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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Mystery Frickin' Island
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Re: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
MOVIE REVIEW: 'Ice Age' will melt your heart again
By AL ALEXANDER
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jul 01, 2009 @ 06:00 AM
It’s no “Up,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t get down with “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” the third installment in the adventures of Manny being Manny. He, you’ll remember, is the sweet, lumbering woolly mammoth serving as
the de facto patriarch to a makeshift family of prehistoric critters roaming the earth in search of a stable home.
The twist is that they can never find it. Things like meltdowns, obstinacy and human infants keep getting in the way. As do predatory beasts who’d like to have Manny and company for lunch.
“Dawn of the Dinosaurs” is no different, only this time there’s more energy to their exploits, a vigor that’s partially attributable to the introduction of 3D technology to the franchise. But the main source of its added zing is
the growth of Carlos Saldanha as a director.
Where the first two installments where largely hit or miss, “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” is much more fluid in its storytelling, as Saldanha exploits the film’s strengths more deftly, by giving the franchise’s two best characters – the adorable acorn-chasing squirrel Scrat (a prehistoric cousin of Wile E. Coyote) and the stupendously stupid sloth, Sid – more screen time, while cutting back on the less interesting ones like Manny, his very pregnant mate, Ellie, and best pal, the saber-toothed tiger Diego.
Still, it’s a new character, a one-eyed weasel (reminiscent of Tom Cruise in “Valkyrie”), which sticks most in your mind. His name is Buck, and as voiced by the British comedian Simon Pegg (aka Scotty in “Star Trek”) he’s a swashbuckling delight. Sure, he’s channeling (OK, stealing) Johnny Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow shtick, not to mention a bit of the Geico gecko, a pinch of Indiana Jones and a smidgen of Crocodile Dundee, but Pegg makes him so endearingly charming, you go with it – and go with it quite willingly.
And given that Buck is such a larger-than-life creation, it was up to the team of writers and animators at Blue Sky (Fox’s version of Pixar) to devise an adventure worthy of his prowess, which for the most part they have done.
The only problem is you have to slog through about 30 minutes of bland, contrived setup to get to him. But Buck makes it well worth the wait once he crosses paths with Manny (voice of Ray Romano), Ellie (Queen Latifah), Diego (Denis Leary) and the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the piece, the sibling possums Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), in a tropical paradise existing just below the earth’s ice-covered surface.
They’ve come in search of their lisping friend Sid, (the superb John Leguizamo) whose gotten himself into yet another fix by confiscating a trio of dinosaur eggs (Who does he think he is, Madonna?) he plans to raise as his own. The rightful owner of the eggs, an angry, rampaging T-rex, has other plans, and the only way they include Sid is as lunch meat for her babies. For the gang to save Sid, they must traverse a lost land populated by every sort of carnivorous dinosaur imaginable. And who better to lead them than the fearless Buck, who likes to brag about how he once traded his right eye for the dinosaur tooth he now wields as a weapon.
Thus, the stage is set for a plethora of eye-popping action bits that will have you on the edge of your seat, especially a battle with a flock of pterodactyls that rivals anything in the first three “Star Wars” movies.
And it’s those thrills that keep the film from collapsing beneath the weight of its rote messages about family and togetherness. Didn’t we already learn their importance in the previous two “Ice Age” flicks? Come on, find something new.
Sort of like Scrat does, when he discovers an object more desirable than that elusive acorn. And that would be that cute prehistoric squirrel Scratte, whose curvy tail has Scrat going nuts. Their romance is a funny, heart-melting delight, especially in a third-act montage set to a reworking of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)”. It’s easily the most romantic moment in any movie of the summer – with the possible exception of “Up.”
And like that instant classic, “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” makes judicious use of 3D technology to enhance – not overwhelm – the storytelling. It also results in richer landscapes and more realistic looking creatures. Just be sure to duck when all those long beaks and snouts come jutting out into the audience.
Yes, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” may start out slow and dumb, but once it finds its feet and begins to evolve and adapt, it grows into something pretty special, as it melts your cold, cold heart.
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (PG for some mild rude humor and peril.) Featuring the voices of Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Simon Pegg, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott and Josh Peck. Directed by Carlos Saldanha. 3 stars out of 4.
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