FILM: Ice Age 4 Continental Drift 3D (dirs: Steve Martino, Mike Thurmeier, 2012)

"Grab your weapons, mates!"

Whereas the previous film in the Ice Age franchise seemed a little more reliant on 3D-showboating than providing consistent entertainment, Continental Drift delivers on both counts.  Design and 3D are visual treats throughout - this largely ice-and-water-bound adventure shows how far these difficult CG media have come - and a surprisingly witty and inventive script keeps things moving.  After an alarmingly over-preachy start (respect your parents, children), Ice Age 4 barrels along with three well-structured parallel narratives plus an effectively interwoven through-story for the marvellous Scrat, yet it feels that the writers have loosened up and are having a lot more fun: there is even a lovely self-referential dig at the previous film's 'dinosaurs' concept.  Fox has tagged an alarmingly dour Simpsons Maggie-centric short at the front, but the pay-off is quite sweet.  As a fourth entry, Continental Drift hardly breaks new ground, but it is a lively, well-written and beautifully-crafted affair, and it hits its children's market spot on.  It is alarming, however, that the 'children' in the series are now teenagers: what next?  Ice Age 5 - The Divorce Years?

FILM: Storage 24 (dir: Johannes Roberts, 2012)

"I just wanna go home."

Noel Clarke (writer/producer/star of Storage 24) said this movie was born out of his frustration that the UK film industry never makes a 'monster on the rampage' film, and so this reasonable stab at the genre makes it into cinemas.  The film uses its meagre budget well: gore effects are sparing but effective, the hints of the bigger picture affecting the world outside the storage facility are well-handled, and even the creature (when revealed) has an endearingly but pleasingly lo-fi quality.  Aside from the excellent Clarke, who can seemingly wring a strong performance out of anything, the cast is vapid, and the frequently banal dialogue is not helped by somewhat dull performances.  Tension and shocks are occasionally generated effectively, although a loud sting every time the lights fail (frequently) becomes tiresome, and the synth-led score sometimes sounds like an audience member's mobile has gone off.  Storage 24 is not a particularly strong film, and it could do with more energy and some serious script editing, but it is well-intentioned, clearly versed in the genre and tries hard to match its American counterparts, making it a little better than standard straight-to-DVD fare.

FILM: The Pact (dir: Nicholas McCarthy, 2012)

"Merry Christmas!"

The Pact came in under the radar and generated a buzz through its tightly-edited trailer, which is very much a greatest hits package for the film as a whole.  It is very much a familiar piece, with a join -the-dots story that really does not take an awful lot of working out (unless you were the two teenage girls sitting three rows in front, who were entertainingly terrified by the whole film) and ultimately does not amount to much.  The supernatural and crime-thriller elements never quite seem to gel as strongly as they should, but the set pieces from both are effectively executed. Nevertheless, for its genre and budget, director McCarthy uses some creative and thoughtful camerawork as well as building tension successfully, especially in the first half.  The Christmas setting lies unsettlingly at odds in the background, and the geography of the deceased mother's house - so crucial to the story - is conveyed well, making The Pact a well-executed and interesting low-budget genre entry.

DVD: Iron Sky (dir: Timo Vuorensola, 2012)

"So, you are a formerly dead black model, who is now suddenly a living white hobo after spending a weekend on the Moon.  Is that correct?"

Iron Sky has been a long time coming, with expectation slowly building via the enticing trailer and its use of fan-funding, and it proves to be an entertainingly daft labour of love.  Whilst hardly Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich, for its low budget the design and low-end effects are impressively mounted, there is surprisingly enough story to fill the running time effectively, Laibach (!) turn in a strong musical score, and Gotz Otto strides commandingly through the film as the Fuhrer-to-be.  Iron Sky is nevertheless prey to two of the main faults of low-budget productions - namely an awful lot of truly poor acting and really lame humour - but it also manages some quite broad but effective political satire at times, making it a real hit-and-miss film that strives to entertain throughout, either by impressing or simply being outrageous, and often succeeds.

FILM: Prometheus 3D (dir: Ridley Scott, 2012)

"Mortal after all."

The clue is in the title: this is not an Alien movie per se, but echoes of the original film resonate loud and clear in all sorts of ways, making Prometheus a fan-boy pleasure as well as a solidly-crafted tale in its own right.  As expected, the film looks stunning, with plenty of sci-fi-eye-candy and stunning on-location 3D work.  A surprisingly elegiac score gives the film an almost optimistic air of wonderment as the titular spaceship takes up the 'invitation' left to earlier civilisations, one of many manipulations of the audience by Ridley Scott as this tale of exploration, faith and (familiarly) family unfolds.  There are problems: the script constructs an effective story but gives the actors little dialogue of substance with which to work, plot-holes become increasingly evident as the film progresses, and there are stretches when it feels like little is happening.  Nevertheless, the strong cast delivers, with good work by Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green, Idris Elba and especially Michael Fassbender as chillingly cool android David, and Ridley Scott brings back some of the audacious energy he can show as a director, resulting in this slightly uneven but always interesting addition to the Alien universe and canon.

FILM: Snow White And The Hunstman (dir: Rupert Sanders, 2012)

"We were promised gold, and what do we get?  Pooh!"

By the time you emerge from the cinema, you will be wondering if entire seasons have passed by since you went in.  At over two hours long, the classic fairy-tale gets a serious make-over, and as a result every line is delivered in such a weighty and ponderous manner that you frequently wish the movie would just move along and get on with it.  This new 'vision' of the Snow White tale is The Lord Of The Rings via Narnia, with Charlize Theron in grand form as the Wicked Queen/Stepmother character, conveying a real sense of evil, control and despair as required, Kristen Stewart providing a level-headed if unspectacular heroine, and Chris Hemsworth again showing strength and confidence on-screen in a demographic-widening beefed-up male role of The Huntsman for this traditionally female-centric story.  Design work is glorious - there is always something interesting to look at - and the melodramatic score sometimes matches the scale of the visuals,with a suitably frenetic final battle, but overall the film is overlong and it is not such a radical re-working as expected.