Shrek Forever After : Shrek feels that he is not the fearsome ogre he once was, and would gamble anything to be that again. Even if it means signing a contract with the devil which involves loosing your family, your friends and everything you built up getting.
Hey Everyone
Welcome to my newest review of Shrek 4, which rounds up my reviews of the Shrek movies and very much draws my opinion on Shrek to a natural conclusion.
So to accurately express my opinion on this film, I need to go back in time to 2010, when I saw the advertisements for this film. I did think that if they were going to conclude the Shrek story, it's been a long time coming because I assumed that everything was rounded up nicely in the Third film. However it seems I had unfinished business with Shrek.
So I went to the cinema and watched Shrek 4, and left feeling rather unsatisfied with the ending because its more or less the same ending to number 3. The story was very impressive, I can't argue with that. But this is a film which was all about the ending for me, because the film actually advertised itself as a big send off. This is the end, so therefore it better be good otherwise there are going to be a lot of disappointed fans.
I wasn't left a disappointed fan because I actually liked the story, and liked the script but for me the ending was more or less the same ending to the Third one. So It makes me question the purpose of this fourth film. Especially Shrek. Because Shrek's behaviour in this film at the start he's like a whiny old child, he's not appreciating what he has around him because he's too bothered relating back to the days of how he was an ogre. There's a part of him that misses his old life, and he wants it back. And there's an arrogance in his attitude towards that, an arrogance which made me feel quiet uncomfortable to be quite frank.
Anyway he does a deal with the devil in the form of Rumpelstiltskin who allows him that freedom back, however what Shrek doesn't known is by making that agreement he reverses time and rewrites his history so that he never rescued Fiona in the first place and he never knew Puss or Donkey so his life is turned upside down. Everything is different in terms of surrounding environment and behaviour of characters. So there are a lot of flash points.
But everything else is just the same old stuff, Shrek proving his love to Fiona, convincing her that they are meant to be, as if the first three films were not enough he has to spend another film fighting for Fiona's confidence in him, yet again. It doesn't take him long to get Donkey and Puss on his side. But it's just the same old stuff which for me is just very repetitive and contradicts the story telling because its slowed down by all this stuff of 'oh no, I have to make her fall in love with me... again'.
So it's all about Shrek undoing what he did, to get his life back. And its your stereotypical message of showing the only way to appreciate something is to see what life is like without it. So that's the message it gets across a message of value and appreciation of what we've got and how lucky we are to have it. And it's about acceptance and how not to be corrupted by greed.
My problems with Shrek 4 is that it progresses a lot more slowly then the other films, and it repeats a lot of stuff from the other films. The ending as well, is very similar to the ending of the Third Film. Shrek gets his Happily Ever After. So this was in every sense a pointless film if you look at it, If the ending had been different but turned out in the same way that Shrek Happily Ever After then that would of been accepted. But I can't really except a boorish diretrype ending of 'Oh, they lived Happily Ever After' isn't that nice... The End.
The film is engaging enough, due to a narrative gimmick that makes the old ground new again. In conclusion Shrek Forever After is a very mediocre affair, with a mediocre ending and real lack of laughs. I'm giving it a 6/10.
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