Two 3-quels Down, Two To Go

I've now gotten through Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3. Still to come: Pirates 3 and Rush Hour 3 (although I probably won't see Rush Hour since I never saw the first two).
The problem has always been the same with these things- the story lines and/or the characters get stale, and these two movies were no exception.
I give props to Shrek, though, for one thing: Computer animation has now gotten so good that some of the human characters looked as close to real as I've ever seen, particularly the Arthur character. Storyline wise, though, it was the weakest of the three. There were inspired moments, like the role reversal with Puss-N-Boots and Donkey, and I loved the baby shower with all the damsels in distress acting like rich snobs and then waiting to be rescued. By the way, among all those women, who was the character of Doris supposed to be? One of Cinderella's stepsisters? Or another fairy tale character? That one had me confused. And I think this one had too many adult jokes and not enough kids jokes.
As for Spidey, again this was the weakest of the three although it had a great moral about forgiveness and not getting revenge. I actually reccommend this for the kiddies more than Shrek for that reason alone. The two things that bothered me on this one were: 1) having Topher Grace's character just happen to show up at the same church Spiderman is at, and 2) Sandman inexplicably just giving up, telling Spiderman why he did what he did and leaving. In the first instance, I just think it's a real stretch to expect us to believe in a city as big as New York that both characters just happen upon the same church. And in the second case, I don't understand that at all. I know he had a sick daughter and that led him down wrong paths, but there was nothing to indicate that a change of heart was coming for him. Maybe it ended up on the editing room floor.
See these 3-quels at your own peril.