Shrek 4: The Review

Shrek Forever After [2010]

Shrek Forever After Movie Poster

So, I don't just like to watch action films or adult-rated films. In fact, every now and then I like to branch out and see a kid's movie. And I rate kid's movies differently than I do movies for teens or movies made for adults. Why? Because not all children films are really made for adults. This is definitely not one of them.

Synopsis:

This is a movie about the character's you've come to know and love from the first three Shrek films. It starts out with a birthday party for the three ogre children Shrek and Fiona had and slowly Shrek becomes more and more angry at the life he's living. Finally, he just wants to break away and is granted the opportunity when handed a magical contract by Rumpelstiltskin. Well, as anyone could have guessed, the contract has two sides to the deal and so the rest of the movie is about getting the contract null and void (to put it in the simplest of terms).

The Verdict: 3 / 5 Stars

Unlike the first film which had a really nice, new flavor to it (something different that was about the same old, so it goes), this movie didn't have that sort of charm. And since the second movie (Shrek 2) is in my opinion the best one yet, there was a lot on the table. Unfortunately, the plot line was so predictably the same and the fantasy land that it's based in just wasn't played up the way it should have been. So I felt like there was a lot left to be desired. For instance, in Shrek 2 they really play up the fact that Far Far Away is a hip, cool town. They play up the characters, they really work on the theme of the fairy tale, and because of that it has the same charm the first one had but with just more of it. This one did not exactly have that. In fact, it was like they made up their own charm instead of working with what fairy tales told.

Beyond that, the plot was as basic as it could get. You knew when everything was going to happen, you knew there wasn't going to be any plot twists, and you knew who the bad guy was and what he was going to do. In fact, the plot was so easily laid out for anyone over the age of 6 that it really hurt the story. So I would have loved in they would have reworked it to add in some sort of twist that would leave me thinking about it in the end. Too bad.

And if that's not bad enough, I felt like all the characters weren't played up very much in this one. It was a new movie all about Mike Myers instead of about the entire cast. I think that's what really made the charm of the second one was the large ensemble of people in it that all played an astounding part. But this movie, with the exception of the cook (that I liked) there wasn't much of a cast to be had. Donkey was Donkey, Puss in Boots was fat, and Fiona played up her usual sort of character. So it would have been nice to have seen more of the side characters come in, maybe develop them some more. I think that's what was missing and why I subtracted another star.

My personal feelings? 3/5 stars, as in it's worth it for the kids to see.