Review: ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’

The Ice Age saga continues with its new installment Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 3-D! The gang is all back for some new shenanigans, along with some new faces.

Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are still together, and expecting their first child. Ellie is excited beyond belief about their first bundle of joy, while Manny is extremely uneasy and frightened. Sid (John Leguizamo) is green with envy and has a longing to have children of his own. Lucky for him, he stumbles upon three eggs that turn out to be dinosaurs. Diego (Dennis Leary) isn’t without his inner struggle either… he is worried that he isn’t the ferocious animal that he once was. He feels like he has gone soft and lost his strength. Of course it is Sid that causes the main drama in the whole film when mama dinosaur comes to look for her missing spawn.

The story wasn’t as good as the other Ice Age stories. While it kept my interest, it just seemed a bit boring. Do we really need a struggle about whether or not the main characters should be excited to have a baby? If I was a bit bored with it, then I can only imagine how boring it would be for a child. The bread and butter of this whole movie is the 3-D. While not as detailed and sharp as a Pixar movie, it is still fun to experience. I think I was tricked into liking this movie with the 3-D effects because the story really wasn’t that exciting. How are they going to market this for DVD without the stellar visual effects? I did hear someone in the audience mention that the dinosaurs were too fake looking in the film and I had to laugh. Hello! It’s animation! If you want realistic then watch Jurassic Park!

The voices in this film really are fun. Ray Romano is the only on that I have never been a huge fan of. I can overlook it because I like the character and the movie, but his voice is boring.Queen Latifah, on the other hand, is great! Her voice is entertaining and easy to fall in love with. Heck, I bet it would be fun to have a slumber party and bake cupcakes with her! Sigh!