NOT a happy ending for the franchise.

Rating: 4/10 (14 January 2008)

Shrek and Shrek 2 are classics of CGI movie-making, brimming with charm, great jokes and visual excellence; Shrek The Third, on the other hand, is as stagnant as the swamp that the titular ogre calls home, reeking of lazy writing and stinking up the place with stale jokes.
When the king of Far, Far, Away finally croaks (he's a frog.... geddit?), Princess Fiona and Shrek are expected to take his place on the throne. But Shrek, being the miserable git that he is, doesn't want the responsibility, and so he sets sail (along with Donkey and Puss-in-Boots) in search of the only other heira young student named Arthur Pendragon.
Meanwhile, a miffed Prince Charming, who feels that he should rightfully be king, plots to take the title by force.
I had been warned that the third instalment in the Shrek series wasn't on a par with its predecessors, but decided to watch it anyway, reasoning that even a bad Shrek movie would be better than most contemporary kids movies. Unfortunately, it seems that I was fooling myself.
With a mediocre plot overloaded with poorly developed characters, and a practically laugh-free script, Shrek The Third is a pitiful effort that should never have been made. When a film's funniest momentthe repeated last gasps of the frog kingis not only very predictable, but also extremely familiar (I just can't put my finger on where I've seen this beforeit'll come to me... eventually), then it's time to give up. The fairytale is well and truly over.