shrek the third

If ever there was a series that accurately portrayed the law of diminishing returns it's Shrek.

The first one was brilliant - very funny, telling a heart-warming story and reaching a conclusion that managed to both have its cake and eat it.

The second one was okay. It had some funny high-points, a reasonable story that admittedly felt a bit like a re-tread of the first, but an okay conclusion. It was also a little hampered by a slightly too big scope and cast.

The third was distinctly average.

The jokes were rather thin on the ground, for starters. Not least of all because the central joke of having fantastical characters be real feels a little worn down now. I mean it's a good idea and all, but I do find myself picking holes in it.

I mean, why is the Arthur character depicted as an unpopular wimp? It doesn't really make a lot of sense, especially given he's quite handsome and reveals himself to be quite intelligent. Why would he be unpopular? It's never quite addressed.

Well, he's unpopular because it's high-school and it suits the theme of the Shrek films for self-discovery to be his arc.

And mentioning the high-school, man did it loose me during this section. First off - I'm not American, I never went to high-school, it's a frame of reference that means very little to me.

Plus the types of characters they had seemed like very old jokes. The nerds playing D&D, the popular girls speaking in valley girl speak. I mean it was hard to even tell they were jokes, to be honest.

And then you've got the idea about Prince Charming banding all the 'bad' fairytale characters together and taking over Never-never land. Okay, fair enough, but it was really badly executed.

I mean, they just seemed to sort of turn up, fly about on their brooms (where they heck they got them all from, I don't know) and then land and... they'd won. I don't recall seeing a single guard or military type, despite both of the previous films showing (and, to some extent, relying on) their respective cities having significant numbers of guards.

I dunno, it just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

Also, the characters didn't really seem to grow or develop a great deal. I mean, Shrek kinda became a father, but then the idea that he was not keen on being a Dad got a bit lost somewhere along the line. I think part of the problem is because they were aware they were essentially retreading the same plot beats.

But also it's one thing for him to be screwing up his relationship with his girlfriend in 2, it's quite another for that same plot-thread to be properly played out with regards to un-born children. What could they do? Have him suggest abortion? Or doing a runner? In a family/kids film?

So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.

I did actually watch another film this last weekend - Tropic Thunder. I'd probably recommend that one more, but it also wasn't the best. I won't talk about it here much, as I'll do a full review for trismugistus.com I think.