A bit over-familiar

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2009)

I don't want to damn with faint praise, but I suspect that's what it's going to sound like.
I liked this film, but I didn't love it. It was fun, but not hysterical. The 3D was good, but not great.
There was absolutely nothing to criticise - everything was done competently at worst, with great skill at best. The voice characterisations were all good, with Simon Pegg chipping in an excellent characterisation as swashbucking weaselly hero-type thing Buck. The baby critters, of whatever species, are all dead cute. The backgrounds are wonderfully well realised. The story is solid and the moral is worthwhile. And yet...
I think my problem is that, by film 3, it's all so familiar. Notwithstanding a change in locale, we know the characters so well that what they get up to is, too me, beginning to become a little limiting (so hooray for the trip to the subterranean world and the change of scenery which goes with it.
Take your kids and go and see it - you'll enjoy it. I did. But...