In a sentenceEven an approaching asteroid cannot get this lot to stop talking about a wedding
An asteroid threatens Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary). The group needs to avoid a collision, but wedding plans and personal worries keep competing with the danger from above. Peaches (Keke Palmer), Julian (Adam Devine) and Buck (Simon Pegg) are also caught up in the gathering crisis. Meanwhile, Scrat’s misadventures take him into space. His cosmic slapstick runs alongside the group’s efforts below, where the prospect of disaster has not put everyone’s separate concerns on hold.
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Scrat supplies the laughs in a crowded sequel that keeps interrupting an asteroid threat with wedding worries. Mike Thurmeier’s film has enough visual invention for a short, but too little story for 95 minutes.
Ice Age: Collision Course is a poor family adventure with a few funny interruptions from Scrat. Mike Thurmeier directs a film that tries to accommodate an asteroid threat, wedding worries and a crowd of characters, giving each another reason to interrupt the others. There is a workable children’s comedy in the contrast between imminent disaster and everyday fuss. The trouble is that the fuss takes so much explaining, and the threat never makes the story feel urgent.
Scrat is the exception because his cosmic slapstick gives us something immediate to watch and understand. We laughed at his misadventures in space, then grew impatient when the film returned to the wedding concerns. His physical comedy makes good use of the animation’s willingness to be ridiculous, without demanding much patience from us. These passages also allow a joke to be the main attraction for a moment. The larger adventure rarely seems so sure of what deserves our attention.
The screenplay by Yoni Brenner, Michael Berg and Michael J. Wilson is crowded without providing much of a story. Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary) have to share the film with so many competing concerns that their company becomes surprisingly tiring. There are toilet jokes and recycled comic situations, but little develops through them. The wedding material is especially wearing because the film keeps asking us to take it seriously while an asteroid remains the more pressing problem.
Renato Falcão’s cinematography helps the busy animation remain legible, and the bright colour is a welcome pleasure. There is care in the character designs, enough to suggest personalities that the dialogue struggles to provide. We would not call the film careless to look at: there are visual jokes here that have been thought through and details worth noticing. That makes the weak writing more frustrating, since the images repeatedly offer more interest than the conversations.
Editors James Palumbo and Erin Crackel keep the separate strands moving, but the switches between them give the comedy a restless rhythm. Just as one situation begins to hold our attention, there is another demand on it, and the accumulation becomes tiring. John Debney’s score adds to the bustle when a little quiet might have given the jokes some room. At 95 minutes, the film spends too much time getting in its own way.
A family adventure does not need a solemn lesson, and there is nothing wrong with aiming chiefly at silliness. But silliness works better when we understand what each character wants and have time to enjoy the consequences. The crowd here makes that difficult: every additional concern reduces the time available for a decent comic exchange. Younger viewers can follow complicated plots, but the complications need to be worth following.
There is enough effort here to make the disappointment more than a matter of franchise fatigue. The occasional absurd gag works, and Scrat remains welcome company, but neither gives much reason to sit through the intervening business. For a family evening, we would choose something that does not require quite so much waiting between laughs.
Most critics find Ice Age: Collision Course a tired sequel, with scattered storytelling and an overcrowded cast leaving little room for charm. The clearest point of agreement is Scrat: his slapstick interludes draw praise even from reviewers who dislike almost everything around them. Several reviews also credit the colourful animation and character designs, though the visual polish rarely compensates for weak dialogue and recycled jokes.
The spread is wide, with disagreement over whether the frantic activity provides enough entertainment. Variety offers the strongest dissent, finding an infectious return to form in Scrat’s energy and the animation’s visual wit. Den of Geek is more cautiously positive, describing reliable entertainment that runs too long. The animation itself divides opinion: Time Out finds it careless. Elsewhere, reservations cluster around toilet humour, thin plotting and character subplots that distract from the asteroid threat rather than make it matter.
Gleiberman calls the film an infectious return to form, despite its slightness and conventional plot. He especially praises Scrat’s manic energy and the film’s richly detailed, visually witty animation.
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Read the full review →Jenkins condemns the film as lazy, tired and forgettable. He particularly faults its fixation on toilet humour and recycled jokes.
Read the full review →Aldridge finds the sequel very disappointing and a step too far for the franchise. He criticizes its scattered, overly complex plot and the loss of the earlier films’ simple charm.
Read the full review →Henderson finds the film’s characters and franchise formula thin, but sees a more energetic, less self-serious approach. He singles out the slapstick chaos as an amusing recess from reality, despite its failure as a history lesson.
Read the full review →Part of · 5 of 5
Chicken RunAn animal ensemble with clear stakes, patient jokes and something worth escaping.
A Town Called Panic · not reviewed yetMore unruly animated creatures, with absurdity that keeps finding fresh comic trouble.
The Gold RushFor anyone chiefly here for physical comedy, small mishaps become elaborate disasters.
Shaun the Sheep MovieAnimal slapstick that trusts clear staging and expressions to carry the jokes.
The Mitchells vs. the MachinesFamily friction and impending catastrophe share a story that earns its noisy action.
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