No Better Than OK

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2010)

I'm not in particular an aficionado of the Shrek series. I saw the first one and enjoyed it, but haven't actually seen 2 or 3. My daughter, though, loves Shrek, and so we went to see the fourth and final instalment tonight. Although the first movie was enjoyable enough, I was frankly tired enough of the lovable ogre when it was over that I didn't want to watch him again, and by now apparently Shrek feels that way too! In this movie, he's tired of the whole lovable ogre image and wants to return to the times when he was feared as an ogre, and he works out a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to allow him to do just that, but he hadn't considered that with his brand new life came the loss of his old life - including his family and friends. Fiona no longer knows him and, of course, their children don't exist. Not even Donkey knows who he is, and the world is a pretty bleak place in this new life. Rumpelstiltskin has taken over Far Far Away from Fiona's parents and all the ogres are imprisoned. In this sense, the movie has a bit of similarity to "It's A Wonderful Life." Obviously, the point of the movie is to put things right.
This was no better than OK. Not having seen Parts 2 and 3, I can't really compare them, but it's certainly less fun than the first movie. My daughter - the Shrek fan - enjoyed it, but also found some parts quite scary, and it is a rather heavy movie at times. There's a revolving door of fairy tale characters, of course - Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, the Ginger Bread Man, Puss In Boots, etc. I suppose the message was good - learn to appreciate the life you have, because the alternative might not be that pleasing. As a farewell to the series (as I understand it there are no more Shrek movies planned) I didn't really see any particular closure involved with this - it didn't seem like a good way to say good-bye to the characters. Surely that was a serious missed opportunity.