Jason KingShrek Forever After (5/10)
June 20th 2010 06:17
:
Thank God It's Over
Category: No Category
I absolutely love the Shrek universe - when we met all the characters way back in 2001 the whole world fell in love with the green ogre and the original cleverness of marrying all the fairytales into a comical cinematic montage. Then in 2004 the rise of Shrek saw Shrek 2 outdo its forefather and make the world fall in love with the characters even more. Then when they started filming Shrek 3 they stated they would make a total of SIX Shrek films. But Shrek 3 bombed and the familiarity and lack of originality saw its returns at the box office drop off. However, they would continue with Shrek 4 and end it there. This is a damned good idea.
Shrek Forever After is a journey into irony mirroring Shrek's own state of mind in the film. He is now the married man with three crazy ogre children, a wife who loves him, but wives him. Life is on easy street and for Shrek this is boring. Celebrity tours now tour outside his home and all the fans can wave at him. He has lost his identity and wants nothing more than to scare the hell out of everyone and enjoy a mud bath at his leisure. And this is what the film makers have made. A formulaic film by numbers that is mundane and stuff we have all seen before. The characters all know each other so well, as we know them and the story gives us limited originality and the fairy tales they can borrow from are nearly all run out. I felt like Shrek while watching this, and this wasn't because I was green after eating a $65 bucket of popcorn, it was because I wanted to leave the familiarity of what we know about Shrek and be given a fun journey back into the universe. But I missed out. To overcome his life of routine Shrek is swindled into signing a contract with Rumpelstiltskin that will give him one day to do what he wants and experience the life he is missing, the catch is he must give up one day of his past. Rumpelstiltskin steals the day he was born thus changing Far Far Away for ever. Shrek has a way to break the contract - we do not, we have to sit through the film or walk out of the theatre giving up our hard earned cashola.
Do not get me wrong, I did not hate this film, I loved seeing the whole crew again, it was like catching up with school friends for an early meal out over a bottle of wine. It was fun and great to see them, but it was not partying until dawn on $20- and bouncing from club to club having the time of my life with n ot a care in the world.
Shrek, Mike Meyers, I actually found quite boring in this one and this film stars two of the greatest comedians of our time and yet the film lacks humour and instead embraced the romance more than anything else. This is endearing but also sigh worthy. I do like that Fiona, Cameron Diaz, was a warrior in this one - I heaps prefer that to the housewife she had become. Eddie is Donkey and plays it safe and my favourite Puss in Boots returns slightly frumpier but just as funny, to be honest I cannot wait for the Puss in Boots movie. Those cat eyes do it every time
But the scene stealer for me in this film is definitely Rumpelstiltskin voiced by Walt Dohrn who is best known for occasional voices in Shrek films and for writing a few episodes of Spongebob. He is over the top and nearly as good as John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad in the original Shrek. But he is under utilised in this and I wanted more of him. Besides Rumpelstiltskin the only new addition I could remember was an abundance of witches, dance party witches more like, I know this is trying to give us a bit of The Wizard of Oz but it more so gives us a bit of Wicked, the musical travelling the world to huge success. Oh, of course, there is the Pied Piper who makes everyone dance but I find him quite forgettable.
The other new character in this is the 3D element - it suited the film and I like the Shrek universe in 3D but a lot of the 3D is poorly used and more gimmicky than anything else. A few too many flying scenes that are wasting time by giving the kids something to enjoy, but if the kids like it then I am not complaining as while Shrek has adult humour, it is, at its heart made for kids.
There is one small character that I have to mention, he is this little fat kid in the early and last scenes and is uncredited (he could be "Butter Pants" but I am unsure) - he keeps asking Shrek to "do the roar" - he is probably meant to be about 13 but sounds like a 70yr old heavy smoker and it cracked me up stupid every time he would say "do the roar".
Shrek is more of a reunion farewell as opposed to a successful original movie but it is good to see them all again and I will miss them. Fond farewells to all in Far Far Away. Out now and worth 5 out of 10.
Shrek Forever After is a journey into irony mirroring Shrek's own state of mind in the film. He is now the married man with three crazy ogre children, a wife who loves him, but wives him. Life is on easy street and for Shrek this is boring. Celebrity tours now tour outside his home and all the fans can wave at him. He has lost his identity and wants nothing more than to scare the hell out of everyone and enjoy a mud bath at his leisure. And this is what the film makers have made. A formulaic film by numbers that is mundane and stuff we have all seen before. The characters all know each other so well, as we know them and the story gives us limited originality and the fairy tales they can borrow from are nearly all run out. I felt like Shrek while watching this, and this wasn't because I was green after eating a $65 bucket of popcorn, it was because I wanted to leave the familiarity of what we know about Shrek and be given a fun journey back into the universe. But I missed out. To overcome his life of routine Shrek is swindled into signing a contract with Rumpelstiltskin that will give him one day to do what he wants and experience the life he is missing, the catch is he must give up one day of his past. Rumpelstiltskin steals the day he was born thus changing Far Far Away for ever. Shrek has a way to break the contract - we do not, we have to sit through the film or walk out of the theatre giving up our hard earned cashola.
Do not get me wrong, I did not hate this film, I loved seeing the whole crew again, it was like catching up with school friends for an early meal out over a bottle of wine. It was fun and great to see them, but it was not partying until dawn on $20- and bouncing from club to club having the time of my life with n ot a care in the world.
Shrek, Mike Meyers, I actually found quite boring in this one and this film stars two of the greatest comedians of our time and yet the film lacks humour and instead embraced the romance more than anything else. This is endearing but also sigh worthy. I do like that Fiona, Cameron Diaz, was a warrior in this one - I heaps prefer that to the housewife she had become. Eddie is Donkey and plays it safe and my favourite Puss in Boots returns slightly frumpier but just as funny, to be honest I cannot wait for the Puss in Boots movie. Those cat eyes do it every time
But the scene stealer for me in this film is definitely Rumpelstiltskin voiced by Walt Dohrn who is best known for occasional voices in Shrek films and for writing a few episodes of Spongebob. He is over the top and nearly as good as John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad in the original Shrek. But he is under utilised in this and I wanted more of him. Besides Rumpelstiltskin the only new addition I could remember was an abundance of witches, dance party witches more like, I know this is trying to give us a bit of The Wizard of Oz but it more so gives us a bit of Wicked, the musical travelling the world to huge success. Oh, of course, there is the Pied Piper who makes everyone dance but I find him quite forgettable. 
The other new character in this is the 3D element - it suited the film and I like the Shrek universe in 3D but a lot of the 3D is poorly used and more gimmicky than anything else. A few too many flying scenes that are wasting time by giving the kids something to enjoy, but if the kids like it then I am not complaining as while Shrek has adult humour, it is, at its heart made for kids.
There is one small character that I have to mention, he is this little fat kid in the early and last scenes and is uncredited (he could be "Butter Pants" but I am unsure) - he keeps asking Shrek to "do the roar" - he is probably meant to be about 13 but sounds like a 70yr old heavy smoker and it cracked me up stupid every time he would say "do the roar".
Shrek is more of a reunion farewell as opposed to a successful original movie but it is good to see them all again and I will miss them. Fond farewells to all in Far Far Away. Out now and worth 5 out of 10.
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