Henry Saw: Shrek Forever After

This series could have been so much more..


It's easy to forget how good the first Shrek was. It worked on many different levels: as a parody of Disney films, as an attack on the Disney corporation, as a skewer on fairy tales in general, and, lest we forget, an incredibly endearing kids movie at the same time. It was a total success, a movie I still am happy to watch anytime its on TV, that introduced a world that screenwriters could have done a lot with in the sequels.

Shrek 2 was funny, and again it was a solid kids film, but it had none of the bite that the first Shrek had. There were some sharp visual gags, but it mostly relied on the strong voice work from Eddie Murphy and Antonio Bandaras, and started to sink into the trap of making lame pop-culture references and thinking that counted as a joke.

Shrek the Third was a disaster. With a plot I can barely remember, and a ton of obvious and juvenile gross-out jokes, the whole film just felt incredibly lazy. Though financially successful, the general reaction from everyone was a collective "meh", and the franchise seemed creatively dead.

This did not mean there would not be a fourth film, the third was just too profitable, but the promise that this would be the last Shrek (there will be a Puss-in-Boots spin-off film next year) gave some hope that the creators would find some more inspiration than they did for third one.



And to be fair...they did. Shrek "4" is a much better movie than Shrek 3. Though the plot is derivative of It's a Wonderful Life, and countless television episodes, at least it has a plot. IMDB's plot description: A bored and domesticated Shrek pacts with deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again, but when he's duped and sent to a twisted version of Far Far Away -- where Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, and he and Fiona have never met -- he sets out to restore his world and reclaim his true love.

Shrek Forever After is not what I would call funny, it's more passably amusing than anything, but it is never downright awful like the third film. I find it somewhat strange that this is yet another animated movie about the main character going through a mid-life crisis (The Incredibles and Fantastic Mr. Fox spring to mind) but I don't think children will have a hard time understanding Shrek's desire to be a feared ogre again.



Again, this Shrek sequel lacks any of the smart or adult humor of the first film. Abandoning any attempts to satirize fairy tales, or their Disney versions, the humor more falls into the camp of throw away one-liners and relying on Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas' vocal talents. Murphy, who really helped sell the Shrek movies to kids with his character Donkey, is consistent. Donkey, given funnier lines than the last two films, is missed whenever he's off-screen. Banderas, though less used than Shrek 3, has a larger impact here as an overweight Puss-In-Boots.

As for the stars, Mike Myers as Shrek and Cameron Diaz as Fiona, they have little to no impact. They're fairly boring characters, even, the warrior queen version of Fiona, and they don't really have any "chemistry". The other components of the film, the animation, direction, score, soundtrack, etc...they're all rather pedestrian. I saw the film in 2D and it was obvious which parts were designed with 3D in mind...each moment was awkward and cheap...and I was quite pleased I saw the film without having to wear those damn glasses.

The Shrek franchise stands as a series of missed opportunities. It could have been so much more anarchic and rebellious without hurting its mass appeal. As is, the three Shrek sequels are all vastly inferior to the first. Shrek Forever After is not a bad movie like the third one was, it's just incredibly bland, and a forgettable 80 minutes in the theater. Unless you have a kid who is obsessed with Shrek...it's not worth it.

Grade: C

Best Scene: A tie between anything with the German Three Little Pigs...they always make me laugh...and the Gingerbread Man forced to combat other Gingerbread creatures like a rooster in a cock-fight.