Movie Thoughts: The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022)

• Released: 28 January 2022
• Directed by: John C. Donkin
• Running time: 1 h 22 min
• Rating 1.5/5

Synopsis

Crash and Eddie travel back to the lost world to join Buck in an adventure to prove they can be independent. 

My Thoughts

Wasn't looking forward to this one. Okay, so I haven't covered Ice Age on this blog before, but I probably will tackle all five movies eventually. But in short, my thoughts on them are as follows: I like the first four, I hate the fifth. I don't love any of the first four movies, even the first two which most people agree are the best. I just think they're decently fun movies to put on if you're ever bored and care some prehistoric critter media. The fifth is just godawful and I'm not looking forward to revisiting that one should I ever do so.

This one? It's...eh. I guess I like it mildly better than the fifth? Still bad, don't get me wrong, and the fifth looks a shitton better at least, but overall I just felt less insulted by this movie than whatever Collision Course had going on. This is a backhanded compliment, though. I don't like Buck Wild and I don't think it's a good film whatsoever.

First of all: making your comic relief the main character. This usually doesn't go well. Just think about Cars 2, for example. Crash and Eddie were pretty annoying here and Buck, while less so, still comes to his right better as a side character than as a main character. Heck, despite the title of this movie being his name it's honestly more the Crash and Eddie show than the Buck show. While I don't think the main three were insufferable, they just shouldn't have been the leads.

The visuals is what everyone and their grandma has already brought up. For a movie that came out in 2022, this looks atrocious. Like, there's legit CGI cartoon shows from a few years ago that look better than this. The animation looks unpolished, the models like they got a major downgrade and the textures...don't get me started on those. These are some of the worst fur textures I have seen in years. The bloody Alpha and Omega sequels from years ago had fur down better than this film. It looks just so ugly. Also, a quick note: I don't hold this against the smaller studio that was tasked with making this film, but rather Disney for not giving them a larger budget or letting a more capable studio handle this film. 

Then the plot is just...weak. Heck, I can't believe I have to say this, but even the fifth movie had more stakes than this. This is literally just two pretty unlikable comic reliefs proving they're not incapable of looking after themselves and defeating a lame-ass villain.

Speaking of him, yeah, Orson is a huge disappointment. He's perhaps not as pathetic as the villains of Collision Course, but still sucks all the same. He's very boring. Also, his raptors suck. Especially design-wise. No feathers is one thing, but these things don't even resemble the scientifically inaccurate version the Jurassic movies give us anymore.

I personally also didn't really like Zee, a new addition to the cast. Her design sucks and outside of her bond with Buck which was pretty good I don't care for her as a character. She legit just feels like she's there because they just wanted a female lead in a cast of three males. She's boring, just like Orson.

So yeah, this movie ultimately pretty much sucks. Shit animation and visuals, the main characters function better as side characters and the plot is just overall pretty weak and low-stakes. I do ultimately like it a minute bit better than the fifth, but that doesn't make it any good.