Epic

Produces images of poetic power ... The catch is that the world the filmmakers create is far more interesting than the story they tell in it in it or the characters they put in it.

For all its attempts at wonder and spectacle and play, Epic is mostly a slog.

The visuals are pure magic.

Director Chris Wedge falls into the common animator's trap of making the "human" characters a lot duller than the nonhuman creepy-crawlies.

With its array of goofy sidekicks (Aziz Ansari as a slug almost runs away with the whole picture) and carefully crafted relationships, Epic certainly manages to tell a compelling tale.

A 3D eco-fantasy whose mantra-like insistence that we're all connected by nature is one of the main things that underscores the abject insincerity of the sentiment as the movie articulates it, "Epic" is very nearly epic in its stifling mediocrity.

Only the very young will draw much from the generic storytelling, while the handsome animation of the natural world is wasted on dull characters and unexciting situations.

The more I allowed myself to be immersed in the visuals of Epic the more satisfied I became.

Knowing the state of the animation industry, and how artists and animators put their hearts and souls into their craft, hoping to create something truly special, makes this end result very disappointing indeed.

With the laughs scarce, it's left to the story to enchant and regrettably Epic was always going to lose the fight against its hyperbolic title.