movies: shrek the third

I got one of those "$10 movie ticket" card things in the mail sometime this week, and since there's a few things out at present that we're going to want to see, we decided to go and see Shrek the Third this afternoon.

It was actually pretty much the way I expected... good, but not great... which doesn't bode well for number 4, due out some time in 2010. I'm guessing they pretty much ran out of story at some point between the second and third movie. This version has some nice moments in it, but overall it's not wonderful.

What does blow my mind with each successive movie is the quality of the CGI... the textures, the realness of the backgrounds, all that stuff. But then I am a big geek when it comes to stuff like that. Just little things this time around like the fact that Shrek's signature white jersey has little loose threads and "pilling" on the sleeves... and the skin texture on pretty much everyone... it's impressive. True the "extras" all look very wooden limbed and some of the cloth work looks a little off, but they'll get there eventually.

All the old favourites are back... including some of my personal faves like Dragon and after their brief appearance in the credit "tag" scene, the Dronkeys (dragon/donkey offspring), who, to be honest are just too damn adorable for words, as were the Ogre Babies (can somebody say Spin Off Cartoon Series?). And speaking of adorable... I know he was a computer generated creation, but Justin Timberlake's character, Artie... a bit cute... you know, for pixels...

I also quite enjoyed the section with the "Princess Warriors"... but, to be honest, there wasn't enough of it. And speaking of Princesses, Sleeping Beauty gets my vote for the best of the bunch...

In the minus column was the return of Prince Charming as the "villain" of the piece... he was good comic relief in the last movie, but you just can't take him seriously... plus, you know, he's annoying...

It was all a bit "been there, seen that" actually... a few nice moments (Donkey is annoying, Puss is smooth and very Spanish, Shrek is, well, Shrek) and enjoyable enough while you're watching it, but there wasn't really enough of any one thing... the good bits didn't last long enough (Merlin, Princesses, Artie, whatever) the ending was a bit "after school special" and it honestly felt like they were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Lord knows what they will end up with for the last one... something with Ogre Toddlers, grown up Dronkeys and Artie's kingdom maybe... I dunno...

yani's rating: 2 Dronkeys out of 5