Shrek Forever After

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Shrek Forever After

Shrek returns for a fourth and final time in Shrek Forever After which sees our hero suffering somewhat of a mid-life crisis.  His kids are driving him mad, so is Donkey, Fiona is constantly nagging him and all he wants is to go back to how it used to be at least for just one day.  Enter Rumpelstiltskin who was close to striking a deal with the King & Queen just before Shrek rescued Fiona from the Dragon in the first film, which would have seen him take over Far, Far Away.  He see's his chance and strikes a deal with an unwitting Shrek for him to go and 'Be and Ogre for the day'.  Shrek signs the deal and is transported back, however he has to give up a day from his past and Rumpelstiltskin takes back the day Shrek was born thus changing the reality as Shrek was never born then he never rescued Fiona, thus Rumpelstiltskin now runs Far Far Away.  No-one knows who Shrek is including Fiona, who is now the outlaw queen of ogres, Puss in Boots who has let himself go and Donkey who is still, well Donkey.  Shrek has just 24 hours to get things back to how they were or else his alternate future will become his reality.

Shrek the Third was awful and almost derailed the series, but it made enough money that the makers and Mike Meyers had the chance to set the record straight before putting the Shrek series to rest.  Fortunaterly too as you wouldn't want a lasting memory of the third one to mark the series.  Shrek Forever After is a good attempt to sort out the mess and while it's far, far better than the third it's still not a patch on the original or the second one either.

All of the original cast return to reprise their vocal roles once again, which is a good thing as you wouldn't want to have anyone left out.  The characters other than Shrek all get interesting twists to their character arcs, which slightly derails the film.  Shrek could do with an interesting twist or character quirk within this story, not be his usal rambling self.  Even Gingerbreadman gets a great new persona which is one of the highlights of this movie.

It's hard to really rate performances as these are tried and tested actors in established roles who are seemingly going through the motions once more.  However the story can be a trifle confusing for the younger ones in the audience, but the relentless action and slapstick comedy more than makes up for that and the addition of 3-D once again is a successful addition to the series rather than anovelty distraction.  The climatic battle at the end of the film highlights this best as the castle is attacked by the ogres and Shrek and Fiona are swooping around the room.  There's plenty of jokes in there for the adults to relate too as well especially with all the young family jokes etc.

So fun to be had by all, you won't be disappointed with this rousing finale for Shrek, but it won't be remembered with a fondness as the first two are.

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