LogFAQs > #962038686

24. Croods: A New Age

Ermine: 11
Red: 20
Karo: 24
Inviso: 25
Johnbobb: 31
Evillord: 31

Total: 142

Ermine: Well that was a surprise! I actually quite enjoyed that movie. There's a bunch of humor that doesn't hit, but there's a ton that actually does. Definitely better than the first movie. Chunky the sabertooth cat thing is great and I love him, despite his overly large head.

The grandma and the baby are completely awful. Thankfully the latter isn't in the movie much, but god the grandma ruined any moment. Everything with her was actually cringe... and I hate using that word.

But yeah, I'm really surprised at how much the humor actually hit. Good stuff.

Red: This movie was actually fairly interesting where you had the clash of two different families from different levels of advancement going on. Then it threw that out the window and everyone had to be friends to face a greater threat because Dreamworks likely thought that was more marketable or something. It is significantly less interesting than the plot they spent half the movie building up just to throw away for pointless adventure that will resolve all conflicts for no reason.

Karo: So the Croods stumble across a family of smug, highly civilized cavemen named the Bettermans (ha ha) who live in this protected enclave and actually understand the concept of bathing. Of course Grug throws a fit again because things being different scares him and there are a lot of 'neanderthals are dumb' gags as the Crood family tries to adapt to life in their new home.
It is sort of the same kind of conflict that Guy created in the first movie, giving a feeling of 'been there done that' to the story, and despite the greatly improved animation it seems like we lost something important at the heart of these characters.
It is your average modern CGI movie. Nothing too great, nothing too bad, funny at times, and not really very original. It is a somewhat decent followup to a movie that didn't really need a followup, but it isn't quite the new age it wants to be.

Inviso: I liked the first Croods movie a lot, largely because I think Nicolas Cages father character had a great growth arc. That being said, despite this movie being very fun, it felt like it took several steps backwards. Grugs whole story in the first film was about him learning to expand his horizons and accept change. This movie starts out with him still being very stubborn, averse to change, and terrified of losing his daughter. Again. Its like nothing in the first movie mattered, except for the Eep/Guy romance. And that romance was the half of the first movie that did nothing for me. So yeah, undoing Grugs character development, and giving him a weasel-y antagonist of a neighbor in Phil Betterman wasrough. I still found a lot of the jokes relating to modern day comforts to be pretty funny though. Whether it was the window gag, or treating the giant sabercat like a classic car, or having a literal man cave, that humor worked for me. And honestly, its weird that in THIS movie, the romance plot was the stronger half, because it makes sense for there to be some clash between the caveperson lifestyle and the modern lifestyle, as demonstrated by Eep and Guys tenuous relationship. So ultimately, this was fine overall, but a demonstrable step down from the original.

Johnbobb: I liked the first Croods a decent bit. Less so for the story and characters, which were kinda flat and unimaginative (oh man, the dad doesn't want the daughter to date a boy, woah. Where it succeeded was the gorgeous environments and visuals (in everything aside from the goofy characters) and exciting action scenes. This one was... more of the same? Like it introduced a new location, but in doing so, made it so that there was less overall creativity in the surroundings. This puts less focus on the world and more on the characters, which... literally haven't changed at all since the last movie. The "technology" they have is simultaneously less creative and more unbelievable, instead having things like unexplained indoor plumbing? The parents are even more focused on the kids' relationships. The story follows even more generic modern day beats than the first one. Altogether just "fine" and nothing more. Also, between this and the Despicable Me movies, what the hell is the deal with banana-based comedy in kid movies now? Bananas are not inherently funny enough to be a recurring joke in multiple movies.

Evillord: I've seen the first Croods movie but can't remember anything about it. This was alright though. I kind of like the "thesis, antithesis, synthesis" storyline that this (and Lego 2) have, and the Thunder Sisters part was fun.