Promises much, delivers little

Rating: 4/10 (19 February 2012)

The weakest Shrek film. Feels like it was hashed together quickly with little development to the characters or plot.
I mean, this is Shrek. A massive film enterprise with all the resources and funding at it's fingertips. By part 3 it should be incredible. What the Shrek films do best, by definition, is to re write classic fairy tales and characters in a new modern and 'funny' way, right?
So it should be. But in this film - it fails.
Big example - and here is the spoiler - is this is the moment in the Shrek saga where we are introduced to Arthur and Merlin ! The 'Shrek' version of Arthut and Merlin should be an explosive and hilarious highlight in all of Shrek films. My god, it really isn't. Arthur (voiced by Justin Timberlake) sounds exactly like Fry from Futurama but with not even 100th of the quality of the jokes. Merlin (voiced by Eric Idle) turns up in a holographic blaze of promise but then is hardly in it at all after that. No character development, no banter between Arthur and Merlin. They go absolutely nowhere. The voices and the look of the characters do not even suit. It could have been so classic but it just isn't.
The whole film feels lazy and uneven. It meanders and splutters it's way heavily through the weak plot and never really gets going. Certain scenes are massively overwritten with too much dialogue, i was constantly distracted throughout.
The worst thing about the Shrek films is those moments when you feel they are trying too hard to be funny. This film is pretty much like that the whole way through.
This one's a tired old affair and no one feels like they are having fun. Thankfully, the 4th one was much better.