At Number 7…Shrek Forever After

Image via Wikipedia

After Shrek The Third, which I found to be quite poor, I thought I would give this film a watch, considering it was the last in the series, and for the fact that I love the first Shrek movie, and quite enjoyed the second one too. I wasn’t really expecting much from Shrek Forever After, but found that it actually wasn’t too bad of a movie. Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy once again lent their voices for the film, as the animated Shrek & Donkey we all know and love from the first Shrek movie, along with Cameron Diaz returning as Princess Fiona.

The storyline focuses on a very stressed out, troubled family “man”. Shrek has become bored and downtrodden with his life, and hesistates about the choices he has made. Fairytale character, Rumpelstiltskin, offers Shrek a way out of his misery and burdened life..or so it would seem. Once Shrek makes the decision to trust Rumpelstiltskin, he realises that he has in fact made the worst decision of his life, as his entire existance and the life he once knew, is transformed, creating an alternate reality for the worse, with the life he used to live ceasing to exist.

I felt that after two Shrek movies which failed to live up to the standards of their superior original, things began to look up in this final chapter..I mean, they had to, or else the whole Shrek saga would forever be labelled as a failure..which it most certainly is not. Shrek Forever After somewhat returns to its original classicness..the movie is generally a laugh, and has a fair amount of laugh out loud moments, often at times displaying classic ‘Shrek’ comedy..although saying this, it would never be able to top its initial classic. However, the movie manages to bring back the happy, heart-warming feeling that a good, animated film should, and has a sufficient enough storyline (for an animated movie), to keep you interested.

I watched this in 3D, and was pleased to see that the quality of the actual movie had not been sacrificed for the 3D effects, as I thought it might have done. The film managed to maintain the Dreamworks level of quality, with Myers and Murphy once again managing to make me chuckle, and the combination of new and old characters ending up with a positive outcome. I was however, disappointed at the lack of other certain characters, which I enjoyed in the previous films, such as Pinocchio.

Overall, Shrek Forever After will never never be as good as Shrek, the first, which will always be a classic in my eyes, and surely, many others’. However, I feel that the film was quite a success; it managed to end the story in a suitable, and heart-filled manner, somewhat getting back in touch with its original Shrek-ness. And although it can’t beat the original, it sure as hell beat Shrek the Third, and managed to pull off a positive, and enjoyable ending, entertaining for 5 year olds, as well as 50 year olds, bringing the fairytales we all know back to life, thus making it my number 7 for iHartMovies’ Top Ten of 2010.

4/5

Be sure to watch out for Number 6 in the list, which will be revealed tomorrow..

By Manpreet Singh

Related Articles

• Shrek Forever After Offers A Happy Ending [Critical Mass] (jezebel.com)
• Shrek: The Whole Story [Blu-Ray] (cinemablend.com)
• Shrek Forever After, DVD review (telegraph.co.uk)

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