Shrek 3 movie review

Although I enjoyed Shrek 1 and 2, I didn’t like this one. The one hour 33 minutes felt too long. Firstly, the ogre Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) was boring. Sure, he had some funny lines but it wasn’t enough to lift his character above the mundane.

The storyline was weak from the first. Shrek is next in line to the throne even though he isn’t. I mean, it’s his wife Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) who is next in line, but for some inexplicable reason (lack of ideas for a story I guess) the directors, Chris Miller and Raman Hui, decide to put Shrek into this dilemma of to be or not to be. Naturally, as he is an anti-social ogre he soon realises that he doesn’t want to be king. So he goes on a journey to to find another heir and comes back to find his kingdom hijacked. This so-called heir who Shrek wants to install as the next king is most unconvincing. He is a boy called Arthur and has a friend called Lancelot… these names remind us of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot of the legends, but actually there’s nothing of the sort. These are names taken from the legends alright, but for what purpose, the director only knows.

Another thing that I didn’t like was that the movie was replete with characters. Characters which appear to be clones of each other. They make the story line even more confusing than it is. At the end there is this battle scene with scores of characters doing their little bit and its a free-for-all. The villain Prince Charming (the same guy from Shrek 2) doesn’t seem to be evil enough and the motley of fabled characters that he picks up to make up his army clutter up the movie, as if it wasn’t cluttered enough with the ‘good’ characters.

Shrek’s attempt to be wise and kind with his lecture (its what you think of yourself that matters, not what others think of you) doesn’t jell with the rest of the movie.

Yeah, the animation is good and the movie is light and funny, but if you haven’t seen it, don’t fret. You can always grab a CD if you want to show it to your five year old.