Shrek the Third

The reviews were not good, which is good … I mean, in the sense that my expectations were lowered. They needn’t have been. I liked it. True, nothing is going to beat the originality of the first one, and it wasn’t even as good as the second, but when you start off from a point as high as Shrek, you can come down considerably and still be worth watching. Faint praise? I guess, but I still enjoyed myself. I am not thrilled to learn, however, that there will be a fourth. But with box office numbers like this, I don’t suppose anyone could resist. Making it, that is. I might resist seeing it.
Several reviewers thought the story line wouldn’t appeal to young children, since it has to do with life choices instead of battling dragons. I spit on those critics. They are always whining that kids’ movies are dumb, and yet they consistently undervalue a child’s ability to respond to emotions other than anger and revenge and fear … mindless action movies, in other words. Shrek was always a fish out of water, and he is here, too, and simply wants to return to his swamp. Going home is a theme that appeals to all ages … and there is plenty of action and movement, nobody’s going to get bored from the lack of that, and there are still the adult references that were what made the original movie appeal to such a wide audience. I’ll say it again: Not as good as the first, but not bad.