Shrek Forever After Review

The lovable green Ogre is back in this fourth and final installment of the Shrek series. Shrek Forever After picks up where the third part ended. Shrek, now a father of triplets, with a house and a loving wife is living the life of a responsible husband and father. However, he begins to get bored with the mundane life of a married Ogre (if ever there was one). He misses his days when he could just stomp off scaring away villagers with this infamous roar. Due to this mounting frustration, in a fit of anger he stomps out of his children's first birthday party. Wandering alone in the forest, he meets Rumpelstiltskin, who makes him a deal saying that in exchange of one day from his childhood, Shrek can live one day as a free havoc causing Ogre. Shrek willingly agrees, only to later realize that the day Rumpelstiltskin took from his childhood was the day he was born. He now has 24 hours to save Far Far Away from falling into Rumpelstiltskin's hands forever. He also has to make Fiona fall in love with him all over again because only a true love's kiss can render the contract null and void.

After a highly disappointing Shrek The Third, Shrek IV does come across as a significant improvement. However, just like most sequels that follow, (read: third installment of Pirates of Caribbean), this movie has been unnecessarily complicated by showing the entire plot taking place in an alternate time zone when Fiona doesn't recognize Shrek and when Donkey has to start wooing dragon all over again.

The performances by all the stars of the movie as expected, is impressive nevertheless, the character that stole the cake in this installment is Rumpelstiltskin. Walt Dohrn has done an amazing job as the conniving little villain who wants to take over Far Far Away and hopefully, there is a lot more of him to look forward to in the coming years.

The biggest downside of this movie however, is the fact that it barely manages to make one laugh the way the previous installments did. Even donkey's lines hardly manage to evoke a smile (partly because he has relatively lesser lines in this movie). In fact, the audiences were seen laughing heartily at the musical score of the movie, like the time donkey looks into the dragon's eyes and Lionel Ritchie's 'Hello' plays in the background. Another huge disappointment is that the 3D has not been used to its full potential. There are barely a handful of scenes that make use of the 3D, whereas it could have helped to bring many scenes to life, which would have made the movie a lot more enjoyable.

So this was a small Shrek Forever After review for you. The film basically tries to fill you with the feel good factor; trying to make you realize that you need to be happy with what you have because things could be a lot worse, and even succeeds in doing so to quite an extent. All said and done, this is a step up after Shrek the Third and does have some moments where you can feel the Shrek humor that captured the imagination of millions of fans the world over. So, although this isn't really the most creative thing that you'll come across since OK GO's dance on the treadmill, it is worth a watch, because after all, it is the last time our lovable green Ogre will be seen on the big screen.