When you see a film entitled ‘Epic’, you can’t help but wonder whether the name was aspirational, ironic or overblown. In this case, sadly it was the latter; the film coming across more as an 'Avatar' for children.
A teenage girl, MK (Amanda Seyfried), is struggling to connect with her estranged father (Jason Sudeikis) after the death of her mother. Her dad Bomba is a bit nutty-professor type, living in the middle of nowhere and dedicating his life to proving the existence of a tiny world hidden within the forrest. As it turns out, he’s right - and after accidentally being shrunk down to their world, MK finds herself at the centre of a good-versus-evil battle, as the side of good battle against time to find a new queen as Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) vows to turn their entire forest to rot. With the help of a couple quirky slugs, warriors known as the Leaf Men and a caterpillar who would be more at home on a Las Vegas stage than a hollow tree, the forces of nature battle it out to save our world as well as theirs.
EPIC - TRAILER 2
Beautifully animated and sporting some truly great voice casting, including Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Colin Farrell, Beyonce and Chris O’Dowd, unfortunately the story simply falls flat due to its lack to dramatic and emotional spark - but it’s not for a lack of trying. The film follows storytelling protocol both obviously and embarrassingly to the letter, with each beat being ticked off in a game of storytelling bingo.
Visually sound enough to reach the end in tact, only the really young ones will walk away smiling - and that’s thanks in large part to nothing more than a couple of goofy slugs.