Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

So we made popcorn, huddled together cozily on the couch, and made the awful mistake of popping in this video! We only watched about 5 to 10 minutes of it before giving up and turning it off. Me and a few of my siblings went back to finish it another day, but were still disgusted.Right off the bat there's a bunch of pointless and insulting teenage drama, and insults to parents. Why did Manny and Ellie have to raise a brat? These are ANIMALS! They seem to act more like HUMANS in every film.In the first Ice Age the characters migrated, hunted, and you know, did animal things! Now in this movie you see pirates, ships, and mammoths flipping in the air like acrobats! It's very unbelievable.Scratt forming the continents of the world is VERY CHEAP! Scratt sinking underwater and turning into stringy monster is VERY CHEAP! Things like this aren't funny. This movie is fake compared to the original. It doesn't seem like the same world.I know character development is necessary for a good movie, but that doesn't mean changing their entire personalities! You can hardly recognize them. Where's the lovable Sid? Slink Diego? They no longer exist! Manny even lost his funny mammoth shuffle. Now he gallops around like a horse! Please don't waste your time like I did. It only takes one word to describe this movie "dumb".

The Ice Age series is one of the more endearing animated franchise from the past decade. The first was a heartwarming and genuinely funny adventure taking place during the time of mammoths, sabertooth tigers, and clumsy sloths. The first sequel lost a lot of that magic, but Dawn of the Dinosaurs did do some fresh things with the series. However, generally, over time, the films have gained plenty of characters, but lost most of its charm. The fourth in the series, Continental Drift, is the least exciting, least funny, and cheapest of the bunch. That's not to say that Ice Age 4 doesn't have its moments: the main characters still have their appeal and there are a few good laughs, but it is clear that the Ice Age train is running out of steam here.Continental Drift kicks off with the lovable rodent Scrat causing the continents to drift apart. The trio of Manny, Diego, and Sid are soon embarking on an adventure adrift on the open sea. They meet up with pirates (and a whole collection of new characters) and try to find their way home. The plots of the Ice Age films have gotten simpler as they go, instead relying on introducing as many new characters as possible.The problem with Ice Age 4 is that none of the new characters are memorable, funny, or charming. The effort just seems to be down here. Ray Romano, Dennis Leary, and John Leguizamo, still manage to breath some life into the picture, but the passion is clearly not there like it was in 2002. The animation is also less-than-stellar. Ice Age Continental Drift could be a TV movie and I wouldn't know the difference. It's just cheap.There are some moments of wit and excitement in Ice Age 4, but on the whole, it is an exercise in diminishing returns. Most of the passion and effort of the series is gone, leading to a generic and, dare I say, boring animated adventure. Look elsewhere for family fun.42/100

Talk about a film series that just has absolutely no reason to continue on whatsoever. This film was no exception. There was no real reason to continue the Ice Age series. The first movie was an original classic, unique in animation, heartwarming story, distinct characters that had not been seen before, and some hilarious comedy. The second movie was okay, taking the same characters onto a clichéd search for love as well as trying to survive the great melt down. The comedy was okay with occasional laughs, but not a strong story as the last one. The third one was not too bad with dinosaurs, a cool guide named Buck, and it actually had an excellent end to the entire series. This movie………………………get ready to cringe!The story: The continental drift is Scrat's fault, which separates Manny from his family, taking Sid and Diego with him. Sid has an insane grandmother to look after (because one sloth wasn't annoying enough), Diego gets a rushed love acquaintance who is sidekick to a chimpanzee pirate, while Manny's teenage daughter finds out that being "cool" isn't cool, and Scrat is looking for a treasure island.As you can tell from the story, there's way too much story, too complex in some areas and in others simplified, and all the clichés we've heard to death. I think the writers should learn that the more all over the place the focus of the story is, the more forgettable it becomes, which is what happened to this film. Also the comedy is a groan fest. Nothing is original or that funny, and they all revolve around Sid and his grandmother who has got to be the most obnoxious character ever. She's made to look insane when she's really sane, which sometimes can work, but in a tired series with barely anything original and casting Wanda Sykes (who can be a great comedienne) causes the comedy to go downhill. Also there is little to no chemistry between Diego and Jennifer Lopez saber tooth. I know she has a name, but it's getting hard to tell the difference between the celebrity voice actress and the character. It only seemed like she was there just to pay off a debt. The relationship between Manny and his daughter is about as similar as Ariel and Triton, only taking Manny out of character and being way too overprotective. If they had mentioned before that he lost his first child to predators like in the very first movie, I would have given it a pass, but nothing is ever brought up from that movie again. But the biggest problem I have with this film is what does an Ice Age film have anything to do with a Sinbad and Treasure Island film? Really, what does it have anything to do with Ice Age? It makes the animals too humanistic and too silly. Though to be fair, the villain is the only memorable thing and a tad more interesting than anything else. I like how he's smooth talking and murderous for a creature that's suppose to be playful. Why didn't he get his own movie? Why did it have to be combined with Ice Age? I would have been a million more times interested if the film was about a murderous seafaring chimpanzee version of Blackbeard who was the most feared pirate of all the seven seas. I still don't get why Ice Age had to be milked to the core, but it's getting painful. Even the most devout of Ice Age fans agree that this movie was the least of the entire series (verdict is still out on the upcoming Ice Age film). I don't know what else I can say about this film other than PLEASE STOP MAKING MORE AND END ALREADY!

As is the fashion these days with these films there is a lot of moralising going on and a lot about the importance of family. I don't usually have a problem with this, but in this film it was so 'in your face' that I felt it got in the way of the story. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other 'Ice Age' films, probably because it has lost all the charm the characters had in the earlier films. On the plus side, Peter Dinklage did make for a very intimidating and threatening advocacy. I guess it wasn't until about the last 20 minutes that I began to warm to any of the characters, but by then it was far too late. Time to put the franchise to rest guys. I've probably been a tad to generous with my score, it's because Sid does make me laugh!SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED (Just)My score: 5.7/10You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.