Waste of time

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our local public library system.One of our favorites of this genre is "Chicken Run", the claymation is always good but that movie also has a superb story.In "Early Man" the story is more straightforward. It is a clash of stone age men vs bronze age men. An ancient meteorite created a huge crater near Manchester, England, and the center of it contained what appeared to be a soccer ball, when they began kicking it soccer (or football) was invented by these cavemen.In time the big crater grew lush vegetation and the stone age men thrived, until one day a strange group invaded with modern weapons, with bronze tipped spears and other bronze items, driving the stone age people out. Eventually one of them, Dug, bargained that if they could defeat their soccer (football) team then the bronze age guy would give their land back. If they lost they would be banished to a lifetime working in the mines.So the climax of the whole story is the soccer (football) match. I also viewed the extras on the DVD and one can't help be impressed with the massive effort that went into making this movie, the sets, the number of technicians and animators. Truly a first-rate effort and it turned out great. I just wish the story itself had been a better one, it just didn't strike an overwhelming chord with me.

I watched the first 25 minutes of Early Man, and laughed a couple of times. It's pretty much a kid's movie with the same basic premise as the Indian movie Laagan; if you want to see a movie about scrappy underdogs playing soccer, it's way better than Early Man.Director Nick Park, whose Wallace and Grommet films are wonderfully funny, has somehow never been able to translate that success to anything non W&G related. Chicken Run wasn't especially funny either, but at least it had a pretty interesting story. Early Man lacks both the humor and the story that would keep me watching.Humor's a very individual thing, and I cannot deny that a lot of people in these IMDB movies find this movie very funny. But I just find that puzzling.

This film tells the story of some Stone Age men who have to challenge Bronze Age men a football game in order to win their land back.The story is really silly, full of cliches and is far fatched. What drives me crazy is that the characters are not even cute. In fact, they look rather horrid! In "Wallace and Gromit", this prototype of characters work, but in "Early Man" it does not work at all. I did not quite enjoy it.

Aardman is an animation studio that has impressed me since my childhood years. From Chicken Run to Flushed Away, or even Shaun the Sheep, which is a recent favorite of mine, I was very much looking forward to viewing their recent outing. While it may be one of their weakest of the movies they've produced in my opinion, I still got a kick out of it. So much effort is put into these films that it's very difficult to talk down about them. Sure, the style itself may not be for everyone, but notion that actual cinematography is used in creating a film like this is astounding to me. Early Man isn't a movie that will be recognized as one of the best films of 2018 and nor should it, but these movies don't receive enough recognition. Here's why I believe it deserves your time.Set around the plot of a young boy in Dug and his companion in Hognob, they stumble into a city of Bronze, ruled by Lord Nooth. Coming from the cavemen and women lineage, this is a surprise to them. Learning that this city has developed the game of futball (American Soccer in today's terms) from their very own ancestors, they decide to challenge this city for the right to their land back. This plot is very silly and by the numbers, so I wouldn't say it's a very adult film, but as a movie that has a goal of impressing children, while delivering some adult humour, it works tremendously. I found myself shrugging my shoulders at the sheer notion that a sport was the story that fuelled this film, but that being said, it's a solid little movie overall.As aforementioned, these movies look incredible in terms of how they're made. The animation style is to be commended no matter what the quality of the film itself turns out to be. From the visual gags to the unique characteristics, this is a movie that relies heavily on whether or not the audience can buy into the look of the movie. I found myself laughing at background elements or the way something moved, and it was clear that the intentions of the filmmakers were to accomplish just that. If for nothing else, Early Man is a wonderfully shot and animated feature film.Where the film started to lose me was how the plot itself became one of the most predictable things that I've witnessed in a while. The first act presents some very clever jokes and the characters are all likable, but once the real plot kicks in throughout the second act, I was hoping for a much more clever finale. Sadly, the third act of this movie is simply whether or not our heroes will be successful in beating this team. While the game itself and characters involved are all likable elements, I just found myself slightly uninterested. Still, there's a lot more to like than dislike here.In the end, Early Man tries very hard to be multiple things. A spoof of the tales of the stone age, a children's generic and safe storyline, and almost a political statement at the same time. While all of these elements work, I found them to be an odd mixture for this movie. Early Man is a film that I highly enjoyed from start to finish, but the overly simplistic story took away from what could've been a great film. The setting, animation, jokes, and characters all drove this movie in the right direction, but that's not quite enough when you know where everything is headed all the time. Early Man may be aimed at kids, but there's a little something in here for everyone. Disappointing for a fan like myself, but still a solid movie.