Epic (2013) Directed by Chris Wedge

There is something off about this movie. There were plenty of things that I was absolutely loving about it but yet as the movie kept on progressing, it slowly started to turn into something less and less impressive and effective to watch.

Thing I was liking about it at first was that it was truly living up to its title. The movie had a great epic feel to it, with all of its action, story, environments and characters. The way the movie was shot was absolutely perfect and there are some great sequences at the beginning of the movie. It had a seemingly bigger than live type of story in it, that would take us to all kinds of magical places and it kept on introducing all sorts of rich and colorful new characters, like a good epic movie often does.

The movie however reaches a certain point, after which it starts to loose focus causing the movie to be an ineffective one and even a bit of a bore at times. After a while it just isn't clear anymore where the story is trying to take us. What's the goal of our main heroes? What do the villains want? You keep forgetting, since it's the movie itself that's starting to do and tell things in a very messy and muddled way.

The story itself of course also isn't a terribly original one. It basically combines lots of story elements, from different movies from the past, both animated and life action. It isn't a too big problem though, since the movie still successfully manages to feel and look original enough of its own.

And you can't say much negative about the movie its look. The animations are all superb and it's good to see how the animated genre keeps on evolving and innovating. It's a very realistic looking animated movie, in which the only unrealistic looking elements are its characters. That's not a complaint though, it differentiates the animated movie genre from any other genre. Besides, the characters are all good and fun looking ones, with also each their very own distinctive personalities.

And despite a somewhat weaker second half, I still enjoyed watching this movie. I even have to say that I liked this movie better than most other animated movies, that came out these recent years. It had a more mature feeling to it, both visual and storytelling-wise. It still of course makes some bad choices though with its storytelling, which especially affects its comedy. Sometimes it's forcing things and it also has some needless comic relief characters in it. Oh well, at least very young children should still be able to enjoy and appreciate them but the older persons watching this movie will most likely find them to be annoying and pointless for this movie.

Despite all criticism, this movie is still worth checking out in my opinion.

7/10

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