Film Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (3-D) (2009)

Saber-toothed squirrel Scrat finds himself facing the jurassic jaws of death

In an attempt to bring Jurassic characters to the ice age, the writers of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs create a world beneath… well, uh, the ice. Below the surface of the frozen Earth our familiar mammal heroes inhabit, exists a forgotten Dinotopia. It’s a lush land of tropical jungles, dark, winding caverns and rivers of magma (if you’re lucky, all presented in glorious 3-D). It’s here that wooly mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), who are expecting a child, and saber-toothed tiger Diego (Dennis Leary), must journey in their search for Sid (John Leguizamo), the sloth, who has been taken by a ferocious T-Rex deep underground.

The set-up is simple, and expected, and we’re in familiar territory from the very beginning. Scrat, the franchise’s most iconic character, leads us into what turns out to be a satisfying adventure. The pacing is consistent and there are no dull moments anywhere. It’s mostly action and one-liners, with nearly all of the funny ones said by Buck (Simon Pegg), a bonkers weasel who assumes the role of guide for our heroes in the depths of the dinosaur world. The rest of the jokes are mediocre at best, and rarely worthy of a real laugh - they just fill the gap for the spectacle, which this film emphasizes on over its predecessors.

In 3-D, it looks good. Usually employed as a gimmick to draw moviegoers, Dawn of the Dinosaurs utilizes three dimensions with an offhand casualness that is refreshing. It never declares itself, “Look! This is 3-D! Have you noticed?”, and instead gets on with the film and lets you watch it without throwing annoying effects in your face that are useless to the story. Granted, there isn’t much of a story, but it’s nice. Assuming this film was meant for 3-D, it’s recommend. It didn’t distract.

The cast do a satisfactory job of reading their lines, but that’s all they really do - they don’t have much to work with. The atmosphere and the light-hearted gags will have you smiling, but nobody will be rolling in the aisles. It’s in no way a bad movie, it just relies a lot on nostalgia from the previous films to get through. You care because you already like Manny based on the other films, not because of his character in this one. In the case that this was the first film in a new franchise, it probably wouldn’t hold up too well – the characters are showing signs of thinness, and trying to imagine a further sequel won’t get anyone excited. After three films, this is a nice place to end it. (***)