ICE AGE 4

ICE AGE 4: THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT, the latest of ICE AGE franchisee is, I dare say, a pot boiler. A clichéd story of separation to a toiling reunion, ICE AGE 4 presents an expensive eye candy, which has nothing more to offer than one flavoured visual treat.

The story is set up in a perfect backdrop. The grandeur of continental drift is ideated and conceived brilliantly. But the action in foreground puppeted by the script dilutes even the biggest event of the earth.

For characters…well…There is one concerned angry dad (Manny), a blindly trusting mom (Ellie), an age induced straying daughter (Peaches) falling for a cocky, hollow, bimbo flooded stud. A geeky friend who always have to prove his worth….a villain without purpose…

For the story we have Father-Daughter fallout on the usual issues and suddenly they drift apart…quite literally as the continents start drifting …enter the unnecessary villains. One wonders that why a Chimp is heading a goofy bunch of pirates. Why do they want to capture a slice of floating ice on which Manny and gang is voyaging?...what is their credibility as antagonists? With all these looming questions they make for a baseless toil…and then there is a reunion with realizations dawning on both father and daughter…and that brings us to the end of a bland show.

But a cold Pizza of ICE AGE4 does have some hot, chunky bites, thanks to the seasoning of new character, Granny. Yes, Sid has got Granny called Granny and she rocks. Her character is completely oblivious to what is happening around and she just enjoys the ride...a characteristic, the film makers expected their audience to embark…which unfortunately doesn’t happen.

About Manny’s Possums-in-law. The fact that they are in the film and they don’t do what they are best at makes audience misses them even more. A classic case of too many characters with unjustified, minimalistic presence.

Diego finds his better fanged half…one more burden of a character if ICE AGE 5 is planned.

There seems to be some major glitch with the perspectives also. Manny, THE huge, THE biggest mammal on the face of the earth till he faces a T-rex, finds his equal in, of all a chimpanzee. (I don’t even remember the name of the antagonist and he wasn’t a KINGKONG to size up for a mammoth.) 

3D for me has suddenly become a distracting medium. If you don’t have a story worth telling, show it by making it in 3D. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES dared to show itself sans 3D, in the time crazed by needless technology.

The Ice age aura seems to be melting rapidly with ICE AGE 4. When a film covers a distance of 4 films in a franchisee, the audience tends to look at the path it has walked. And the rear view disappoints you to the extent of hurt.

Technologically the film is very much at par and brilliant...but how I wish the story touched me. All though it did one good thing for the franchisee. It made me crave for the very first ICE AGE. A heart-warming film set up in the cold. A story with some well-placed humour and even better placed heart. Never before I felt like talking to a film, just like a concerned good friend and ask ‘What went wrong there after?’