Troy

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, it blew me away. The scene I'm talking about is the one with the ships - you know, where the camera pulls back, and back, and back, until you see the whole surface of the ocean covered with hundreds of ships. Plus you've got the epic battles, and Achilles and Patroclus, and the whole Greek mythology thing. So I was pretty sure this was a movie I wanted to see.

And then the reviews started filtering in. They ranged from "decent but not a must-see", to "omg they butchered it" and "wtf cousins?" So when I went in to watch Troy, it was with modest expectations.

( Spoilers )

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Before it was released, I wasn't as psyched about this movie as I could have been, considering that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite HP book. I suspect that the relatively lacklustre second movie had something to do with it. Fortunately, the third movie is both very watchable and a pretty good adaptation of the book.

( Spoilers )

Shrek 2

I don't have much to say about this movie because it was just perfect.

Sometimes, you can sit down to a movie or open a book or power up a game and *know*, from past experience, that you're in good hands. When something has 'Pixar' or 'Pratchett' or 'SquareSoft' emblazoned on it, for example, I can be pretty confident it's going to be good and I'm going to enjoy it. And that's what watching Shrek 2 was like. When I first heard they were making a sequel to the original Shrek, I was sceptical. Did it really need a sequel? And could it be as good as the original movie? The answer to the last question, at least, is yes.

And the good news is that this isn't the end of the story. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Jeffrey Katzenberg will now admit it. There were always plans to make four Shrek movies. "We didn't have the guts to tell anybody when we started out," says one of the most powerful studio bosses in Hollywood. "We have two more chapters to tell. Not unlike Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings. The difference is they did have the guts to make all three of them back-to-back-to-back."

Shortly before the Shrek 2 premiere, he confirmed that work on Shrek 3 has been proceeding for nine months and on Shrek 4 for three months, which will continue the series until 2009.