We just finished watching Shrek 2. What did I think? I was totally disappointed. After hearing such great things about it I thought it was a total let down. How would I describe it in one word? Dark. I don't mean that the comedy was dark, or that the story was dark, just that the movie was dark. Most of the scenes were at night making the whole film just feel down. It's amazing how different the film felt from the first, I was surprised to find that the same team directed it (Andrew Adamson and Kelly Asbury).

All your favorites are back. Mike Myers is once again Shrek, and Cameron Diaz is back as Princess Fionna (as is Eddie Murphy as Donkey). New comer to the Shrek series is Antonio Banderas as Puss and the wonderfully funny comic master John Cleese as the king. While everyone does a great job at their respective parts, the whole picture feels like they are just out of ideas. It seems as if they did all the great stuff the first time around and are now left with the task of creating another movie with material that wouldn't have made the cut from the first film.

So the story is pretty basic. Shrek and Fionna are back from their honeymoon and Fionna's parents (who banished her to the tall tower) want to meet her new beau. When the realize it's Shrek her father the King works with the Fairy Godmother (played by relatively unknown Jennifer Saunders) to get Fionna and Prince Charming (ably played by Rupert Everett). Guess what happens in the end? Well I won't spoil it for you but you won't be surprised...

The music is great (but not as great as the first), the animation is great (in some ways better), the characters are great (again not as good as the first). It's just that after the amazingly wonderful Shrek its hard to see why a sequel is necessary. I have to say I'm not looking forward to Shrek 3 (yep all the big ones have signed on).