Shrek The Third (Chris Miller and Raman Hui, 2007) Review

Here it is, the black sheep of the franchise. Every franchise has one (don't argue with it, EVERY franchise has one) and, annoyingly, it's usually important to the plot of the franchise. Shrek The Third is no different. It is the worst one in the franchise but does that mean it's a bad film? There's only one way to find out! Let's take a look at the third film in the Shrek franchise that's apparently to good for a simple "3".

King Harold (John Cleese) has died and left Shrek (Mike Myers) the heir to the throne. The problem is, he doesn't WANT to be the king. He then learns that there is one other heir that could take his place: Arthur (Justin Timberlake). Now Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas) have to set out and find Arthur (Artie for short). There is more complication though, since Shrek is away, there is no hero to protect Far Far Away from a new threat. Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) wants revenge on Shrek for the death of his mother, the Fairy Godmother, and is now trying to take over Far Far Away and become King himself. Since Shrek is away, Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and the other princesses have to fight him and his army of fairy tale villains away.

Doesn't sound as bad as the other films does it? I didn't think so at first but something about it seems off. Prince Charming is a great villain, Artie is a pretty funny character that Justin Timberlake surprised me with and even other new characters like Captain Hook (Ian McShane) and Merlin (Eric Idle) are welcome additions to the franchise. What went wrong? Well...it was at this point Shrek had lost it's freshness and overstayed it's welcome. The jokes were starting to get less fun and the whole 'Donkey and Puss swapping bodies' thing was pointless and seemed unnessesary. 

Everything from the last Shrek film is still here: good characters, a great setting and it does expand on this to give more new stuff such as characters (which are still great) and a surprising addition to the cast. Ian McShane surprised me as Captain Hook since he seemed like quite a small role (he's second in command to Prince Charming) and Eric Idle, while good as Merlin, seems like wasted potentional and should have been in the other ones. There's a lot of good stuff here that should have been in the other films.

It's still Shrek though. Fairy tale characters everywhere and the characters are still great. It's by no means a bad film, it's just not as good as the rest and seems sandwiched between two other films. Yeah...there's one more. You heard right and it's the last one (excluding Puss In Boots) so I guess it's almost time to wrap up the Shrek franchise (even though I can see them doing a fifth one in the future).

Verdict:
6/10
The black sheep of the Shrek franchise. Not bad but is overshadowed by the others.