Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

I really liked the first Ice Age movie.  I thought it was a creative film that could entertain children and keep their parents laughing at the same time.  When the sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown rolled around, I wasn’t thrilled since I thought it might ruin the first movie but I could understand them wanting to try to continue the series.

Although Meltdown killed at the box-office by raking it more than $68 million in its opening weekend, critical reception was lukewarm and generally not as favorable as it had been for the first film.

20th Century Fox

I don’t know if they are trying to redeem themselves or if 20th Century Fox is just greedy but the third installment, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, opens today and it will probably do well at the box-office since we are heading into a holiday weekend (in Canada today is already a holiday).

The 3-D film features an impressive cast but a weak plot.  Manny (Ray Romano) is anxious to get everything ready for the new baby he and his wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah), are expecting which makes Sid (John Leguizamo) feel a little broody.  What does he do to fill his paternal needs?  He steals dinosaur eggs and ends up in an underground world where dinosaurs are living.  From that point on, it sounds like Sid embarks on a Jurassic Park type of adventure while he waits for his friends to rescue him.

I truly hope that Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs delivers.  The reviews have been mixed with Rotten Tomatoes assigning it a rating of 33% fresh while Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars and says “it’s the best of the three films.”

Check out the trailer and decide for yourself.  If you’ve seen it, let me know what you thought!