Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

Initial Thoughts

            When I first heard about Ice Age 4 I immediately got very nervous, as the previous Ice Age film, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, wasn't great, it was a mixed bag. So I had my doubts about the next one, but there was still that chance that they would learn from their mistakes from the bad sequels and make a great movie like the first Ice Age was. This is another reason why this movie hurts even more than battleship, it some awesome movies that came before, which will defiantly hurt the overall rating. 

            But unfortunately My hopes and dreams of it being good where crushed into saw dust as this movie isn't just bad, its one of the worst, this is truly one of the worst movies I personally have ever seen.

            So, why does it suck so bad? lets find out, here's Ice Age 4, Continental Drift...

Story/Plot : 0 out of 25

        Putting it short, the storyline is just a confusing mess. You will have no idea what's going on sometimes, and you will forget about Manny's main goal of getting home, throughout most of the movie.  To tell you the truth, there really isn't very much of a storyline at all, what little there is, is buried underneath 11 tons of confusing and spontaneous plot devices, a few funny jokes from the two sloths and non-funny jokes from basically everyone else.

            All of the plot devices in the film are confusing, come right out of no where, and do not help further "The Story" at all. And after a plot device has ended, the main characters never explain what it was, or were it came from.

            In addition, the story and plot devices and dialogue choices are made up entirely of clichés, there is not one creative idea to be found, anywhere within this movie, every character trait/personality, every story element, has been done many, many times. in a whole lot of different movies. 

            In conclusion, the story has absolutely no redeeming qualities, no interesting ideas, and no fascinating plot devices or twists. it is a complete mess and a big waste of time.

Characters: 2 out of 25

            Many of the cool and interesting characters have slowly died over the course of the series. Manny is the biggest example of this, he has turned from a thick skinned interesting mammoth, to an over protective irritating father, who has softened up from the original character so much, he seems like a wet wash cloth!

            There are so many clichéd dialogue choices here, its actually kind of scary, it almost seems like the writers picked all that un interesting dialogue just to alienate and irritate its fan base. They use every single family movie cliché ever, I am not even kidding, every dialogue cliché is in the movie, the first one that pops into your head, is probably in this movie.

            Every single character trait and motive has been done before, there's a cool guy the main characters daughter likes. while hanging out with the "cool guy" the daughter's real friend over here's her saying some mean things about her behind his back, he confronts her and runs away, blah, blah, blah. and that's just one example of one of the many, many clichés in this movie.

            The voice acting is just plane garbage, most, if not all of the voice actors sound like they done give a crap about what their saying. There is no emotion, or convincing effort put into almost all of their lines. The worst voice actor by far is probably the pirate captain, who sounds like just took the job to pay off an overdue laundry bill.

            The only thing that makes the characters slightly better than the story are the funny lines that are given by the comedy relief Sid and Granny.

Comedy: 8 out of 25

            Sid and Granny are the only two, truly funny characters in the entire movie, a lot of the jokes made in the movie are involving these two. Then why is it still so low? Because unfortunately, the writers tried to add jokes to other characters, and when all the other characters are poorly acted, poorly written, and are overall crap, these reasons totally kill any possibility on delivering a funny punch line.

            If the two sloths had done all of the jokes, the comedy would have been much, much higher, however, because the writers tried to put comedy where comedy didn't belong, the overall comedy suffered for it. 

Writing: 0 out of 25

            
 Once again, another slap in the face, to Ice Age fans everywhere. the Writing in the past, has been great (especially with the first film) with interesting storylines, plot devices and twists, but oh no, not in this flick. This movie, is so clichéd, its actually sad, sad to the point were you feel like hosting a funeral for the franchise. Every single concept in this movie was a cliché, almost all of the story, characters and plot devices had been done before, and the few that weren't were executed with such laziness that it will Scare you.

    Final Verdict

10/100

                         

Epic Failure

This rating not only makes me sad, it also infuriates me, I am a huge fan of the Ice Age franchise, and Myself and other loyal fans have been consistently hurt, as the series slowly dug itself into the ground. especially with this film: with a non-existent story, cliché characters, stupid and confusing plot devices, and overall clichéd writing, this movie slaps all of its fans in the face, the argument that its a kids movie is no excuse to make such a crappy, lack luster movie. I know I'm not going to stop all of you hard core Ice Age fans from seeing it, and heck, most of you probably have, but I bet now you are having a ton of buyers remorse.