In one of the great mysteries of contemporary film, most sequels to animated feature hits go directly to DVD while, somehow, a fifth “Ice Age” movie is galumphing its way into theaters. Lacking laughs, energy and sharp edges in equal degrees to its predecessors, “Ice Age: Collision Course” takes huge strides in the hotly-contested race to be 2016’s Most Irrelevant Sequel.
There’s plenty of fart jokes, forward motion and bright colors to engage easily-entertained children, but their parents will be subjected to yet another movie that has all the zing of watching evolution in real time.
Scene-stealer Scrat and his acorn have been promoted from sideline slapstick to plot engine – the hyperactive rodent stumbles upon a flying saucer embedded in the ice, and he accidentally launches into outer space, forming the Milky Way galaxy and sending some extinction-level meteors toward Earth.