La era de hielo 4

For years I have been a huge fan of the Ice Age series and had been expecting this new movie for months! Needless to say I was counting the days until the release of the movie and the hilarious teasers were really making the waiting difficult ...

I saw it tonight and have to admit that I feel really disappointed ... Was I expecting too much ? We were a group of young adults who grew up with the movies, or at least liked them a lot and we felt let down. The storyline feels a little weak, I thought there would be a lot of adventure and action, as in the 3 previous ones where you don't see how time flies ... This one, if not boring, is too simple, not to mention incredibly predictable. There is no twists and turns. When you think about the first episode, yes, you realize how poor the scenario is in this new one.

I admit there's been a real effort to create an original story that might bring the characters in another world and make them live another adventure, different from the previous ones. I think this part is a total failure. Not to mention the "song" they put in the movie, it was nothing but ridiculous and irrelevant, especially for a movie series as famous as Ice Age. I thought it was unnecessary.

But since I laughed a few times and feel really bad about writing such a "negative" review, I have to admit that some of the scenes were absolutely hilarious and the characters have been kept as funny as they used to be, especially Sid (and his incredible grandmother). It's just a pity that the funny parts are so negligible ... You smile a lot, you laugh sometimes, but certainly not during the whole movie.

Maybe I am too old to appreciate this movie as I should have, as I'm sure the kids will love it and the movie will have a lot of success this summer. I don't wish it the contrary, I just watched it with my not-so-kid-anymore-but-very-nostalgic-eyes and went out of the theater with the feeling that something from before was clearly missing ...

I have always liked the Ice Age series up to the third one. In fact, this is the first time that I thought I would watch it in theater rather than getting a DVD later. The 3D was spectacular in terms of visual appearance, but I would not rate it as good as the previous Ice Age movies.

The plot during this adventure is short and simple. There's no surprises, and everything is pretty much along the line of a typical friendship/family/hero type story. The whole story took place in 3, 4 "in-movie" days, much shorter than the previous ones which had a constant string of events. By the end of this movie, I couldn't believe the story's over. Not a lot happened before the villains are apprehended and the world returns to peace and harmony, as in any of the Ice Age movies. However, this probably means their target audience are younger than the ones before. I guess this is the biggest drag down for fans who have been watching since the first one.

They also did a sub-par job in the music. Despite having no improvement in quality, they recycled music from the second movie in the series, "the Meltdown". I bought the soundtracks after watching that movie thinking it was spectacular. After listening to it for years now, I could virtually name the tracks as they come up in the Continental Drift. From the title sequence to the Ending, pretty much everything without a vocal voice was identical to something I've heard before. It feels like they just copied and pasted from before - The soundtracks are awesome, but when it's used once too many, it just doesn't have the same impact anymore.

I still gave this movie a 6 because of, well, what Fox and Blue Sky has always been best at. The vivid colors and the "just right" graphical presentation is sure a feast on the eyes. And don't forget about Scrat, who's never involved but just somehow miraculously leads the story. This movie is definitely great for fun, there are many (supposedly deliberate) punch lines. Although some puns fail when I go "huh? that's lame", I can feel that they are trying to make it as funny as possible. I'd say that they are making this movie more like a feature-length, high quality TV cartoon special rather than a real theatrical movie. There's just not that much thrill to it.

The addition of the new characters seems only to provide a villain to the storyline. There doesn't seem to be much careful consideration - from what I see, it's perfectly fine to replace any of them with another animal or personality and the story stays valid. The characters' specialties just do not come together and contribute to the story, another reason why it feels like the story was written without the context of the movie. Not even the prolonged characters like Manny, Diego, Sid and Peaches.

Bottom line: This movie is mediocre. It could do as a really nice cartoon, but it lacks the punch in the planning.

Scrat is at it again. He falls to the center of the earth. As he chase the acorn, he starts rotating the core setting the continents to drift. Manny is overprotective of Peaches as she falls for Ethan. Sid's family accidentally runs into him and dumps Granny with him. Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny get separated from Ellie, Peaches, and Louis when the continents separate. Manny and the gang get captured by pirate Captain Gutt and his crew on his iceberg ship.

Sure it doesn't make sense but I love the addition of the pirates. This is not a franchise that needs to be scientifically correct. The pirates are a fun added bonus in what could have been just another Ice Age road trip. It's like the cast of Ice Age gets thrown into a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It's silly. It's rip roaring fun for the whole family.

Although not regarded in the same league as the Pixar and Disney output, the initial three Ice Age instalments collected over $2bn at the worldwide box office. (Rather surprisingly, that's $100m more than the Toy Story trilogy earned.) Posting figures as huge as that means we get treated to another adventure with mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), sabre-tooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary) and silly sloth Sid (John Leguizamo); this time with pirates. Like each episode before it, Ice Age 4 prides itself in offering up goofy laughs and goofier characters, with the ragtag bunch of pirates – led by Peter Dinklage's droll Captain Gutt and assisted by Nick Frost's uproarious elephant seal Flynn – the source of much joy. The old gang don't dissatisfy either: Sid is the standout as usual but Diego gets more laughs than normal and Scrat's little journey is ever-amusing. The serious Manny is still, well, the serious Manny, but you can't win them all. The bucket load of action remains too, however nothing here tops the dinosaur rumbling in part three. Continental Drift is gratifying escapism for the whole family that, despite being the fourth outing for these prehistoric creatures, shows few signs of letting up.

"Two sloths, a mammoth and a saber... You guys are like a start of a bad joke."

I'm not sure if it is my current depression speaking, or maybe I'm just tired of this franchise, but it seems to me that it slowly recedes. Visually, the film is superbly done, it is interesting and cute and holds the attention, but every next sequel is less funny than the previous, and this time not once have I laughed out loud. Still, I can not point on any other flaws, so I'll rate it

7/10