All Critics (56)
|
Top Critics (14)
|
Fresh (9)
|
Rotten (46)
|
DVD (4)
An animated flick that doesn't leave much of an impression. It's even difficult to recall what happened once it's over because it's so slight and sluggish.
Alpha and Omega, an unambitious 3-D animation about a couple of young wolves in love, isn't so much howlingly bad as it is howlingly boring.
It's an ugly, laughless 3-D cartoon about wolves that is so wussified and stupidified that it'll bore kids and make their adult minders wish they'd done something comparatively interesting, like cleaning the gutters in the rain.
The story comes off as patchwork, with a climax cribbed from The Lion King and odd musical sequences that seem inspired by …ahem, classic Mariah Carey. It's not quite the vision of love intended.
Has old-fashioned backgrounds that occasionally achieve a touch of grandeur, but that's about the best that can be said for it.
After preliminary special-effects high jinks -- wolves bobsledding a hollow log down a twisty mountain run -- Alpha and Omega kicks into An Important Life Lesson.
The animation, coupled with a jarring use of 3D, makes for a visually unspectacular film that feels very similar to others that have come before it.
full review at Movies for the Masses
The 8-12s will love it, but grown-ups may feel they've seen lots of it before (especially the caribou stampede, a shameless pinch from The Lion King.)
There's nothing here that Disney hasn't done much better decades ago, and the script is a lame mixture of slapstick and sentiment.
Here is a pleasant, undemanding animated family comedy - decent enough, but it feels like a reshuffling of dozens of films you've seen before.
Stumbles every time it attempts to rise above the perfunctory, with its tiresome comic-relief geese and bog-standard internecine rivalry in the wolf pack.
A poorly written and disappointingly animated adventure that may keep the wee'uns happy for a while but will leave the adults snoozing.
Though predictable and routine, Alpha and Omega will be enjoyed by youngsters under eight regardless of whether they see the 3D version.
It certainly gives the nippers their slapstick fix. Sadly, the only sense of wonder it will stir in their parents is when it will all end.
Aimed squarely at the very young, this cute animation still feels far too rushed to spend any significant time on.
The fact this is out in the same week as the fluffy owl movie beggars belief. It doesn't even belong in the same ruddy century.
It?s all pretty bland, with uninvolving characters, unfunny comedic relief and weak computer graphics (made even worse by unnecessary 3D effects).
'Alpha and Omega' enters the crowded marketplace with little to say for itself.
'Alpha and Omega' enters the crowded marketplace with little to say for itself.
The 3-D angle is the only one I can identify to justify Alpha and Omega not going straight to DVD, but it's a double-edged sword.
It's worth howling about!
Because of the lacklustre rom-com script and flaccid direction - not to mention the terror on kids' faces with the snarling wolves slaughtering stampeding caribou - wait to howl with the DVD.
More Critic Reviews
Top Critic
