Disappointing, chaotic and just doesn’t work

Ice Age: Collision Course Running time: 1hr 34min Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Melissa Rauch, Stephanie Beatriz DIRECTED BY Galen T Chu, Mike Thurmeier PRODUCED BY Lori Forte TOWARDS the end of Ice Age: Collision Course, while trying to divert the path of an incoming killer asteroid, Ray Romano’s woolly mammoth Manny sighs, “This isn’t working.”

It’s a sentiment likely to be shared by many enduring this disappointing chaotic fifth instalment of the wildly successful computer-animated franchise.

While themovies increasingly tended to place shtick ahead of substance, there remained a sweetness at their core, manifested through the various milestones taking place in the main characters’ prehistoric lives. Sadly, 15 years in, even the domestic developments surrounding Manny and his brood have been relegated to the sidelines, displaced by too many shrill characters frantically trying to pad the emaciated plot.

The new chapter, as with the previous ones, kicks off with a Scrat prologue, with Neil deGrasse Tyson this time providing the introduction as the hapless saber-tooth squirrel is chasing his elusive acorn throughout the cosmos, pingponging off celestial bodies and helping to initiate the Big Bang Theory in the process.

Meanwhile, back down on terra firma, Manny and Ellie (Queen Latifah) aren’t exactly thrilled about the impending marriage between daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer) and the perpetually upbeat Julian (newcomer Adam Devine), but the threat of an empty nest quickly takes a backseat to that ginormous, fiery rock hurtling toward them. Manny desperately needs to come up with a plan, but it’s hard to concentrate, what with the cacophony of creatures that have been crammed into IA5.

Joining the likes of Sid (John Leguizamo), Diego (Denis Leary), Shira (Jennifer Lopez) and Granny (Wanda Sykes) is a whole menagerie of new characters played by Nick Offerman, singer Jessie J, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Michael Strahan, among others.

As always, it all at least looks very nice – the Ice Age movies could always be counted on to possess a state-of-the-art, visual luster, and Collision Course certainly does well by those 3D glasses. At times it feels as if you could reach right out and stroke all that undulating graphics fur.

For the most part, though, that blazing asteroid can’t arrive soon enough. – Hollywood Reporter