Review:
Shrek: Forever After - Finally Over or Great Finale?

Take a trip back to the year 2001, a little ogre named Shrek was ruling the box offices with his fairy-tale friends. Whether you were a kid or just turned thirty, this movie was fun for everyone. Being able to laugh at the tales you grew up with was truly a genius idea. A few years later though, a sequel hit theatres which introduced new characters and new struggles with the real prince who was supposed to save Fiona coming into the picture. All in all, it was a good sequel which gave fans more of what they wanted, but it seemed too forced. The pressure of a movie being big always seems to spawn sequels when they really aren’t planned for. Just look at all the original animated Disney movies and their straight to DVD sequels, but unlike those the Shrek sequel kept selling even though it wasn’t as good as the original. Then came what I thought to be the final chapter with their third installment, which I believed to be just awful in how it told such a linear story. But luckily for me though, that was the end of it all, right?

Movie banner for the new Shrek: Forever After.

Well, here we are today with the release of Shrek: Forever After which is actually advertised as the final installment now. In this movie, Shrek becomes tired of his mundane everyday life and begins to wish that he could be an average ogre that everyone feared again. With the help of Rumpelstiltskin, he now is able to go back to his everyday life, but with a terrible cost. Rumpel uses this deal to change history so Shrek never rescued Fiona and Rumpelstiltskin now rules the kingdom of Far-Far Away. Shrek now has twenty-four hours to break the deal and return to his normal life.

Shrek being told of a magical oppritunity to go back to his old life by Rumpel.

The story of this movie is, sadly, extremely bland for a final chapter to the series as it doesn’t answer any questions that might’ve been left over from the previous movies. Everything is just predictable in this installment: the conflict unfolding, why it happened, and how it was going to end. Its hard to expect something good from a children’s movie, but if the first installment was able to wow audiences of every age, then I’m sure they could’ve done something better.