After the last major screen flop of The Love Guru, Mike Myers has come back to lend his golden tonsils to the forth Shrek film Shrek Forever After. Lets not forget Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy.
We’re thrown straight into a novel story telling of the Shrek history, getting everyone up to date with what’s going on. Then, we discover the mini-angry Rumplestiltskin, who nearly had the world at his hands, if it wasn’t for Shrek. Shrek, trying to adapt to family life, realises he has lost his personal down time, finally snaps at his kids’ birthday party. Considering wanting his previous life back before the family mumbo jumbo, he crosses paths with Rumplestiltskin, signing over a day of his life, to become an angry ogre to all the villagers. Little does he understand, Rumplestiltskin wants Shrek out of the picture, and takes the day he was born away from him. This sends Shrek into another dimension, where all his friends don’t know who he is, and has to start from scratch by convincing them on who he is, and what roles they play in his life. Rumplestiltskin gives Shrek a 24 hour time limit before he disappears, forever.
Not many sequels are completely successful, and are often open to major comparison to the predecessors. Honestly, I have not seen the third movie, but Shrek 4 can easily be a standalone film, if it wasn’t for a reference to Fiona’s father’s death that happened in the 3rd film. (I knew it and didn’t even see it). The actual Shrek series was meant to be a 5 film series, but was cut to 4. Reasons are so far unknown. Seeing this in 3D, the animators take advantage of the 3D aspects, such as Pinnochio’s nose swiping across the screen, explosions, Shrek’s arms stretching out in front, and Rumplestiltskin’s creepy face reaching out in front of us.
As per previous films, kids will get a kick out of the awe and spectacular colour and animation, while some of the older audience will get a kick out of the soundtrack from the easy listening station you’d listen to in the car on the way to the cinema. It’s fun, enjoyable, but it’s not a “must see”. It’s good if you want to wrap up the Shrek story to a ‘happily ever after’ completion.
[xrr rating=3.5/5]
