Today I went to see Shrek Forever After in 3-D at the Century Tanforan Theatres. The whole gang from Far Far Away return in this fourth (and supposedly) final sequel to the Shrek series. This time Shrek is suffering from Ogre angst. His life has turned out happily ever after, in fact too happy. He misses the days of being a mean old ordinary Ogre, when everyone was afraid of him. In the middle of a temper tantrum he encounters Rumpelstiltskin who plies Shrek with martini's and roast rat and convinces him to sign a magical contract that will give him back 24 hours of his old life. Of course contacts with Rumpelstiltskin come with fine print and in signing the contract Shrek's entire past is wiped away and the story becomes a retelling of It's A Wonderful Life or perhaps more like Back To The Future part II.
Shrek has till sunrise to fix things by finding Fiona and experiencing Loves One True Kiss. Unfortunately things have changed for Fiona too, and Shrek is not high on her list of priorities. Along the way Shrek encounters Donkey and Puss In Boots who has been living La Vida Loca!
A movie like this relies on the strength of the bad guy and if you recall Shrek III, Prince Charming was a spoiled, whining brat and not very engaging. On the other hand the maniacal Rumpelstiltskin steals every scene he's in. He dances around the movie with malicious abandon in those wonderful wigs.
All the gang is back and it is fun to see Shrek meet them all over again, including as he says, getting to fall in love with Fiona again, but the movie doesn't really offer anything new. Everything that needed to be told about Shrek was told in the first two films. The last two have just been rehashes of the same material with the hip music, pop culture references and snark. It's an entertaining 90 minutes and the kids will like this one better than the last, and the 3-D effects enhance the movie quite a bit.
At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars
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