Original Sequel !

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2009)

This is sure the exploitive sequel, and it isn't! It's not a riddle. It's the Hollywood sequel yet at its best condition ever: Better Than its Original. The first was fine, nice and evolving movie; where the folk story is reversed and still amusing. Here, it's the next level.
The creative irony this time contains firstly the semblance / substance case: Shrek the ogre / Shrek the lover, the godfather kind fairy / the conspirator evil witch, even Puss in Boots's childish gaze / his nature as tough sword player. Then, secondly, it smartly applies to higher issues like: the publicity of the godfather fairy, the credibility of the TV news, the power of the king, etc.
This movie achieves, in a lovely spirit, being a celebration of movies as the modern fairy tales, so Hollywood is the Very Very Far city; with too many references to endless movies and TV shows. Plus, it achieves being a hot self-mockery, where the looks isn't always true, with - for instance - moments like literally scavenging some stars off the red carpet, because they're simply garbage!
It's the first movie's point of view all over again, but not with the paradox of only ogre and knight this time. It's about the "ugly" truth and the gaudy falseness, concentrating on one whole community / Hollywood as out-of-reality royalty vs. one honest genuine hero. It was clever to display how he exposes with his real ugliness all the fake beauty of the others, clarifying how that world misses this innate behavior or sacrificing love. And it was merciful not to see him beaten at the end, because this is a Hollywood fairytale after all!
However, the best of it was its ability to be such a modern fairytale in the same time too. Despite the unoriginality of some elements that the plot uses from old folk stories (the midnight's thrill, the magical kiss, the frog prince..), or from new folk stories (Ghostbusters, Mission Impossible, Matrix..)-it managed to be an original fun fare on all the levels; as a parody, a satire, and a lovely story about love.
I didn't like the recording of the voices. It was pretty obvious, especially at the first act, that the whole cast just dictate their lines separately, then somehow that have been gathered. The warmth of the actors being apposite each others is totally lost. Sometimes the scene's dialogue is short amputated sentences coming from one actor to not meet their opposite's passion.
Another shortcoming which's the design of the characters. They are so "Live" to provocative extent. I think the history will say someday that at the first age of the CGI, the graphic movies.. whatever the name is, there was an affection for mimicking the human image and motion, to a perfect extent. It's a healthy affection, but I didn't like it in here, being unfunny and a sullen factor among the sweet faces and reactions of Shrek and Donkey.
Add to that, some of what seemed as misplaced stuff such as seeing Puss while parodying Jennifer Beals from (Flashdance - 1983), Shrek's farting?? This is like being rude for rudeness!, using Julie Andrews's name more than Julie Andrews's acting talent or singing talent, or modeling the queen's face, even if accidentally, a la Carmen Elektra's which wasn't comfortable to tell you the truth!
Aside from good original details, like the middle ages' meal, there are other beautiful ones that deal, or rather play, with the old stories' legacy brilliantly, reusing it in new originality such as: The bar of the stories' misfit characters. Refusing the "show" of transforming the princess, a la Cinderella, into someone else herself by wicked powers and for ill-intentioned purposes. Discovering that the king is basically a frog (so how to disapprove Shrek?!); therefore he remembers well his first kiss! And most of all: the talking mirror, from Snow White, in the city's TV; that could mean whether that that truthfulness' figure is now working as just an intermission voice on TV, or that the TV viewers will be as mad as Snow White's stepmother!
The third act has the movie's best sequences and dynamic center. The parallel editing where we watch the hero's attempts to save his love in the nick of time, and the dance of the heroine with the hero's opponent-was super, let alone how the new arrangement of Bonny Taylor's I Need a Hero expressed the situation but roused it. It's a Hollywood big finish, comes in a way that makes you ask; how many times did cinema barrow from legends, folk stories, novels, etc? Anyhow, this movie exploits this fact enjoyably.
Shrek 2 does the hardest; it's a sequel better than its original, and it's amusing as well as satiric. So for me, it's "original" with all the glorious meanings of the word.
Finally, "Sir Justin"?! OH GOD, that's a good one, a very good indeed!