Shrek the Last

The main cinema of Ulaanbaatar, Tengis, pulled off something of a coup by getting their hands on Shrek 3 before the likes of British cinemas, probably enabled by the film's digital format. Usually, a Western film is screened at Tengis five months or so after its initial release. In February, Snakes on a Plane landed in Mongolia while Bond got his licence to kill in March with Casino Royale. Spiderman 3, heavily trailed at Tengis, has yet to arrive. So pleased were the management at the capture of Shrek 3, that they have made their staff continuously wear bright green shirts and silly little green ears on headbands for the past week and more.
Shrek 3 was good but it wasn't of the same depth as the first two. The computer imagery has massively advanced since the first film - the texture of surfaces really stands out - but there is a lack of emotional development. Shrek's uncomfortability with fatherhood is explored with little jabs here and there but only superficially since his desire not to be king is to the fore. Moreover, some plot aspects did not aspect (if you can break out of prison why wait until you are unexpectedly reunited with your friends) and neither was there the same urgency in the plot as was present in the first two, maybe a result of slack direction. The 'crowning' (ker-ching) message was a rehash mish-mash of the first film's 'beauty is not always on the outside'. Rising above your station to escape your destiny through willpower and confidence no matter what you look like or have done is laudatory, but essentially an extrapolation of the first film.
There were some pleasant touches such as like young Arthur with Merlin and the slight Oedipal connections with Charming if not exactly Cagney White Heat-flavour, plus some wonderfully absurd outbursts of humour reminiscent of its predecessors. Interestingly, a sense of the epic is prominent, with some very striking moments, as if to compensate for the dilution of much of the humour, though still effective. On a curious note, I was thinking of the Saint-Saens piece in the climatic scene earlier in the evening albeit via Jonathan Creek.
Other interest was more personal. One wondered as to the level of copyright Disney, the unavowed bete noir of Dreamworks, had over representation of fairytale characters as Dreamworks had apparently purloined very similar features and attributes for some of its damsels in this movie. Also, while the rest of the audience was baffled, I enjoyed the idioms that could not be translated.
The overall impression is of this series running out of puff. Really, they've exhausted the themes and it's hard to see where they can go from here, especially as the whole of villainhood has been 'pardoned' (although they may dig up more mythical characters). Enjoyable though it was Shrek the Third should be Shrek the Last.

In Ulaanbaatar, it's like there has been an explosion in a prolific pillow-stuffing factory or someone has blown a million dandelions across UB. This is because there is myriad blossom suffusing the place. It gets everywhere - along the streets, through open windows, up the nose, in the eye. When it collects in the gutters with water it looks like so much frog spawn. Hopefully it will soon be over.