In Between Panels

Friday, March 31, 2006

We just returned from watching Ice Age 2: The Meltdown at the mall and I didn't enjoy the whole experience. I found the sequel rather bland and wanting in the story department. The Ice Age is about to end and the valley's about to be flooded by the ensuing melted ice and they have to go hurry up to the huge log found at the other end of the valley in order to survive. This time around the old boys' club has been invaded by a girl with identity issues and two annoying possums. Manny (Ray Romano) think he's the last of his kind and he has to move fast with Ellie (Queen Latifah) if he wants to prevent the extinction of their species. Well that would also be the case with Sid (John Leguizamo) except he discovered that a tribe of pigmy sloths in a variety of colors exist. What about Diego (Denis Leary)? Sadly it seems he is the only remaining sabertoothed tiger living at the time and nobody else noticed or gave a hoot. What's up with that?

Another thing that bothers me was that the old characters, with the exception of Scrat and Sid, were merely background players to the new ones who were isn't as funny as they were annoying. Movie critic, James Berardinelli, hit the nail right on the head when he wrote:

Ice Age: The Meltdown has its share of humorous moments, but most of these involve the squirrel. The main plot involving the exodus and the Mammoth romance is more often dull than amusing. This is a problem, because no motion picture can be entirely successful when secondary characters and storylines trump the primary ones. However, the reality is that when people think of the Ice Age movies, the squirrel comes to mind. We need more of him and less of the laconic Manny and his uninspired sidekicks.

No offense to the fans of the two possums but being wisecracks doesn't always translate to being funny. They were really more of a distraction than a help to the story. And also the supposed conflict coming from the two prehistoric sea monsters were wanting. They could have focused more on that instead of peppering the movie with innuendoes that weren't funny at all. Overall the movie came out just like the courtship between Manny and Ellie, at times amusing but it was mostly awkward and a lot embarrassing.

# posted by