The summer of thirds continues. We've had Spider-Man 3 so far, which is in the running for biggest disappointment of the year, the third Pirates film is coming up and should be a blast, and we have Ocean's 13 and The Bourne Ultimatum rounding out the group of thirds. This monster month of May continues with Shrek The Third, and thankfully we have our first enjoyable film of the summer. Fans of the first two movies will flock to this one in great anticipation. The movie itself is a treat and will please kids and adults alike, but unfortunately the movie suffers from sequelitis in that it has lost some steam.

While the movie is not as fresh as the first two it does offer plenty to entertain. The jokes come flying in fast and they are funny. There is a lot of physical comedy I guess you could say, but we still have the great popular culture references. There is also tons of humor that will fly right over the younger audience and make the experience worthwhile for adults. I saw a late screening and basically the entire audience was 17 and older and the place was a laugh factory. The movie even got applause at the end. Jokes like Puss saying goodbye to his many lovers or having a line like "You are royally . . ." with the curse word being blocked by a foghorn should give you a good belly laugh. In fact I felt that this movie was less orientated towards kids than the first two. The first two films had their fair share of farts and burps, but this installment toned back on it. The only kid orientated aspect of the film is having Justin Timberlake play Arthur, heir to the throne. Except that Arthur is in high school, so we get a scene of what school life would be like in the world of Shrek. I think a problem that some people will have is that there are so many characters now that it throws off the focus of the story. Characters like Pinocchio and Gingy serve simply as cutaways for jokes, while they are still hilarious it does lower the quality of the film when stacked up to what we've seen before.

The biggest difference worth mentioning is the absence of director Andrew Adamson who made his start with the first two. Adamson's direction was superb and is the reason why the first two are just great comedic family films. Since he is busy with his Narnia empire he wasn't able to direct Shrek The Third. Adamson did do the story but he didn't do the screenplay. The result is a notable lack of structure and timing for the jokes and the story as a whole. It seems as if we are dropped in the middle of everything; there is no set up. Alas this is a sequel, but I think some establishing of the story couldn't have hurt. The other thing I had a problem with was the unbelievable overuse of popular songs. Some songs felt out of place and some just didn't work at all. There were too many songs and not enough score. Harry Gregson-Williams has been part of this franchise since the beginning and he returned to score the third one despite Andrew Adamson leaving. It feels like that they drown out his score completely with all the songs. Granted you don't go see a movie like this for the score, but I think the score played a big part in the first two and I hardly recall noticing most of it this time around. Thankfully he will be getting a score release in June so I can sit aside and give it a listen then.

In the voice department everything is on par with the previous two. The actors give the same enthusiasm to their characters as before and once again Antonio Banderas shines with Puss In Boots. Eric Idle is probably the best addition to the cast as Merlin the wizard. Idle plays Merlin after he's had a nervous breakdown, and the character steals some of the funniest moments in the film.

The bottom line here is that Shrek The Third is not as good as the first two, but it's still better than most animated films out there. I laughed a lot and found it to be worth my time as a summer fare. The lack of focus and structure plus the overuse of popular music didn't ruin the experience, but I do think it shows that when you change directors there is in fact a difference. Go see Shrek The Third and have a good time, it was certainly more enjoyable than Spider-Man 3 that's for sure.

Shrek the Third is out May 17, 2007.