[yasr_overall_rating]
Manny, Diego, and Sid join up with Buck to fend off a meteor strike that would destroy the world.
My favorite character from the “Ice Age” movies has to be Scrat. All he wants in life, is his acorn, plain and simple. He doesn’t care where it takes him, from the depths of the ocean, to the galaxies of outer space, as long as his arms are wrapped around it, he is happy. In the fifth adventure, titled “Collision Course,” Scrat accidentally ends up inside a long-dormant flying saucer, hits all the wrong buttons and switches, thereby launching him into space, where Scrat being Scrat, he inadvertently sends an asteroid hurtling towards earth, threatening to end the existence of every living creature on the planet.
In the meantime however, everyone gets on with their lives. Manny (Ray Romano) and his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) are worried about their baby girl Peaches (Keke Palmer) and her new fiancé, Julian (Adam Devine), afraid that she is going to leave home, Sid (John Leguizamo) pines for the one true love of his life, while Diego (Denis Leary) and his wife Shira (Jennifer Lopez), are concerned that they may never have kids of their own one day. With everybody’s lives turned upside down, matters are not helped when meteors begin to strike the earth. Buck (Simon Pegg) discovers an ancient stone pillar which predicts the end of the world but he ascertains that there is a possibility which would allow them to avert the asteroid’s trajectory, thereby missing the earth altogether. As the herd sets out for the site of the impact of a previous asteroid, one that leveled everything many years ago and a place that Buck is adamant will give them the answers they need, they must also deal with three Dromaeosaurs, who want revenge against Buck for stealing one of their eggs.
With the clock ticking and only a matter of hours before earth’s demise, Buck, Manny, Sid, Diego and everyone else, must put all of their issues and problems aside and team up together, if they want to see the sun rise again the next morning.
The first three “Ice Age” movies were great fun but by the time we got to “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” the fourth in the series, it was already beginning to show signs of deterioration and conventionality. I had really hoped that would be the last one but then “Collision Course” was announced and I just couldn’t figure out where they were going to go next and what they were going to do. There’s only so much you can do with mammals set in prehistoric times, the terrain and surroundings are, for the most part, uninteresting and mundane so sending Scrat into space on a U.F.O., seemed like last-minute desperation, in order to keep a once-lucrative but waning franchise, moving forward.
Having said that however, it’s almost impossible to sit in a packed theater, full of kids, and not be taken in by their laughter, energy and enthusiasm, it’s actually what kept the film interesting, and fun. The young children should have fun with “Ice Age: Collision Course” but in the overall scope of things, I really hope that this entry into the series is the final one, allowing it to end on a somewhat positive note.
In theaters Friday, July 22nd
