sid’s Granny (Wanda Sykes), Diego’s girlfriend, Shira (Jennifer Lopez), possums, Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), and of course, Scrat, the speechless squirrel who throughout the series chases after the ever elusive acorn.
The film begins with the standard opening sequence as per the previous four films, that of Scrat’s epic chase after an acorn. In this film, Scrat’s desperate attempt into capturing the acorn accidentally sets in motion a series of catastrophic astronomical events that threaten the Earth, thereby kicking off the main plot of the film.
With another threat of extinction looming, the gang must band together to prevent the meteorite from hitting Earth. Sound familiar? That’s because much of the plot of the Ice Age films are repeated and reused with minor changes made to make each film appear unique. An important question that this raised is how many disasters can prehistoric animals really face and overcome? In Ice Age Collision Course, the added bonus of the repeated storyline of having to save the world is the side story of Manny having to deal with being a protective father not wanting his little girl to leave home.
Despite its predictable and tired storyline, Ice Age Collision Course does well to bring back the key ingredient to the Ice Age franchise’s success, silly and wacky humour. If you’ve seen the previous Ice Age films, you know full well and accept that the concepts and ideas within the film don’t make much sense. It is this series of illogical moments within the film’s narrative that adds humour and fun to the film. Though, the jokes and comedy in the film catered more for children rather than adults. I may have chuckled a bit here and there but the bulk of the humour was a bit on the overused side in my opinion.
Whilst funny and light-hearted, a mindless film in which one does not have to think, the film did prove rather disappointing to me personally. Overall, I had a small bit of hope that the story would be markedly different from previous films or at least there’ll be a completely unpredictable twist that no one could foresee. Instead, Ice Age Collision Course adds a host of characters so large that I felt that there wasn’t enough screen time for each and every character. I much prefer films that focus on a smaller group of characters rather than a large ensemble. It can often times be too distracting.
Visually, the film was bright and colourful, with plenty of amusing antics and misadventures to captivate young children. Considering the advances in technology and graphics, my personal view is that this could have been done better given the chance. To be fair, when thinking about the film’s elements as a whole, I was in two minds. On the one hand, I can see the appeal of this film, particularly to children, but on the other, I couldn’t quite fathom the reason for making yet another Ice Age film. I suppose, for me, what I enjoyed was the life lesson that was embedded into the film, which is that parents need to trust their children and learn to let go, an element of the film that I feel would have resonated rather well to all parents watching this film.
Ice Age Collision Course is a film that is fantastic for entertaining and distracting young children, particular now that the school holidays have arrived. If you are looking for a film to veg out to and not have to think, then perhaps this is the film for you. If substance and a well thought out plot with unpredictable moments is what you’re after, move on to the next film choice. I do so hope this is the end of Ice Age, as each new film that comes out only decreases my enjoyment of the original films more and more. Let’s give Scrat the chance to finally get that acorn. He’s worked way too hard and has caused enough damage as it is.