Scrat is at it again, but this time he has imperilled the entire planet!
Scrat’s single-minded commitment to capturing that elusive acorn sees him accidentally stumbling into the cockpit of an ice-imbedded UFO and launching himself into space. Ricocheting around in space like a cue ball on a snooker table, Scrat sets off a chain reaction of events that sees a large meteorite on a collision course with Earth.
Back on Earth, oblivious to their impending doom, Manny (Ray Romano), Ellie (Queen Latifah), Peaches (Keke Palmer), her fiancé Julian (Adam DeVine), and the rest of the crew are celebrating Manny and Ellie’s anniversary when a meteor shower sends them running for safety. The same meteors break through the Earth’s crust, into the domain of the dinosaurs, and lead Simon Pegg’s Buck (of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs fame) to the discovery of an ancient doomsday prophecy. Making his way up to the surface, Buck teams up with his old friends on a mission to stop the impending meteoric apocalypse. Can they stop it in time? And more importantly, will the writers at last take pity on poor Scrat and finally let him keep that acorn?
Written by a team of Ice Age writing veterans, the multi-faceted storyline sees the team trying to save the planet whilst Manny struggles with the age-old fatherhood dilemma of feeling replaced by his daughter’s fiancé; Ellie battles with the fact that her daughter would like to move away once she is married; Peaches fights to get her parents to recognise her as an adult in her own right; Sid (John Leguizamo) is once again on the lookout for a life mate; and Diego (Denis Leary) and Shira (Jennifer Lopez) face the decision of whether or not to embark on parenthood.
At times feeling a little like Ice Age meets Armageddon, this planet annihilation movie for kids may not be ideal for all children. Whilst this film abounds with humour and various sub plots, the main story focuses on the fact that all of them will die should the meteor hit Earth, which in turn provides a few moments that can prove distressing to sensitive little ones.
Co-directed by Mike Thurmeier and Galen T. Chu, both of whom worked on the film’s predecessors as directors and/or animation staff, Ice Age: Collision Course is filled with the requisite multi-layered humour we have all come to know from these family movies.
Ice Age: Collision Course, a rarity amongst film franchises for its ability to maintain its big name voices through all five movie incarnations, is rumoured to be the final film instalment of the series. And whilst detractors will moan and groan at “yet another Ice Age film,” fans of the series will be thrilled to hear that Collision Course is faithfully continuing the story and format we have followed so far.
THE REEL SCORE: 7/10
