Shrek Forever After
| Directed by: | Mike Mitchell |
|---|---|
| Written by: | Josh Klausner, Darren Lemke |
| Cast: | Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Ian McShane, Justin Timberlake, Julie Andrews, Amy Sedaris, Eric Idle, Cheri Oteri |
| Studio: | Dreamworks |
| Genre: | Animation |
| Official Site: | www.shrek.com |
I first saw this one in the theatre a long time ago and was really disappointed by it, I half expected it to be as good if not better than the original, seeing as it was the 'final' hurrah. However upon watching it again, I think I was just too busy being disappointed to just enjoy it.
First off, this is not the best Shrek film, and just like the others after the first, it doesn't come close to the original. However upon a rewatch I feel this really is the second strongest in the series. The comedic bits throughout are top notch, I barely remember any of them, or their comedic impact. Donkey/Eddie Murphy did a terrific job here and was just hilarious almost everytime his character spoke on screen. The other characters are all solid, though the majority are a bit more hit and miss with their comedic bits.
All the other Shrek sequels had their moments, but as a whole none of them really held together quite as well as Forever After does from start to beginning. Granted the movie does underwhelm quite a bit in it's climax, at least for me, but it doesn't completely fall apart and the first two acts were very entertaining and well structured.
Although it's still disappointing that it's not as good as the original, not much out there is, so upon a second viewing I really went in with a calm and open mind, and found I really enjoyed what I saw. There are definitely aspects to it which I found were solid bases but which I also felt they should've built upon a little more, but for the most part every plot or subplot worked pretty well. I just wished the film was a little more polished as a whole, and the climax was reworked a bit.
Overall I was surprised with this one on a second viewing. The first viewing I probably would've given it a 3 or 4 now that I look back to how I felt after I first saw it, but now a solid 7. Not near as good as the first, but actually better on a whole than the second and third (though the climax's for both of those, especially the second, are stronger than this one's).
