663. Shrek Forever After (2010)

Starring: Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy

Director: Mike Mitchell

Running Time: 93 mins

Shrek Forever After is an American film and the fourth instalment in the Shrek franchise. In the midst of a mid-life crisis, Shrek goes to Rumplestiltskin and wishes to have his old life as a frightening ogre back, however he ends up in an alternate world where Rumple rules supreme and Shrek has never been born.

I was seriously lacking in enthusiasm for this franchise in Shrek The Third, and it’s in this film that I lost all of it. It’s a showing of a poorly cobbled together story, almost ripping off Shrek itself as much as It’s A Wonderful Life, with next to no good comedy and a further addition of some terrible characters.

Firstly, I’ve got to say how disappointed I was by the premise of this film. It seems that, in a desperate attempt to reinvigorate the franchise, this was marketed as ‘having everything that the fans loved about the first film’, but what that doesn’t reveal that this is genuinely an attempt at making another film with almost exactly the same story line.

However, the changes within the plot are completely preposterous, even by this franchise’s standards. It doesn’t add anything to the overall story, meaning you have to sit through an hour and a half of a totally pointless, and not at all entertaining movie.

The gimmick of Shrek being in a mid-life crisis, surrounded by the needs of his kids and all that, isn’t funny at all. You could see these themes simmering in the third film, but luckily they didn’t come to the forefront, however here, they’re some of the main ideas, and the fact that they’re not funny, nor interesting, just means that the whole concept of this story is tedious.

Finally, new characters like Rumplestiltskin are an incredibly annoying and merchandise-driven addition to the series, and coupled with poor voice performances, there’s nothing new to look forward to in this film.

In short, this is a massively far cry from the original film, lacking almost all of the qualities that made it so special, so that’s why it gets a 4.4.