MADAGASCAR 3 can be one of the highest-grossing films of the year but it's also a mess and the worst I have recently seen

Rating: 2/10 (24 June 2012)

I remember going to the cinema with great expectation to see the brand-new Dreamworks project MADAGASCAR, back in June 2005. Boy was I disappointed; it was the kind of movie that makes think something like "that's it?" when the credits begin to roll. Seven years later I didn't give a f*** when the third one (EUROPE'S MOST WANTED) was released. Nevertheless I ended watching it on the big screen (the 2D version) last Friday afternoon! I went to the cinema with my girlfriend and having seen already the great PROMETHEUS (we actually wanted to check out the new Woody Allen film, TO ROME WITH LOVE, but sadly its release was postponed or something) there wasn't really anything else that we wanted to see. We ended choosing this one, over the new Tim Burton picture (I'm still not sure if I want or not to watch this), mainly because my girlfriend actually liked the second MADAGASCAR (which I haven't seen). But in the end we both agree the third one is plain bad.
I actually liked the first minutes of it. Thought it was really cool the made-with-sand model of New York City and the reference to KING KONG. Yes, that's pretty much what I liked of this film. It's hard to believe that one of its writers also co-wrote (together with the mighty Wes Anderson) the masterpiece FANTASTIC MR. FOX. I mean, both films are quite the opposite, with this one being like a collection of random material. MADAGASCAR 3 is painfully random, to tell the truth. They throw at you lots of stuff that is just not really funny or spectacular (as they intended), like a lemur and a bear getting married in Rome (what is it with this traveling around the world kind of thing in animated films? I mean, I recently re-watched last year's CARS 2 and just like in this one the characters travel to Italy and England!), and frankly at one point I was like "calm down!" – it's only in the middle of the movie or so when you finally get some story to follow (about a familiar subject in kids movies: friendship).
Also, I found those new characters to be really annoying; take for instance the case of the antagonist, who is voiced by Frances McDormand. In the hands of other writers this character could have been a whole lot of fun (a bad to the bone animal control hunter who is trying to make the lion one of her trophies); they think this character is fun, but it's just so crazy it gets ridiculous. Anyway, the kids at the cinema even applauded when it was over. So yes, they seem to love it but I don't, at all.
*Watched it on 22 June, 2012