This is the movie currently propping up the ailing box office (its second weekend performance only dipped three percent from the first week) but is it worth a damn? I would say…kind-of. That’s another way of giving the movie a C or a C+ and telling you to wait for the DVD, but, let’s be honest: If you have kids you aren’t waiting that long. Both because kids will pressure you to see it sooner than later and also because it gives you something to do with them for a couple hours. So I say manage your expectations and you might have fun.
What Works: I will say the movie as a whole is disappointing and suffers from a lack of imagination but there is one sequence that really, really works. I’m talking about the daring raid Puss-in-Boots and his frenemy Humpty Dumpty pull to get the golden goose in the Jack and the Beanstalk storyline (and yes, I feel like less of a man for just typing that sentence). It starts out as a smart stagecoach robbery to get Jack’s magic beans and then transforms into a beanstalk ride before finally settling on a sky castle the raid takes place in. For that brief stretch of ten minutes, the movie soars and it snapped me out of the stupor I had been watching the movie in.
What Doesn’t Work: Humpty Dumpty is creepy as hell and you can tell something is up with him fairly early. Puss-in-Boots turns out to be a remarkably shallow character (an orange house cat as Zorro for 15 minutes in Shrek 2 is great, anchoring an entire movie…not so much) and, unlike the Shrek movies, there is almost no supporting cast to help prop him up. Plus, too much of the movie just feels aimless.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I’m not sure Puss is the right Shrek character to build a spin-off around. I’m sure more than a few fans might have preferred following around Donkey or even The Gingerbread Man.
Nan i really do like the Puss in boots character the best after Shrek. I paid to see the movie.