Okay, so I will be honest. Ice Age Collision Course wasn't really needed, and we could have lived without it, unless we were driving on a stupendous plane that would have thrilled us beyond limit like Pixar movies generally do. Despite the apparent, Ice Age: Collision Course still manages to pull it off, owing to their awesome sense of snappy humour and their fascinating CGI that makes everything appear stunning.

PLOT OF ICE AGE COLLISION COURSE

Ice Age Collision Course comes with a very banal plot. The implausibility of Ice Age keeps on degrading as we caper towards exploring new parts of the franchise. Maybe Blue Sky Studios have been milking its installments too much, so much that they are actually running out of material. No doubt there is always humour galore in their work, but at one point it becomes kind of pointless when there is nothing in their baggage and they still try to squeeze every bit to make jokes out of thin air.

The plot of Ice Age Collision Course is something as dumb as Scrat messing around with the universe. That's what he does. He keeps showing up throughout the movie to accidentally mess with the fate of the planet. Things that avalanche therefrom aren't exactly what we were expecting. It toys with everything – the story-line, the credibility, jokes, everything!

BEST BITS TO REMEMBER

Remember Buck? Well, the awesome weasel is here as well, and he is probably one of the best things about the movie. Simon Pegg returns to voice the one-eyed chap who will take you on a joyride to saving the planet. He is just the way we left him in the prequels. Totally loco! A side plot of Julian–Peaches story was an impending steer, which was quite thoughtful. It tried to give the story a perspective and a good direction. Granny returns once again with her incessant nagging which never bores you. Oh and we should never forget the true antihero of Ice Age franchise, Scrat who always brings hilarity to no matter what he does.

THE FINAL VERDICT

I say the humour is way better than what the Angry Birds movie came up with. If you liked that you are definitely going to love this. If you didn't, well, you are still going to like Ice Age Collision Course for its magnificent animation and rib-tickling humour.

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Acorn-loving rodent Scrat inadvertently puts a comet on a collision course with Earth (don't ask!), following which our mismatched mammals have a world to save. And, all the while, dad Manny is having to deal with daughter Peaches' plans to go travelling with idiot boyfriend Julian. Assuming mammoths have boyfriends, of course.

The fifth entry in the Ice Age saga once again finds a potentially earth-shattering disaster sharing centre stage with the soapy shenanigans of the main cast (as well as Peaches and Julian causing Manny heartache, Sid the Sloth actually has sufficient love-life for it to be causing him problems).

The impending cometary collision is caused by Scrat pursuing acorns onto a flying saucer, frozen in ice, and then inadvertently piloting it into orbital disaster (fortunately, all the planetary bodies in the solar system are within about a hundred yards of each other, but it's a bit foolish of me to sarcastically make this point about a film featuring a cast of friendly talking mammoths, sloths, and sabre-tooth tigers). Scrat's stuff is, as always, comical knockabout humour and, for me, it was the best part of the film.

The disaster plot fell a bit flat, as did Manny's concerns - these elements felt like little more than revisiting the difficulties in Continental Drift, and set me to wondering if these characters have now reached the end of their shelf life. They are pleasant enough company, but do they need to break new ground and, if so, how?

Something else which seemed problematic to me was the CGI. The original character designs, of necessity, were blocky and relatively low on detail (CGI has moved on a lot in 14 years), and I've got used to CGI movies looking a great deal slicker than Ice Age 5 - which needs to share an aesthetic with its predecessors - does. Oh, it has moved on, but it has a tricky line to tread.

The voice cast does fine, as always, and I suspect that this will sit happily in a 5-movie set but, to me, it felt as if this series has reached the end of the road.

Having really enjoyed the first two 'Ice Age' films, the other three films in the franchise weren't as good. 'Dawn of the Dinosaurs' was still entertaining though, but while 'Continental Drift' had its great things (like Captain Gutt) it did feel like a sequel too far.

If one thought that 'Continental Drift' was a sequel too far, while there are still good things here 'Collision Course' does feel like the writers were trying to keep things afloat by putting in as much mileage and material as possible but it all feels like a try-too-hard effort. 'Collision Course' is not a terrible film but this reviewer found it a huge disappointment.

The best thing about 'Collision Course' is the animation, which is fantastic and the one thing that has improved greatly over-time. For me, especially in the space scenes with Scrat and with Buck it is the best-looking film in the franchise, there is so much eye-popping detail, the characters move easily and look more refined and one really cannot get enough of the vibrant, rich colours. The soundtrack is catchy, upbeat and whimsical, with an inspired riff on Figaro with Buck's playful re-introduction.

While the laughs do not come consistently, there are definitely moments and they come from Scrat (especially the opening scene, which is the funniest scene in the film), who's had more inspired material but the facial expressions, physical comedy and the visuals in general help stop making Scrat too much of a tiresome one-joke character, and with Buck when re-introduced. The voice acting is still very good, the most enthusiastic coming from Simon Pegg. Scrat and Buck, making a welcome return, are scene-stealing characters, Diego is fun enough if not as showy or with as much to do and Ellie provides some sincerity and heart, her scene with Manny providing a rare note of realism to the film.

However, 'Collision Course' suffers from being over-stuffed, over-complicated and bloated. Not just the story, which is pretty all-over-the-place, with too much that is rushed and like too much is going on with potentially great plot strands not being developed enough or given short shrift. The whole Manny trying to come to terms with his daughter planning to move away is completely lost amidst everything else and that could have brought some heart to the film, Sid's romance is rushed and painfully contrived and really there was really no need for the antagonists.

But also the characters, it does feel like there are too many in the film, with too many of them also having barely any screen time, and the only really interesting ones are Buck, Scrat and Ellie. Diego isn't in it enough though does just fine when he's there and is still a lot of fun, and Manny is pretty dull. Sid is very annoying this time round, and as said the antagonists felt thrown in for the sake of "needing" obligatory" antagonists and were underwritten, non-threatening, barely interesting and basically completely unnecessary with their motivations dealt with in a very generic and self-aware way. The script has some witty moments, but is too hit-and-miss and stop-start, the laughs coming too far and between and the best moments don't come to the level of the franchise's very best moments.

All in all, disappointing and definitely feels even more of a sequel too far than 'Continental Drift'. The animation is fantastic and there are definitely some good moments, but the tiredness of the material and the story bloating hurts it quite severely. 5/10 Bethany Cox