Review of Shrek the Third (2007) by Halfwelshman — 29 Dec 2011

In Shrek the Third, the saga of the "ogre with layers" and co. begins to run out of steam. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Shrek the Third is a bad film, but it lacks the spark that made the first two installments so enchanting.

The pop culture references are still there, but seem a bit more heavy-handed, and the jokes are a bit cruder. Perhaps it comes from Andrew Adamson retiring to a role as producer rather than being at the helm, or maybe the writers are out of decent ideas, but Shrek the Third is certainly missing something.

The voice talent are as good as ever, and the character of Shrek is forced to face the biggest challenge of his life - the prospect of being a father, a concept which Mike Myers, still voicing the ogre, imbues with an appropriate range of emotions.

Concerning the rest of the cast, the highlights are still Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, and the pair still play off each other well. Cameron Diaz's Fiona has a slightly reduced role this time round, but this allows for Julie Andrews' Queen Lillian and the other fairytale princesses to do a little more, and become a pretty formidable force in their own right.

This results in the most entertaining sequence in the film by a long way - let's just say that awful phrase "girl power" doesn't quite cut it. The main villain this time round is Rupert Everett's Prince Charming, who's still really whiny, but has a clear purpose this time - revenge.

The problem here is that he simply isn't as genuinely threatening a villain as John Lithgow's Lord Farquaad in the first film or Jennifer Saunders' Fairy Godmother in the second - he's just a bit too wet.

New additions to the cast are Justin Timberlake as Arthur Pendragon, who puts just about enough effort in to get by, and Eric Idle, who turns in the best vocal performance of the film as a senile and emotionally erratic Merlin.

There's still a lot to like about Shrek the Third, and the animation is better than ever, but it's definitely missing something that the first two films had. I'm not quite sure what it is, but with this film I just wasn't taken far far away, I just felt like I was flicking through a book of fairy tales, and at the same time watching a repeat of a mildly amusing satirical sitcom on TV.

It's not an unpleasant experience, but you'd probably get more out of it if you focused your attention on a truly great example of one or the other, because it's a rarity indeed when they happily marry.