Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Epic


This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. All you have to do is share a movie review once a week and link back to here.


This weeks movie review will be for:




The main storyline of Epic revolves around two separate but connected worlds. Mary Katherine, or MK as she likes to be known (don't ask), is moving in with her father, Professor Bomba, after the death of her mother. This will be the first time she has seen him since she was a young girl. Her father has dedicated his life to trying to locate Leafmen, tiny human creatures. He comes across as completely mental but, of course, there are actually Leafmen, they just don't know it yet. And so the story goes back and forth between MK and the Leafmen story. This is where we are introduced to Nod, voiced by Josh Hutcherson, who doesn't want to be a Leafman because, frankly, he doesn't want to have to grow up and have any responsibilities. The two worlds collide when MK is trusted with an important leaf pod by their Queen and told she must transport it safely to Nim Galuu. The Queen uses her magic to shrink MK down to their size and she must work with Nod it get it there without being stopped by the evil Boggan.

Now that all may sound confusing and it is, this movie definitely had A LOT going on. It went back and forth between the two stories for quite a while, and the whole thing was giving me a bit of a headache. There was so much going on that it did get a little hard to keep track of it all.

I went into Epic with ridiculously low expectations, I had seen some less than favourable reviews for it. But I was at my parents house and my dad was decorating so when I saw this was showing on Sky Movies I decided to give it a go. I love a good kids film and hoped this wouldn't be too bad. I don't know if it was my low expectations, or my lack of anything else to do but I actually ended up quite enjoying Epic. It was in no way Epic, but it definitely wasn't a bad movie either. 

It's really important for a characters voice to match their appearance in an animated film, it needs to match up or it's off putting when you're trying to watch. Unfortunately, Beyonce's voice didn't match up well with her characters and neither did Colin Farrell 's, it seemed too obvious that you were hearing their voices and not the character. It just felt like they were talking normally, not trying to become the characters. I can't quite explain it, but it was really off putting as I was trying to watch.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of in this movie. Some I enjoyed, but I didn't really love any of them. I enjoyed some of the jokes, but do feel like they seemed to be trying to hard at times. But I did have quite a lot of times where I did laugh out loud. My favourite characters were probably Mub and Grub, hilarious sidekick characters. They provided me with the most laughs and I really thought they were great characters. I have to admit that the life cycle of the fruit fly scene had me laughing like crazy.

The storyline read like a mix of about twenty different movies I have already seen. It really reminded me a lot of FernGully, with the human being shrunk down to the size of a small creature in the forest. But it had a lot of elements of other movies mixed in as well, so it didn't come across as very original. But, despite all of my issues with the movie, I still really enjoyed it.

The animation was done well, but the real size humans did look a little strange. But all of the action scenes between the Leafmen and Boggan were very well done and looked amazing. This had some great jokes, and some strange ones too. It was a nice way to spend my time  on a Sunday when I had nothing else to do. As far as kid films go, I  personally feel that this was a pretty decent film. I wasn't once bored and I enjoyed the animation, the jokes and the general storyline. I also enjoyed that it didn't have your run-of-the-mill happy ending that you see in most kids films.


3.5/5 Butterflies

It was a pretty decent film as far as kids films go. I wasn't once bored whilst watching it and I enjoyed the animation. Some of the actors voices didn't match up well with their characters, which was a little distracting when you were trying to watch. This had some hit and miss jokes, some seemed strange but others really got me laughing. I enjoyed the fact that it didn't have the run-of-the-mill happy ending that you see in most children's films. It was definitely not on the same awesomeness scale as Disney films likes Frozen, Tangled or any of the classics, but it was enjoyable.




I have been meaning to take part in both of the following memes for a while now, so its nice to finally be able to get to them. I will be taking part in Reading is Fun Again's Thoughtful Thursday and Okay, Let's Read's  Thursday Thoughts, picking between them or doing both topics each week.




Book Covers

What features do you like in a book cover? Do you like plain covers, ones with drawings on or photographs? Do you like movie tie-in covers?

I recently did a Friday Favourites post that showed some of my favourite covers. I like something that really grabs my attention. I don't really like large faces on my covers, where the models face takes up most of it, I think the only one I have ever really loved was Glow and that was because it was so stunning. I am also not a fan of men on the front with their shirts open and their chests showing, that is so overdone and it bugs me. I am also not a huge fan of the kiss or almost kiss on the cover. I don't like them to be too overly romantic. I am more a fan of simple covers. I have actually come to love tie-in covers for books, I recently purchased TFIOS and The Spectacular Now books for the tie-in covers even though I own both already.


12 comments:

  1. I love simple covers too! I'm not such a fan of faces, because...weeeell I like to imagine people how I WANT to not how the designer does. lol I'm so lovely and obstinate like that. ;) I think the whole half-naked-guys-and-girls on covers kind of is cheap. I mean, it's "supposed" to be eye-catchy I guess. But it feels so LAME! Like only every third romance book looks like that!! *ahem* Minor rant over, okay.

    I didn't like Epic...hehe. I found it kind of lame and I was annoyed at the ending. X)

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    1. I think me and Epic got on because we didn't really care for one another. I didn't need it to be good, I just needed it to entertain me whilst I did washing. That probably explains why I forgave all it's problems and the ending. It was no Frozen.

      I think the shirtless guys covers are lame too. And the girls ones. And the guy and girl ones. NO MORE HALF-NAKED PEOPLE.

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  2. I have to agree on the covers, I don't like busy, or half naked men on my cover, like please, put a shirt on, you're not that hot. I also don't like overly huge faces but I have come to not mind people on my cover as long as they play a part to the story or portray the character well. Excited for the next book cover based FFF though! I've heard of Epic, but never watched it, and I don't think I will; I'm picky over y childrens films and they have to be something I can honestly fall in love with and I don't think I could with Epic which is a shame. Great review though! Also can't wait until my film reviews start coming out, I'll definitely be linking back to you!

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    1. I am very excited for the cover FFF coming up. We base it one one colour, right? I didn't really know last time I looked, it just said Colour Edition.

      It's definitely not the greatest kids film, I enjoyed it but I wont really be recommending it to others - unless you are stuck indoors, doing washing and need entertaining for 90 minutes.

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  3. Totally agree on the shirtless men. There's a proper time and place and everything! I also don't care for kissing and embracing on the covers. Basically, I don't want to be embarrassed carrying a book around.

    The "girl in a pretty, flowy dress" that is on so many YA covers is overdone.

    I generally prefer covers with something other than people on them. One exception are Laini Taylor's books, which are gorgeous.

    I can't think of a single instance where I've liked a movie tie-on cover better than the original!

    Stephanie @ Inspiring Insomnia

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    1. Exactly, it;'s hard to try and read in public when you are trying to hide the embarrassing cover from everyone. Yes, the dress is definitely overdone and a little boring - I did love The Winner's Curse cover though, I thought it was beautiful.

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  4. Awesome meme, I'll have to do it next Thursday! :D I felt the same way about Epic, it was an okay movie but as great as Frozen.

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    1. I hope you can take part! Happy to find someone else who thought Epic was an okay film.

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  5. To be honest, I don't pay too much attention to covers, I think because I buy most of my books on my Kindle. I mean, I notice them and there are some books (the shirtless guy covers) that I would probably be embarrassed to be seen reading so that's yet another reason to love my Kindle. The only time I think about the covers is when I'm reading blogs or if I buy the physical printed book. ~Pam

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    1. I buy most of my books printed so I think covers are quite important to me. I really hate for my book to have an ugly cover, one that I really don't like. They say never judge a book by it's cover, but I so do.

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  6. I also enjoyed this movie. The animation was pretty great--it's amazing what filmmakers can do these days.

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