Not as good as the first, but better than the second... by a little bit

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2011)

I decided to review this movie again after watching it again. Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs could've easily have been the best Ice Age yet, or at least dramatically better than the second movie. But it fails at being overly impressive as far as plot goes. Though it does have some nice things in it which are enjoyable to see.
Visually Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is fantastic... at times. The animation is very good during some certain scenes especially during the first appearance of the T-Rex mother. Out of all of the scenes in the movie, the appearance of the T-Rex at the beginning was probably the best. However the rest of the movie fails to really make the dinosaurs as threatening or dramatic as the beginning. Since the majority of the plot takes place in an under-ice dinosaur world, you would expect it to look really nice... but sadly most of the dinosaurs seemed to have been designed very quickly and look very simplistic/generic. Even the landscape in the dinosaur world is kind of boring... not enough depth to it.
The plot is actually shockingly simple. Actually really really simple. It is the classic gang trying to save Sid when he was captured by a T- Rex. There are some dangers along the way but that is the plot in a nut shell. The problem I have with this movie is that the characters seem stale and not as deep as the first movie. The first movie had character development and some actual deep and interesting topics. This movie, however, does not. The jokes aren't too bad, but most of them come from Buck... the new guy. Thank goodness the Opossum twins don't have as much screen time yet they still make pop-culture references which ruins the mood. Buck is better than the Opossum twins as far as being an interesting side character who is crazy, though sometimes Buck gets a bit annoying.
Overall Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs isn't a terrible movie, but it doesn't really improve the series at all which is disappointing. The first movie is still the best and most interesting. If only this movie were a little bit darker and had a bit more of a plot. This movie is arguably the goofiest of the three films and is the least serious.