Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: The whole movie is more of the same and I'm afraid the franchis is running out of steam. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Not bad, not good. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: There are chases and escapes, morals and messages, comedy and character... but when the fur stops flying, it still feels more frozen than fresh. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: There's a sense of ineptness in a script that constantly reaches, with only modest success, for amusing things that the mammoths and their friends can do. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Even new scenes involving the once-hilarious Scrat, the hapless critter who can't hold onto an acorn, feel worn out. That's when you know it's time to go. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: What follows: crude jokes, sweet lessons, Simon Pegg as an adventurer gone insane, and a bunch of decent animation, which select patrons will see in impressive 3-D. Ideally they'll be about 8 years old and hopped up on Junior Mints. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The animation is first-rate, and the first look at the lost world beneath the ice is stunning, particularly in 3-D. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: Yes, dinosaurs are cool. Just not cool enough to save this sequel. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Why does the third installment of this animated tale often feel so glacial it's a wonder Ray Romano's Manny the mammoth doesn't freeze in his tracks? Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The manic pace quickly grows tiresome, as does the influx of cloying baby animals. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, Houston Chronicle: If the third Ice Age were a bit better, there would be little need to dwell on the inconsistencies. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The finest idiosyncratic pleasure of this franchise remains the ongoing relationship of hapless squirrel-rat Scrat to his beloved acorn. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Nobody seems to be working too hard in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Nice, sweet, safe. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Most of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is pedestrian kiddie fare. At least the 3D helps counter the film's prevailing dullness. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Treacly and barely amusing. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: This is pretty silly stuff, even for a children's movie, and it sort of sells out the one original point the series used to have: Here was a prehistoric adventure that refused to go the yabba-dabbo-do route. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: A sweet little comedy, both family-friendly and centered on a nontraditional family — and so suitable for pretty much everyone. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: This rambunctious outing -- the third in the franchise -- is cute enough to engage kids and just smart enough to keep the chaperones entertained. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Some of the jokes work. The story seems concocted by a committee of Blackberries. But the 3D CG animation is quite an improvement from the first two films. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Director Carlos Saldanha did such an excellent job infusing the second installment with energy that it's a shame he was unable to do the same with Part 3. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Even the antics of little Scrat fall flat this time. The rodent whose pursuit of an elusive nut was the highlight of the first movies are tired and strained here. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Never representative of more than mediocrity from a technical or story-based standpoint, the Ice Age series has reached a new nadir with its third entry. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the best of the three films about our friends in the inter-species herd of plucky prehistoric heroes. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Let us thank the producers of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for remembering that adults sit beside the youngest viewers. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With its three-dimensional action and two-dimensional feelings, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is warmed-over nonsense. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: There's little evidence of creativity either in the paint-by-numbers time-travelling plot or the sort of ad-libs you associate with gag writers sitting around a boardroom table. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This third trip to the Ice Age cooler should delight families with its amusing new dino buddies, even as it risks terrifying tots. Read more

Vadim Rizov, Time Out: Lacking even the briefest flicker of a joke not culled from the fart-gag, pop-cultural-reference grab bag, the latest installment in Fox's most durable kiddie franchise offers unreasonably devoted parents less than usual to look forward to. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: As with the two earlier films, it's all a mite disorderly in tempo but often highly amusing and great fun in the main. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rather than evolving, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs treads on familiar and infertile ground. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: With appreciably greater emphasis on action than its predecessors, and clever use of 3-D trickery to enhance storytelling as well as offer spectacle, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs could prove the third time really is the charm. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: There's no breathing life into a formula that ought to have bowed out gracefully while the going was good. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's not utterly without charm. Only here, that charm feels less earned than manufactured, a product not of evolution -- or even intelligent design -- but of cynical, soulless opportunism. Read more