‘Shrek’ franchise becoming rote

In theaters

SHREK THE THIRD directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui, written by Miller, Jeffrey Price, Peter Seaman and Aron Warner, 92 minutes, rated PG.

Hollywood hasn’t run out of ideas – it just won’t risk bringing fresh ideas to the screen. In an effort to protect what’s increasingly a nine-figure investment, every new major release is second-guessed by legions of terrified executives, all fretting over how to protect the bottom line. The result? Too often, the films are rote, with audiences getting hammered with homogenization along the way.

Such is the case with “Shrek the Third,” the third sequel to hit theaters in as many weeks, which features impressive animation and a few bright spots of humor, but mostly, it’s dull and unimaginative moviemaking, a sterile effort served cold to the masses.

From first-time directors Raman Hui and Chris Miller, the latter of whom co-wrote the script with Jeffrey Price, Peter Seaman and Aron Warner, the film’s thin, uninspired plot is nothing to pixilate your pants over.

After the death of King Harold (John Cleese), it’s revealed to Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Shrek (Mike Myers) that Shrek is next in line to the throne. It’s a job Shrek doesn’t want – he is an ogre, after all – and so off he goes with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas, a highlight) to Worcestershire High School. There he hopes to find the next in line to the throne, Prince Artie (Justin Timberlake), and also to take his mind off the fact that Fiona is pregnant.

For a villain, the film offers up the weakest imaginable – Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) – whose shaggy blond blowout is the most threatening thing in the movie. It’s he who wants to be the king of Far Far Away, and he’s enlisted a formidable posse in Captain Hook, the Evil Queen, the Cyclops, Rumpelstiltskin and others to help him to that end.

Trouble is, by the film’s midpoint, few will care. Filled with the easiest laughs of all – fart and poop jokes – “Shrek the Third” is so disappointingly base, it underscores just how far we’ve come since Disney’s groundbreaking “Toy Story” hit theaters in 1995.

Back then, the wow-factor was everywhere onscreen, from the animation to the story to the characters. Great movies followed, including the original “Shrek,” but now, after 12 years of Pentium-powered blockbusters, the animation no longer is the draw. It’s the script that matters, which is why this summer’s biggest animated thrill likely will come when “The Simpsons Movie” opens July 27.

That movie is appealingly retro, wearing its crude animation like a badge. And yet no one will give a second thought about it. If the film is anything like the long-running television series on which it’s based – and there’s every reason to believe it will be – what its creators know is that good writing always will best technology.

At this point in the game, one expects DreamWorks should know this, but “Shrek the Third” suggests otherwise. In this movie, the focus is on creating believable expressions and hair that moves, not laughs that sustain and suspense that builds. In the next “Shrek” movie (a fourth is in production), let’s hope the focus goes back to the storyboard.

Grade: C

On HD DVD

THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION

Available tomorrow on high-definition HD DVD is Warner’s “The Ultimate Matrix Collection,” whose title proves something of an understatement.

Visually stunning and at times genuinely harrowing, the three films collected here – 1999’s “The Matrix” and 2003’s “The Matrix: Reloaded” and “The Matrix: Revolutions” – are exercises in excess and restraint. They prove you can have each in a blockbuster without embarrassment, though it is fair to say that the films’ directors, the Wachowski Brothers, are more inclined to unleash the former than embrace the latter.

For hardcore fans of the series, what’s so impressive about this set is how comprehensive it is, and also how worthwhile the 35 hours of extras are, especially when backed by the In-Movie Experience, which is unique to the HD DVD format and which, in some cases, literally allows the viewer to control certain scenes in the films.

About those films. What began in 1999’s “The Matrix” as a fresh, interesting collision of New Agey ideas and religious retrotalk in a computer-fried world, became in “Reloaded” a more literal, streamlined movie in which it was impossible not to get swept up in the considerable excitement the Wachowskis generated.

“Reloaded” didn’t answer many of the first film’s underlying mysteries, but it nevertheless was a shot of adrenaline to the heart of the series, offering a heavy-breathing break from the heavy-handed psychobabble before the Wachowskis addressed our questions about Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his destiny in the weaker “Revolutions.”

Not unlike “Spider-Man 3” or “Shrek the Third,” that film found a franchise run out of steam and ideas, with the Wachowskis pilfering liberally from so many other sources – “Alien,” “Aliens,” “Star Wars,” “Superman II,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Thing,” “Mad Max,” “War of the Worlds,” “Frankenstein,” “Robocop” and “Tron,” to name only a few – the series lost its unique identity along the way.

Still, there’s no denying that this is among the most vast, comprehensive collections of a trilogy released in any format. Beyond the three discs that contain the movies and their extras are two additional discs – “The Animatrix and The Roots of the Matrix” and “Burly Man Chronicles and the Zion Archive.” Since for now the set isn’t offered on Blu-ray, in this case, fans should choose the red box.

Grade: B+

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.