A funny fairy-comedy, but not very Shrekish

Rating: 7/10 (28 November 2010)

The essence of Shrek movies was parody of fairy-tales and the Hollywood world alike, making it a fun and ironic comedy for all ages. Instead, the fourth chapter of the Shrek story was a simple hero-saves-all tale, with all the references going back to previous Shrek films. All in all, a funny what-if remembrance of the whole franchise, but more than anything else, pretty obvious.
That doesn't mean Eddie Murphy wasn't a perfect ass, that Antonio Banderas wasn't hilarious as a fat spoiled cat and that Myke Myers wasn't the same hopeless romantic ogre he portrayed in the first three films, but the comedy was situational at best, the story linear and the characters rather plain. I mean, Dragon acted as a dragon, the pigs ate everything, even in the "good" universe and the witches behaved as perfect German soldiers in American movies about World War 2.
Bottom line: fun as a stand-alone movie, but a but of a disappointment as a Shrek film.