Movie Review - Epic

 Epic  $$$ 1/2    

 

PG

102 Minutes

Starring: Colin Ferrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, and Beyonce Knowles.

Director: Chris Wedge.

 

The movie posters for this film have been hanging in our local theater for months and my family has anxiously waited for its release. Was it up to the expectation we gave it? Mostly.  

Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) has lost her mother and must now live with her eccentric father who lives in the middle of a forest and claims that there is an advanced society of little people. Although a kind man, he is distracted by his work and we can quickly see why the mother left him. MK, as she prefers to be called, decides she cannot stay with her father, but before she can get a taxi out of the forest she is magically shrunk.

Meanwhile, in the tiny world of the forest, the time has come for Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) to appoint a new royal leader. Madrake, the evil leader of the Boggans, sees this as his chance to bring wonderful rot and corruption to the forest, by killing the Queen and preventing a new one from replacing her. And thus is the stage set for an Epic battle between the forces of good and evil.

The writing for the film is decent. There are plenty of laughs and the characters are enjoyable. The problem with this film is that it isn’t original. We have seen the eccentric dad that doesn’t pay enough attention to his family. We have seen children shrunk down to adventure in the tiny world around us. And we have seen both of those concepts together: Honey I Shrunk the Kids. There just isn’t much original material here.

If you asked my kids, and I did, how they rated this movie it would get a full four Movie Bucks. They loved it. However, if you ask me to rate the film I’d give it three. So for the official review rating I’ve decided to give it three-and-a-half Movie Bucks to reflect that rather split vote. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it and I think you will too.

  

                        Randy’s Rating System 

$$$$   = Full Price    See this movie right away and pay full price, it’s worth it.

$$$     = Matinee      Catch this as a matinee or other discounted showing.

$$        = Discount     Wait until this movie reaches a discount theater near you.

$          = Rental         Wait until this movie reaches your local video rental outlet.

0          = No Sale       Don’t see this movie at any price.