Early Man (2018)

Early Man is the perfect delight to go and see if you have children under the age of ten. Ten and over can go see Black Panther this coming weekend.

As for Early Man, it's a delight. It has fun humor, a great cast, fun action sequences, and an overall great heartfelt message that every viewer can love, no matter the age.

Some of the issues I have with Early Man is the impossible nature of comparing it to every other Aardman film. It just is not as good as The Shaun The Sheep movie.

With my one tiny issue aside, Early Man is a very fun family film that will unfortunately not do leaps and bounds at the box office due to Black Panther.

I would have to give Early Man a B+ or on an Imdb scale, a 7/10.

Fmovies: I love to no end anything that Aardman has put out, including the traditional cartoons, and this one is no ecception: as usual, the stop-motion animation is flawless. Too bad that the screenplay seems rushed and underdeveloped, and the jokes did not always work. My kids (male of 8, female of 6) laughed a lot at the football match itself, but as an adult I felt that everything was dull and predictable.

'EARLY MAN': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A British stop-motion animated comedy directed by Nick Park (who also helmed multiple 'WALLACE & GROMIT' shorts, 'CHICKEN RUN' and 'THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT'). The film was written by Mark Burton, James Higginson and Park. It tells a story, set in prehistoric times, about a tribe of early men (and women) who must defend their home from a Bronze Age army, who claim the Stone Age is now over. The movie stars the voice talents of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams and Timothy Spall. It's received mostly positive reviews from critics, but it bombed at the Box Office. I found it to be funny and mildly amusing, for most of it's running length.

Chief Bobnar (Spall) is the leader of a tribe of cavemen, during the Stone Age, who are forced to flee their home when a Bronze Age army invades it. A caveman named Dug (Redmayne) is unknowingly captured by the army, and he's then mistaken for a football player, and is forced to play a public game. During the game his identity is discovered, and the army's leader, Lord Nooth (Hiddleston), orders that he be executed. Dug challenges the Bronze team to a football game instead though, and requests that if his team wins they should be able to return to their valley. Nooth agrees to the challenge, but only under the agreement that if Doug's team loses they'll be forced to work in the mines instead.

The movie is amusing in a similar way to all of Nick Park's animation I think. It's definitely funny more than it's not, and the characters are all likable and entertaining. The basic premise for the film isn't that interesting to me though. I think the whole cavemen playing football concept is kind of a dull idea for a movie. Thankfully most of the film is still amusing though.

Early Man fmovies. If you want Park's best, see his Pirates movie, with Hugh Grant. I know Wallace and Gromitt is what put Park on the map, and W&G are treasured (for good reason), but The Pirates was absolutely brilliant: a laugh a minute, inspired adventure. The process of making a stop-motion movie must be laborious, so it's a shame we see so little from Park's studios. Even though Early Man won't blow you away, it's still worth your time.

Not Park's best work? Yeah. The setup and writing is kind of slow and stodgy compared to Park's previous work, but but it's still very, very, very good content: especially when you compare it to the numerous, mind-numbing 3D animated movies Hollywood pumps out. Off the top of my head, Early Man beats out The Nut Job, Over the Hedge, Turbo, The Boss Baby, The Emoji Movie, My Little Pony... Cars... good lord, I'm making myself sick. Listing all of these subpar movies one after another like this is like eating a bunch of empty calories. Nick Park's work easily stands heads and shoulders over this mass produced crap, even if it's not his best. Early Man is *fun.* It doesn't pander to children: it's clever, fun, and the stop-motion is nothing less than charming.

A year or so ago I saw an animated DC movie, "Batman and Harley Quinn," which was truly terrible. I watch animated shows and find that I don't enjoy them. "What's wrong with me," I think. "Can all animation I see be so terrible? Am I becoming jaded?" But, hey: no, it's not me: most of the animation presented to us *is* bad. You have to see excellent content like Early Man to draw a distinction.

For me, its the best so far and I loved Chicken Run!

This time, the story is depicting historic events all compressed into one in a fun way. We had the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago, the meeting of the pre-historic man with the bronze age man and their evolution. Adding coliseum 'games' into the mix. Sure, not an accurate history lesson, but its a bit of fun. I love how they did away with the fighting at the 'games' and expertly handled greed and manipulation. All wrapped in the fun signature animation.

The adults were never forgotten throughout with plenty of innuendos aimed at keeping them entertained.

Overall, I thought this was a great offering. My children loved it (4 and 9) and my 9 year old giving it a 9 score :).

There's something overwhelmingly sad about a great production company releasing a disappointing film, especially when said film has a genius core concept and a terrific cast. It's as if the stars align only to lead you down a false sense of hope - indeed, disappointing films are a lot worse than ones where you never had much hope to begin with. Early Man, the latest feature by the renowned Aardman Animation, comes coupled with that very same crushing disappointment. It isn't even just that this isn't to the same brilliant standard as their other work, I'd go as far as saying it's Aardman's first genuinely poor film.

We find ourselves in the Stone Age (in Manchester, we're told by a title card in one of the film's few funny moments) where a small tribe of cavemen including Dug (Eddie Redmayne) live peacefully if mundanely in a small valley. Suddenly, their valley is taken over by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), the leader of a Bronze Age city where a giant football stadium is built. After some bartering and pleading, Nooth proposes that he will relocate his city and leave Dug's tribe in peace if they can beat his champion team in a football match. Inspired by the cavemen's history of football, Dug accepts the offer and, with the help of Bronze City townsperson Goona (Maisie Williams), attempts to train up his tribe to win the match.

It's a brilliant set up, as wacky as it is irresistible, but Mark Burton and James Higginson's script never really mines it for its full potential. Slapstick comedy rolls in fast but the film lacks the energetic pace of say The Shaun the Sheep Movie to make this style of humour work - most of it lands awkwardly and without any real punchline. Besides a late saving grace in the form of two football commentators (whose dialogue is brilliantly inspired and endlessly funny) the film's script lacks any wit or spark, seemingly carried away by the bizarreness of its premise and assuming its work is already done. There's the odd clever visual gag here and there but Early Man is a frustratingly laughless experience, making you long for the more comedic nature of Aardman's Chicken Run or Flushed Away.

As well as lacking humour, Early Man's characters barely leap off the screen either. While Dug himself is likeable enough - mostly due to Redmayne's infectious voice performance and the film's quirky character design - there's never a sense that we're watching anyone particularly memorable. Granted, not every film Aardman release needs to serve up a roster of unforgettable characters, but Early Man comes with the impression that it isn't really trying. Keeping Dug's relationship with Goona purely platonic is smart, but even then their friendship doesn't exactly glow. Character motivations range between weak and predictable, and whenever the film has a moment of celebration or emotion it's very rarely felt. Everything just comes across a little bit under done and a little bit lazy.

While there's something to be said for a film that rolls with its simplicity and doesn't long to be anything more, Early Man takes this spirit too far. Almost everything here is cheap and easy, resulting in a film that never capitalises on its various ideas and ultimately collapses before it crosses the finish line - and the film barely crosses the 90 minute mark. I saw Early Man in a crowded cinema, filled with families and groups of all ages, and it wasn't tough to notice the lack of enthusiasm abo