I agree with those who say it's not as good as the first two but better than the third

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2010)

Released nine years after the first installment in the "Shrek" movie franchise, "Shrek Forever After" is the fourth and final installment. I've seen all the films in the franchise through the years, starting with the first one in late 2001, in the home video format. "Shrek 2" was the only one in the franchise which I saw in the theatre, and that was a memorable experience. In 2008, I revisited the first two films, having not seen either of them in several years, and thought they were still impressive, but then watched "Shrek the Third" for the first time, the year after its release, and found it to be mediocre, not unlike many other viewers. There was a good chance the fourth installment wouldn't be any better than the third, but now that I've seen it, over two years after I last watched any of the previous "Shrek" movies, I would say that it is.
Shrek now lives in his swamp with Princess Fiona and their three ogre children, but he is now experiencing a midlife crisis. He is constantly getting unwanted attention, with nobody afraid of him anymore, and feels that he isn't much of an ogre anymore, missing the days when he could scare people away and have his privacy. The evil Rumpelstiltskin, whose plans to become king of Far Far Away were ruined when Shrek rescued Princess Fiona, tricks the ogre into taking his offer for him to live like an ogre again for one day in exchange for one day of his past erased. Shrek soon finds himself in an alternate world, where he is happy to find that he can scare everyone around him again. However, he then learns that in this world, Rumpelstiltskin is now the oppressive ruler of the kingdom, and ogres are used for slave labour! It turns out that the day the con artist erased was the day the ogre was born, so his whole existence has been reversed, and he will disappear tomorrow at sunrise! Shrek manages to escape from the castle with Donkey, and soon learns that the only way to save himself and return to where he was before he signed the contract is through true love's kiss, but he will have to do this before the next sunrise, so he doesn't have much time!
The first part of this movie, showing Princess Fiona's parents almost signing the kingdom over to Rumpelstiltskin before learning that their daughter has been rescued, is a memorable beginning, and shows that the animation in the "Shrek" franchise is still great. It's funny when Rumpelstiltskin angrily tears out pages of a book while narrating. There are some good laughs as we see Shrek's current living situation, though the ogre children's bodily functions may not always be that funny. The story looks very interesting around this point, and the entertainment continues as Shrek enters the alternate world, but may go downhill a little when the witches first appear. However, throughout the film, the plot is intriguing enough for the most part, a story in which Shrek realizes he didn't know how good he had it until it was too late, and the animation is still unsurprisingly amazing. Rumpelstiltskin, voiced here by Walt Dohrn, isn't the best antagonist, but he can be funny at times. The ogre's adventure is a fairly exciting one with some notably touching scenes. I also have to give "Shrek Forever After" credit for the times when it made me laugh (such as Shrek telling Donkey not to touch the waffles in the forest, but Donkey won't listen), even though the movie as a whole could have been much more consistent with the laughs.
Since I watched this fourth and final installment in the franchise over two years after watching the third, and my memory of "Shrek the Third" isn't as clear as it could be, I can't explain everything that makes this one the stronger effort of the two, but two reasons might be the absence of the fairy tale princesses who were introduced in the 2007 film, and the fact that no characters in this final chapter are voiced by Justin Timberlake. There are obviously other reasons as well. While not all "Shrek" fans consider "Shrek Forever After" to be a very good way to end the franchise, I'm one of those who thinks it's not the best installment, but not the worst. In terms of quality, of the four movies, I would say this one comes in third, with its immediate predecessor in last place. Also, as a film starring Mike Myers made after "The Love Guru", it sure is better than that lousy 2008 comedy. I don't suggest you watch this fourth installment thinking the franchise ended as strongly as it began, but you could still find that it's decent family entertainment for fans of the very popular computer generated ogre.