Third time's definitely a charm!

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2007)

For me, the first 'Shrek' stands as one of the best animated films ever made. Yeah it was satirical but you connected with the characters. The disappointing 'Shrek 2', on the other hand, felt emotionally detached albeit kinda funny. But I honestly think that Dreamworks is back on the ball with 'Shrek the Third'.
Saw it today first showing at the local multiplex (I live in PR, and films debut a day before US, yey!) and I was pleasantly surprised. My expectations were a little low because of S2 but I have to say I laughed...a lot! Eddie Murphy kinda got annoying after a while but Banderas' still got it as Puss-in-Boots.
Mike Myers did okay, nothing amazing. So did Justin TImberlake as King Arthur (aka Artie). Personally it was Eric Idle who stole the show as the mentally imbalanced Merlin. Also John Cleese has a sidesplitting cameo as the Frog Prince.
I smiled through the entire movie (the Disney parodies) as I did through the other two, but this one had some laugh-out-loud moments the second lacked. And the personal dilemmas of Shrek and Artie were well done.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with 'Shrek the 3rd'. I say it's a couple notches below the original but a lot better than the second one.
8/10