It’s hard to find good animated films in today’s climate. The fact that even incredibly talented studios such as Pixar are putting out films like Lightyear and Cars 3, there’s a steady rise in style over substance in the genre which is truly detrimental to the quality of these films. However, despite all of that, we’re still going to get films that explore themes that have already been talked about in better films before. While that may not be true for most of Pixar’s films, Epic is a film that lands directly on these specifications.
How to Download Epic (2013)
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
Mary Katherine, a teenage girl, and her eccentric father Professor Bomba are having a very strained relationship. The Professor thinks that tiny leaf men and other strange creatures live in the depths of a forest neighboring their house. He devotes his entire life to studying these topics, however, his daughter, who feels neglected by him ends up resenting him for it since she just wanted a regular dad like everyone else’s. He ends up being right, of course, and guess what? Mary’s the one to discover this after being magically reduced to their size.
The most ironic part about this is that she ends up getting caught in a conflict between the forces of good and evil that aim to destroy the enchanted miniature kingdom.
Really, there is nothing novel about Epic. There are familiar themes such as an insecure youth who initially believes she doesn’t belong anywhere but ultimately finds her place, the absent parents coming to appreciate and notice their children more, the generational divide being eventually bridged by understanding, and the traditional good versus evil plotline etcetera have all been explored before. Not only have they been done before, but they are also not particularly well explored.
The main gang basically sort of goes from point A to B to find a man, then ultimately runs into the bad guy for a big fight where they obviously win. It gives the impression that the film doesn’t really know what to do with its setting or its story.
I do have to appreciate the entire voice cast though, almost every single one of the people in this voice cast does a great job with their characters. Not that they have that difficult of a role to play here, almost every single one of them is just having fun and playing themselves in a way.
Beyoncé, Johnny Knoxville, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, and Amanda Seyfried I’ll play their parts with as much enjoyment as they could get from this film. spectacular or anything, but it is really fun to watch them converse and interact.
The characters in Epic are equally uninteresting and underdeveloped. So, since the plot and characters are weak, the film relies on its humor and action to make the movie interesting.
The problem here is that the humor is limited and hardly hilarious, and the action is given to you in tiny doses so that they can save the animation budget. The movie needed to be visually appealing, and Epic shows some grace here with its vibrant landscapes and gorgeous setting that Blue Sky have created here. However, it is hard enough to make this film feel worthy of a watch.
It seems like the animations in Epic are the only crutch it has, meanwhile, everything else feels mediocre to a fault. It feels hollow and lacks a core sense of wonderment.
The Music in Epic
This film did have one GREAT thing going though, and that is the soundtrack. The original songs that were featured in it starring Beyonce and more, to Snow Patrol’s ‘What If the Storm Ends?’ as its theme song. There’s so much to adore about the music in this film and I have to appreciate that aspect.
The Bottom Line
Don’t be fooled by the title; this was not at all epic. It had a trite plot, a cast of uninteresting characters, and a dull setting to house them into. Apart from the fact that it’s a fun fantasy adventure made watchable by respectable animation, some thrilling action sequences, a fantastic voice cast, and some genuinely enjoyable songs, there isn’t much to love about it.
