There are no dinosaurs in the Ice Age, except in lame Hollywood sequels desperate for a story!
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opens with Scrat's nose sniffing around the credits frozen in the ice. Scrat is the rodent obsessed with possessing an acorn and again he opens the movie with a crazed pursuit of a lonely acorn. This time - big surprise - he has competition from a comely flying squirrel with a big, bushy tail and eyelashes that flutter like a stripper's veils.
The complaint about sequels is a common one, that the ideas dry up after one or two efforts and by the third, the creative well is dry. This is what has happened to the Ice Age franchise with the third effort. A sense of desperation fills the screen as the filmmakers try to milk one more movie out of the same characters and situations. The fresh humor of the first movie is now old hat, but it is dragged out again and ramped up into 3D, but still doesn't make it funny.
The complaint about sequels is a common one, that the ideas dry up after one or two efforts and by the third, the creative well is dry. This is what has happened to the Ice Age franchise with the third effort. A sense of desperation fills the screen as the filmmakers try to milk one more movie out of the same characters and situations. The fresh humor of the first movie is now old hat, but it is dragged out again and ramped up into 3D, but still doesn't make it funny.
The Story
The story is all about finding Sid the sloth who has stolen three dino eggs, enraged the mother dino who retrieves her babies and Sid and takes them to her home under the ice. Our band of heroes drop everything to rescue Sid, impossible without the aid of a crazy weasel living in the midst of dinoland by his wits and bravery. The weasel leads (some would say drags) our heroic herd of beasts towards the momma dino and a confrontation with the big beast of the underworld, Rudy. Don't ask why he's called Rudy, except some writer was on the floor laughing over this bit of comic genius.
The plot is so trivial as to defy re-telling. The only new character is a weasel named Buck, voiced by Simon Pegg. Buck has the best lines, the most action and steals the movie from the regulars who plod around the ice and later, the secret world of dinosaurs under the ice (don't ask how that can be) until told to stop and have a baby using the secret code word: "peaches".
The plot is so trivial as to defy re-telling. The only new character is a weasel named Buck, voiced by Simon Pegg. Buck has the best lines, the most action and steals the movie from the regulars who plod around the ice and later, the secret world of dinosaurs under the ice (don't ask how that can be) until told to stop and have a baby using the secret code word: "peaches".
The Genre
The family animated comedy genre (let's throw in fantasy as well) has been revolutionized by computerization. The Lion King was the last of the old-style animated movies, drawn primarily by hand on plastic cels. Now, with computers and the 3D technology, we have unlimited power to visualize in great detail whatever the writers can dream up. When done well, as in UP earlier this year, it can be stunning. When done okay, like this effort and the earlier Monsters vs. Aliens, you can appreciate the craft of the visuals but the magic of great storytelling is lost.
The Overall Quality
I have to admit the family sitting behind me, full of kids the target age for this movie, sat through it in rapt silence. They didn't laugh or react too much at all, except a few oohs over the cute baby mammoth, Peaches. This is not a good sign. Yes, the movie is not funny. If you've seen any of the earlier movies, you won't find anything new here. Visually, the 3D effects are great during the flying adventure over the lava and in some of the large set scenes showing the vistas of ice and dino paradise. You should stick around for the ending credits, as there are excellent kid-style drawings around the names which jump forward towards you and are quite charming.
Movie Review Summary:
Reviewing the Genre, Quality and Story, we have a negative story, average quality and a strong genre in family comedy fantasy. This is also a sequel so the characters are known and there is a great deal of goodwill built up from the previous movies. This has helped keep this movie in a dead heat for top spot over the holiday weekend with the mega-movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
The bottom line: This movie will amuse kids for one viewing but is not in the repeat viewing category of Toy Story, Schrek or Finding Nemo.
