Shrek Terzo

I had high expectations for this movie. When I saw Shrek 2, I was pleasantly surprised. Few sequels are as good as the original, but Shrek 2 was.

Shrek the third did not continue this trend. While there were sill plenty of funny moments, it was nowhere near as amusing or original as the first two. They could have done so much more with this movie if they had tried. At the end, I felt sort of cheated.

However, Shek the third isn't a bad movie in itself, only when compared to the others. I would still recommend going to see it. Unlike most, I liked Artie's character, even if he did talk too much (I'm not even a Justin Timberlake fan).

So, I just caught the 10 pm show of Shrek 3 and I gotta say, as a fan of the first two I was not impressed. In fact, I was very disappointed. It literally was the same movie the third time, and instead of infusing it with tons of fun and pop culture references like the second Shrek did, it just relied on its plot and genre convention to further it. There was ONE funny moment. The Led Zeppelin reference was good and was funny, but as a whole, the movie was a phoned in experience. Again, what a disappointment. At least most of the stuff shown in the trailer was in the first fifteen minutes or so and you get fresh stuff from there on out. The sad thing is that this fresh stuff feels dull and rehashed even though you've never seen it before.

Terrible effort all the way around.

I have just been pleasantly surprised by Shrek 3. Trying to ignore all the hype around it, I tried to watch it (on DVD) as the second sequel to one of my favourite films, nothing more. Although it comes nowhere near the quality of the first film, it does try to recreate its pleasant pacing and isn't overstuffed with easy film/commercial/real life-reference jokes (I'm looking at you, Shrek 2). And if one pops up, than it got more laughs out of me than Far Far Away ever did in Shrek 2. The Medieval high School was just hilarious, especially the mix-up between today's teen slang and Middle English. As an English student, it really appealed to me.

I really liked the dialogue between the characters like in Shrek 1, it's something I kind of missed in Shrek 2, where the characters just jumped from one crazy situation to the next with a few one-liners her and there. What I did miss, was the bickering between Puss and Donkey. Both characters do in fact get way too little screen time, and that's a big mistake since both characters were the highlights of Shrek 2. Somewhere near the end they do get in a situation that brings back some of the comedy gold of Shrek 2, but it's too little and too late.

All the old characters get to do something funny, but in the end they are all just great to see as old friends you know from the past. It's nice to see Donkey, Puss and Shrek get along so well with each other, but there's nothing more they can do to fill another film. We know the characters, and they have all found a place in the world they live in. I have gotten all I wanted out of the overall storyline, I'm happy with the way things are for the characters now, and I don't mind that the third journey had to replace the "insert joke every few seconds"-mentality of Shrek 2 with a bit more storytelling. There were still plenty of big laughs left, I can tell you.

Ultimately, Shrek 2 was funnier, but I think I like Shrek 3 better. I felt that this adventure was more meaningful for all the characters, and I know that this is the part where a lot of critics thought it wasn't necessary. But if you ask me, Shrek 3 was unnecessary. But since they really had to make a Shrek 3, I think they did well to make the adventure a bit more meaningful and make it really count in the end. It's only too bad that the message is the same of the previous two films, we get it already.

The only thing I really didn't like was one of the major characters they used to tell us again that you must accept yourself and others as they are. Artie was a really un-Shrek character. His speeches were dull and Justin Timberlake does nothing to make the character more likable. Of course, he has little to work with. I liked Justin timberlake's part better as a poster in Shrek 2 with the text "Sir Justin". It was funnier than anything Artie said or did in Shrek 3. Let Shrek, Donkey or Puss do the talking, dude.

As far as I'm concerned, Shrek 3 was an unnecessary sequel that still worked for me with some good humour and the characters being as charming as ever. The story was more meaningful for the main characters. The end of this adventure, even though repeating the message of the previous films, provided me with satisfying closure on the story of the happy Shrek family. Too bad that another unnecessary sequel is coming, undoubtedly with even more hype and more dull characters like Artie. Sadly, the Shrek franchise seems to be the most inspired thing coming from Dreamworks Animations.

Shrek The Third is another entertaining romp through the erstwhile Hollywood of Far Far Away with a few laughs for adults and a few more for kids. Like all of the films in this series, it has a big and good heart, and occasionally pays homage to or pokes fun at modern films. Unlike the previous films, however, Shrek III is not a source of non-stop hilarity, and contains a little more thematic content.

Shrek finds himself inheriting his father-in-law's crown and learns that Fiona is pregnant. Predictably, both of these eventualities play pretty dissonantly on the big green guy's insecurities, and he goes a-questing to locate the next-in-line of succession - a young, dejected, high school kid. Meanwhile, charming has developed even more of an attitude problem, and is putting together a whole battalion of people with grudges.

One of the themes of the first two Shrek films was 'don't judge a book by its cover'. Shrek III takes the theme a little farther and puts a different spin on it. The lesson learned here is "don't judge yourself superficially." And it works. My rating of six is based solely on the entertainment value of the film. This film is not quite as well-paced and well-directed as the previous two films, and Charming is simply not the heavy-weight heavy that his mom was. Nevertheless, it's still worth a look, and still carries positive messages entertainingly.

When his new father-in-law, King Harold falls ill, Shrek is looked at as the heir to the land of Far Far Away. Not one to give up his beloved swamp, Shrek recruits his friends Donkey and Puss in Boots to install the rebellious Artie as the new king. Princess Fiona, however, rallies a band of royal girlfriends to fend off a coup d'etat by the jilted Prince Charming.

I have to admit, I really wasn't as hyped to see this film than Shrek 2. The trailer was okay, the plot sounds less interesting, and many critics didn't like this film. Yeah, this film is full of energetic characters and some visually dazzling scenes, but it's not as funny, entertaining, or as great as the last two films.

If you've seen the trailer, that's probably all the good jokes that they got in the film. I expected to laugh as much as I did at Shrek 2, since this film is more for the adults than the kids to enjoy. It's a sad fact that more of the jokes comes from secondary characters than the main ones. The action scenes were good, not great, but the story just doesn't interest me.

And the Shrek and Fiona spark isn't as much there as it were in the previous two films. Now here's the good: I liked the secondary characters. They are all funny. This is the most visual Shrek film, having colorful scenes pop out.

This film seems to rely more on the slapstick humor to cover up the weak plot, seemed to not be filled with originality. I didn't mind that. There are some pretty good jokes and some good action scenes. Don't watch this film expecting a great film like the first two, although I wanted this to be a worthy sequel.