Film Review - The Croods (2013)

The Croods stars Emma Stone as the voice of Eep, a young girl who lives with her family called the Croods as they try to survive the world around them that wants to pick them off, but a chance encounter with a young boy named Guy (voice of Ryan Reynolds) could change everything about their world.

It is fair to say that I went into the Croods with very mixed expectations, I wasn't sure what the film would be like but the preview I saw back in January was promising, mainly due to Stone who has really come into her own as an actress, so was it worth the cinema dollars?

Well, sort of, the film is far from terrible don't get me wrong and there are things that I do like about it, mainly Stone's vocal work which really helps to lift the film as a whole and I even enjoyed Reynolds and Nic Cage in their vocal roles, Reynolds still has a very long way to go if he is to impress me as the new Connor MacLeod but here I thought he was pretty good which is something I very rarely say about him or Cage.

But alas, the film is also merely okay with a lot of it feeling like individual moments that shine but they fail to come together to create the satisfying whole in a way that the DVD animated movie "Justice League Doom" did and as for the visuals well they're pretty good but they also reminded me very much of Avatar in that you have the exotic rainforest, the wild flowers and the big creatures with one creature in particular very much reminding me of the Thanator beast from Cameron's film.

And as for the 3D well it's just dark, really dark even and as with 99.9% of most 3D visuals, doesn't add anything to the experience, this will be much better seen in 2D but then again so are most 3D films with Avatar being the exception.

So all in all the Croods is okay but it also reflects what has been a very weak start to the year in films so far this year, it's a shame that this will most likely be the only major kids film to be screened in cinemas over the holidays, surely the youth deserve better than this but then again Aladdin is out on DVD and that is worth your money more than this film is, 2 out of 5.