Sunday, May 23, 2010

Movie Review: Shrek Forever After


Shrek was awesome, Shrek 2 was almost legendary, but the last one before this, Shrek The Third, was a disappointment. I, personally, thought that the Shrek franchise went the wrong direction with its insipid third movie.

Fortunately, while this last installment of the franchise didn't reach the same caliber as the first two animated films, I can say that Shrek did it again... well, partially. But this was obviously a big step back in the right direction.

I mean, although the storyline was pretty basic, predictable and, at times, a bit gimmicky, I somehow felt that it didn't hurt the movie's charm. I thought the heart was back bigtime - which the last movie disappointingly lacked - and everything felt sincere and surprisingly touching.

This also recaptured the fun of the series while potentially being the darkest one in terms of plot. I thought the humor may have gone a little old and, to some extent, didn't have that sharp comedic edge of the first two - the context didn't really allow it - but there were seriously a good number of genuine laughs in the film. Donky and Puss were still there to provide effective comic relief, as always.

On a technical standpoint, it was, of course, very good. I found the animation to be really crisp and visually stimulating. Yes, it was not, in any way, a breakthrough or a technical milestone but it was nice that the franchise kept the 'Shrek' tradition of looking amazing. The soundtrack was also good. To me, the scoring was more of a musical treat that ranged from songs of The Carpenters to Beastie Boys. Haha.

Quite frankly, this end to the series wasn't as MAGICAL as the original, but I certainly had a blast with this final installment. Something that's more than enough of a reason to see the classic lovable ogre for the last time.

RATING: 7/10

4 comments:

Mark said...

i remember watching the first two Shreks with my bestfriend, and we cant stop laughing even after walking out from the movie house to the parking lot.
The fourth Shrek was indeed touching, but did not give me an abdominal exercise which the first two gave me. Some real-world-novelties-mixed-in-fairytale-land were minimized as well: stuff like "Farbucks", "Beverly Hills", "Fast food drive thru" etc from the previous Shreks. The only novelty I can remember here was the double decker Star Tours bus.
It was a stress buster though, and one of my favorites: donkey playing like a car stereo switching stations. LOL

DAM THE NATION said...

oh yeah. i agree that the, as you call it, real-world-novelties-mixed-in-fairytale-land were obviously lacking. i didn't notice that until you mentioned it. haha.

the movie was definitely entertaining but the certain magic was just not there. i don't know. the third movie just ruined the whole franchise for me. sayang.

Mark said...

hmmm... because of justin timberlake? haha

DAM THE NATION said...

hahaha. yeah. maybe that's it.

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