Movies in '07: Shrek the Third
There are a few consistancies in the Shrek series:
1) It's going to be halarious
2) It's going to have a valid and somewhat sappy moral at the end
3) It's going to have fucking gorgeous backgrounds
Shrek the Third delivered on all points. In fact, the first half of it was easily funnier than the last two movies, and Eric Idle almost made me spit out a mouthful of pepsi as the deranged Merlin... but the end suffered from Lukewarm Villan Syndrome... In which the audience never really feels that the main character ever had anything to FEAR from his villan. And seriously, considering how inept Charming proved himself to be while under his mother's far more devious shadow in the last film, it's understandable. Shrek is never in any danger, as far as we are concerned.
The sappy moral came in the form of a somewhat random subplot in which Shrek needs to bring the OTHER heir to the kingdom, Artie (played by a surprisingly good Justin Timberlake) back, amidst his struggle to come to terms with his (shrek's) impending fatherhood. Or something. It was more of just an excuse to get him out of town during Charming's takeover than anything... And it wrapped up somewhat abruptly at the end with a 'Don't let other people tell you who you are' (at odds with 'just be yourself' from the last film, and i'm SURE there was a moral in the first... I just can't remember it.)
Finally, the backgrounds. I'll get some flack for this one, i'm sure, but I'm of the opinion that while Pixar is the reigning emperor of animation and characters... Dreamworks may have just kicked their butts with background rendering. The scenery was gorgeous. :3
Overflow from 2006:
[X]Pan's Labyrinth *****
Feb:
[X]Bridge to Terabithia ****1/2
March:
[X]300 ****
[X]TMNT ***1/2
[X]Meet the Robinsons ****
April:
Nothing so far
May:
May is the month of the thirds. Behold!
[X]Spiderman 3 **1/2, with an amusment factor of about a million.
[X]Shrek the Third ***1/2
[ ]PotC: At World's End
June:
[ ]Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer* (if only for the SS!)
[ ]Evan Allmighty*
[ ]Surf's Up*
[ ]Ratatouille
July:
[ ]American McGee's Alice*
[ ]Transformers
[ ]Harry Potter- Order of the Phoenix
[ ]Simpsons*
Aug:
[ ]Stardust (although the date of this one may be changed)
Sept:
/
Oct:
/
Nov:
[ ]Beowulf
Dec:
[ ]The Golden Compass
[ ] AvP II*
1) It's going to be halarious
2) It's going to have a valid and somewhat sappy moral at the end
3) It's going to have fucking gorgeous backgrounds
Shrek the Third delivered on all points. In fact, the first half of it was easily funnier than the last two movies, and Eric Idle almost made me spit out a mouthful of pepsi as the deranged Merlin... but the end suffered from Lukewarm Villan Syndrome... In which the audience never really feels that the main character ever had anything to FEAR from his villan. And seriously, considering how inept Charming proved himself to be while under his mother's far more devious shadow in the last film, it's understandable. Shrek is never in any danger, as far as we are concerned.
The sappy moral came in the form of a somewhat random subplot in which Shrek needs to bring the OTHER heir to the kingdom, Artie (played by a surprisingly good Justin Timberlake) back, amidst his struggle to come to terms with his (shrek's) impending fatherhood. Or something. It was more of just an excuse to get him out of town during Charming's takeover than anything... And it wrapped up somewhat abruptly at the end with a 'Don't let other people tell you who you are' (at odds with 'just be yourself' from the last film, and i'm SURE there was a moral in the first... I just can't remember it.)
Finally, the backgrounds. I'll get some flack for this one, i'm sure, but I'm of the opinion that while Pixar is the reigning emperor of animation and characters... Dreamworks may have just kicked their butts with background rendering. The scenery was gorgeous. :3
Overflow from 2006:
[X]Pan's Labyrinth *****
Feb:
[X]Bridge to Terabithia ****1/2
March:
[X]300 ****
[X]TMNT ***1/2
[X]Meet the Robinsons ****
April:
Nothing so far
May:
May is the month of the thirds. Behold!
[X]Spiderman 3 **1/2, with an amusment factor of about a million.
[X]Shrek the Third ***1/2
[ ]PotC: At World's End
June:
[ ]Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer* (if only for the SS!)
[ ]Evan Allmighty*
[ ]Surf's Up*
[ ]Ratatouille
July:
[ ]American McGee's Alice*
[ ]Transformers
[ ]Harry Potter- Order of the Phoenix
[ ]Simpsons*
Aug:
[ ]Stardust (although the date of this one may be changed)
Sept:
/
Oct:
/
Nov:
[ ]Beowulf
Dec:
[ ]The Golden Compass
[ ] AvP II*