"Shrek Forever After" talkback (Warning: Spoiilers

[Mickeyfan1990]

The 4th and final chapter of the Shrek Quadrilogy has finally been released. I just finished watching it, and it was great! The story was good and had a great finale.

[SpringHeelJack]

You couldn't pay me enough to see this. In my vocab, "shrek" has become synonymous with a certain bodily function.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a shrek.

[Lazario]

Agreed. The first movie had maybe 2 clever, entertaining sequences. The second movie was better. But after that- why watch?

[UmbrellaFish]

I know it's in my siggy... but I just realized that this came out today. I think I'll check it out this weekend. I hope it's better than the third...

[dvdjunkie]

I had gone to an Advanced Screening of "Shrek The Final Chapter" last week, but held off saying anything until now.

They franchise has lost its magic. There are no witicisms, like the first two, and the major cast members, including Fiona are given nothing to do. The dialogue is stilted, and very boring.

There are some very funny spots, but they are far and few between, and the only saving grace for this film is that Antonio Banderas is back as Puss 'n' Boots, and he has most all of the best lines in the film.

And the 3-D is totally wasted here. If ever there were a reason to kill the 3-D process, this movie would be its biggest fan. There is not depth to scenery, and all they use the 3-D for is an occasional something tossed at the screen, and for the most part it is wasted humor, at best.

Unless you a truly a die-hard Mike Myers (Shrek) fan, I would wait for the DVD release, and then rent it using your rent one and get one free card, and make this your free one. It definitely is not worth the $12 it costs for admission and the 3-D glasses rental.

They should have quit with number three.

[Lazario]

I had gone to an Advanced Screening of "Shrek The Final Chapter" last week, but held off saying anything until now.

They franchise has lost its magic.

Oh let's not do this... No nah no, uh-uh...

Shrek was never magical. Crude yes. Sometimes, charmingly crude. But usually- not even close to being charming. Just crude.

The 4th and final chapter of the Shrek Quadrilogy has finally been released.

I actually missed this... But, when you put it like that, is a Shrek: Quadrilogy boxset (as it - 9 discs, same as the Alien set) not far behind?

[jpanimation]

The 4th and final chapter of the Shrek Quadrilogy has finally been released.

I actually missed this... But, when you put it like that, is a Shrek: Quadrilogy boxset (as it - 9 discs, same as the Alien set) not far behind?

Actually, just like the Alien Quadrilogy, I only want the first two. From what I heard, all the Shreks will be in a 3D Blu-ray set packaged this year with Samsung 3D TV's, and will be exclusive to Samsung for a year before being able to buy them separately. Since 3D Blu-ray discs have the 2D version on the disc and are compatible with 2D players, I assume these will be the only versions available. I actually don't care to see the first two in 3D, don't have any plans on buying a Samsung 3D TV, and just want it now (this pushing 3D with exclusivity is ridiculous).

[UmbrellaFish]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!



Just saw it. Not amazing, not terrible. An improvement over the last film, although I'd have to watch the first two again to compare those to this one. Rumpelstiltskin made for a less annoying villain than Charming (he's much better in no. 2), and all the celebrity voice's will give you a headache just thinking about it. It's too bad the greatest villains, Lord Farquadd and the Fairy Godmother weren't brought back, because then the movie could have been granted extra awesome points, but oh well. And, oooh! Prince Artie was dropped! I had heard different things about whether or not he'd be in the movie, but thank God he wasn't!

Lillian wasn't in there much, but I soaked up every word she said with her clear, precise, diction. Favorite line- "You licked it! Just because you're an ogre doesn't mean you have to eat like one!"

Overall, a much more suitable ending to the pop culture phenomenon (whether or not we Disney geeks like it...) than "the Third" would have been. Could they had stopped at number two and made me happy? Yes. But "it ain't ogre, till it's ogre"...

[JiminyCrick91]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

Just saw it. Not amazing, not terrible. An improvement over the last film, although I'd have to watch the first two again to compare those to this one. :

Agreed.

It's too bad the greatest villains, Lord Farquadd and the Fairy Godmother weren't brought back, because then the movie could have been granted extra awesome points, but oh well.

Agree about Farquadd. Godmother is great but I knew she was not in this film, while I heard little things here and there that our dear dwarf of Duloc would be back.

And, oooh! Prince Artie was dropped! I had heard different things about whether or not he'd be in the movie, but thank God he wasn't!:

Meh. I kinda wondered were he was. I'd have liked a line here or there about how the Kingdom is and where the Queen is living now.

Lillian wasn't in there much, but I soaked up every word she said with her clear, precise, diction. Favorite line- "You licked it! Just because you're an ogre doesn't mean you have to eat like one!":

Now that line I thought was out of character. If Harold were still around I'd expect him to say it and then Lillian to just sigh with an 'Oh Harold'.


I'd say it was a fun film but I'm glad it's the last one. I would have liked a bit more of all the fairy tale creachers. I mean no blind mice, one line for each step sister. The stuff we did get was rarely as funny as the films past...even the third film had the Pinocchio/Gingy interrogation scene but at least we did have one good (if not frequently used) cohesive story which is nice after the last film's mess.

I think right now I'd rank the series as fallows...

1. Shrek 2
2. Shrek
3. Shrek Forever After
4. Shrek The Halls
5. Shrek 3/4-D
6. Shrek The Third

But that may change re watching the series again.

The 3D was not great but not BAD either but it was the only way to see it in IMAX which I always love.

Over all I'd say if you like the first or second films go see this and just have fun with it the end of it all (hopefully.... and not counting Puss's film).

-Sky

[UmbrellaFish]

Lillian wasn't in there much, but I soaked up every word she said with her clear, precise, diction. Favorite line- "You licked it! Just because you're an ogre doesn't mean you have to eat like one!":

Now that line I thought was out of character. If Harold were still around I'd expect him to say it and then Lillian to just sigh with an 'Oh Harold'.

Actually, I agree, I thought about that in the theatre, and completely forgot about that while I was writing that review. I still love that line, though. LOVE IT!

[pap64]

I personally couldn't be less excited for this film. I LOVED Shrek 1 and 2, and even went to theaters to see them. But like everyone else on this planet of ours I hated the third very, very much.

I will wait for the DVD because this one isn't doing it for me. And no, I am not talking as an overzealous Disney geek. Dreamworks can do great things when they are not trying to replicate the Shrek formula over and over again (see How to Train your Dragon).

[Elladorine]

Just came back and enjoyed it quite a bit, but to be fair part two is one of my favorite movies. Rumpelstiltskin holds his own as a villain but didn't compare to Farquaad and especially Fairy Godmother. It's not as funny as the others, but doesn't need to be. I think this one was less about the humor (and Disney mocking) and was more about the situation Shrek got himself into. Oh, and I just knew I'd love Fiona's new incarnation. Still her sweet, confident self, but now hardened through the course of events with a change of priorities.

The 3-D worked well in my opinion, I don't recall anything gimmicky happening and it had a good depth of field in many of the shots.

By the way, I didn't hate Shrek the Third like everyone else seems to, but I didn't like it enough to buy it either (which is really saying a lot in my case when it comes to an animated film since that's about all I buy); it was just bland and had nothing rousing to offer. I'm glad they didn't stop at three; perhaps they should have skipped right over that one and jumped straight to this one instead? This was a much more suitable ending and was the most heartfelt of all the movies (or at least it's the only one that actually made me cry). I'll definitely be buying.

Most shocking moment: Gingy gets eaten!

[UmbrellaFish]

Most shocking moment: Gingy gets eaten!

I know! I was thinking to myself right at that moment, Gingy looks delicious, and then Puss (wasn't it Puss...?) eats him! I wasn't expecting that!

[Lazario]

It's too bad the greatest villains, Lord Farquadd and the Fairy Godmother weren't brought back

Don't quote me on this, but I heard Jennifer Saunders was planning to give up acting so she could focus primarily on writing. That might explain something.

[Atlantica]

Would anybody mind revealing when the finale was to this movie ? I'm torn whether or not to see it, based on all of your reviews !! Would love to know why it was so emotional and everything, if you dont mind me asking

[Elladorine]

I know! I was thinking to myself right at that moment, Gingy looks delicious, and then Puss (wasn't it Puss...?) eats him! I wasn't expecting that!

Me either! I think every member of the audience was ready to say "WTF?!", especially after Puss's reply.

Would anybody mind revealing when the finale was to this movie ? I'm torn whether or not to see it, based on all of your reviews !! Would love to know why it was so emotional and everything, if you dont mind me asking

I might as well give a rough outline then so the ending can make sense, so be prepared for some major spoilers. I'll white them all out, but will leave a clear "finale" to skip down to if that's all you want to see . . .

Introduction:

While Shrek and Fiona seem very happy in the beginning, he becomes increasingly frustrated about his repetitive, domestic life of waking up to burping babies, dirty diapers, and unclogging the outhouse on a daily basis. He longs for the old valued privacy of being an intimidating, highly feared ogre; a bus now passes his home every day as part of a celebrity tour to make a spectacle of him, he's constantly asked to autograph pitchforks, and people find his angry roars more entertaining than scary. Things come to a head during the babies' first birthday party which is held at a Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant. He is constantly bombarded by everyone around him (Donkey, the three little pigs, strangers, etc., even the Queen) while trying to serve the overly happy-looking birthday cake in one piece and keep the babies occupied. He shakes up the whole restaurant with a roar as he loses his temper, and dislikes the reaction he gets over it. A concerned Fiona pulls him outside to talk to him. He tries to explain how he misses his old life from before he rescued her from the tower. She's obviously disappointed and tries to remind him he has everything in the world, friends and a loving family; why is he the only one who can't see that? She asks him if this is how he wants to remember their children's first birthday. She returns to the party while he takes off in a huff.

Shrek begrudgingly "saves" a seemingly innocent Rumplstiltskin while walking through the forest, who offers him one full day to feel like a real ogre once again upon hearing complaints about how mundane his life has become. He says he just can't up and leave his family, but Rumpelstiltskin insists that with the way it works, they'll never know he was even gone and that he'll feel like a whole new ogre once the deal is complete. But the way it works is that he must give up one day in his past in exchange for this new one. Unfortunately for him, he isn't picky about what particular day (he doesn't even remember the days of being a baby so why would he miss that?) and lets Rumplestiltskin choose one for him.

Ze plot thickens:

Things are great once he signs the contract and is pulled into the alternate reality; he delights in the fear he strikes into people as he ransacks a village. He's even happy about seeing wanted posters with his face like in the old days while walking back through the forest, but gets an uneasy feeling when he sees posters with Fiona's face on them as well. When he rushes home to his swamp he finds that no one has ever lived in his house. He sadly pulls the toy ogre from his pocket that belongs to Felicia (the daughter), which he'd placed there during the party. With his wife and babies gone, he becomes frantic and knows he needs to find Rumpel for an explanation. He's soon attacked by a group of witches and wakes up trapped in a carriage being pulled by a Donkey that doesn't know him. He is introduced to a very broken-down version of Far Far Away which is now being ruled by Rumpel. He's long awaited the day that Shrek would be brought to him; he not only hunts down all ogres, but enslaves them. And of course he has particular interest in meeting Shrek again since he's the one that has made his take-over possible.

Shrek finds out the day he traded off to Rumpelstiltskin was actually the day he'd been born. And now that he'd never been born, he doesn't exist outside of this day he's been given. Which means there was no one to save Fiona from the tower, and a deal that Rumpelstiltskin had initially failed making with the king and queen in the past finally came to be. We get a glimpse of what it was like for Fiona to live alone in that tower day after day, exactly how much her parents were willing to give up in order to get her back, and why she not only gave up on finding the true love she had idealized so much in the first film, but turned her back on it.

After getting over his initial fears of Shrek, Donkey helps him figure out a way out of his contract: true love's first kiss (he's lived with the witches long enough to know how all this stuff works). And of course Shrek only has until sunrise to set things right or he disappears and everything's changed forever. They get pulled into the hidden world of the ogre revolution which is led by none other than Fiona. When he rushes up to her in anticipation of the kiss that will put everything back to normal, she greets him with a kick in the head. While he gets an occasional glimpse of the old Fiona he fell in love with, she's now a hardened warrior too preoccupied with saving her kind and far too unimpressed with him to give a damn. He tries various ways to woo her and get that all-important kiss (thinking that simply explaining he's her husband in an alternate reality will just make him look crazy), but the only thing that gives them any kind of connection is a physical fight. Puss has grown soft in this alternate reality, having retired from his adventurous life to be Fiona's pampered pet. He knows her best and recognizes a spark between she and Shrek, something he's never seen happen. He believes Shrek really is her true love and informs him that he must tell her something that only her true love would know.

In the meantime Fiona's been planning to ambush Rumpelstiltskin with the other ogres as he travels throught he forest. Just as she needs to send the signal for the others to attack, Shrek screws up her concentration by telling her he knows about her curse (although we don't see her transform, she still turns into a human by day and has kept it secret). While the two of them manage to escape the screwed-up ambush, every other ogre gets captured by the Pied Piper (who's been working with Rumpel) and get taken back to the palace as prisoners. When she insists she must run off to save her friends, Shrek tries to explain to her why a kiss is so important, how she doesn't need to risk her life because the kiss will fix everything. So she finally pulls him close and gives him that kiss.

Nothing happens. Fiona makes it clear that she knew the kiss wouldn't change a thing. The spell she was cast under, the rescue she once waited for, the true love she never found, to her it's all become nothing more than a stupid fairy-tale story that could never find a happy ending. If he really was her true love like he was claiming, why didn't he save her from that tower? Why did he leave her there with all that pain and loneliness? She finally busted out of the tower in order to make a life for herself and didn't need the likes of him. Shrek then realizes the kiss would never work because not only does she not love him, she doesn't even believe in love in the first place.

Rumpelstiltskin's angry that Shrek and Fiona managed to escape. He knows that if they are left together they might figure out how to break the contract, so he announces a deal to all: whoever brings in Shrek will be given a new contract offering them any wish they want. When Shrek learns of this, he turns himself in to cash in on the deal. But instead of wishing for his old life back, he sets all his priorites aside for Fiona's; she may not have wanted a life with him anymore, but he could make her happy by freeing the ogres she'd been fighting so long to protect. He makes his wish.

Finale:

Shrek finds himself on a pulley of chains with Fiona. He doesn't care about himself but demands that Fiona be set free as she should apply to his wish just like the rest of the ogres. Rumpel refuses, explaining that his wish can't apply to her since she's not a true ogre. They are left there to wait for the sunrise that will make Shrek disappear from existence. Shrek explains to Fiona how he's so sorry that he wasn't there for her. Not only that he didn't rescue her from the tower, but how he was never there for her in the life they knew together. And as he explained at an earlier point in the film to Donkey, he didn't realize what he had until it was gone. Fiona barely gets a glimpse of what her other life was like through Shrek's dying words as the sun rises, that they were once happily married and had a family. He brings up their children by name and you see her taken aback when Felicia is mentioned; she states in bewilderment that she'd always dreamed of having a daughter named Felicia. He pulls out Felicia's little ogre doll from his pocket and gives it to Fiona. He says while it seems like he was the one that saved her that day he rescued her from the tower, the real fact was that she was actually the one that had saved him. He's sorry he took things for granted but is thankful through his tears that he was given this chance to fall in love with her all over again. At this point Shrek is on the floor, his form fading into dust. Fiona leans over and kisses him, and as the sun rises he completely disappears right there in her arms . . .

I think I'll stop there.

Anyway, I felt there was a lot of great character develpoment going on between Shrek and Fiona. Although I didn't find Rumpel as charasmatic as Farquaad or Fairy Godmother, he was still smart and definitely a very strong villain. Donkey came off less annoying and more independent as he has in the other films (most likely due to having to survive on his own for a longer period of time), and Dragon was nearly as intimidating here as she was in the first. There were a lot less pop culture gags going on, but still enough to add a bit of flavor of the earlier films. Most of all, events happened to push the plot rather than just the gags, and I found it refreshing. With the way the story was set, it makes sense that Fairy Godmother only gets mentioned a handful of times. And woah, I do think they pulled off that ending really well. Just take all this with a grain of salt since I've only watched the film once and have slept since then.

[Atlantica]

Oh wow ! Thank you enigmawing for that !!! It was very much appreciated !

So much so, that from your very kind plot description, I have decided to go and see it. You should be proud; I really wasnt sure about bothering with it, as I feel they have slowly gotten worse, and this has been the first one where I havnt been convinced about seeing it in the cinema.

So thank you agian !!

[singerguy04]

Well, I just got back from seeing the film. I will say that I honestly thought it was better than a lot of reviews are making it out to be. I know thats a opinion thing, but it still wasn't horrible and I don't think it had "lost the magic" all that much.

With that said, it definitely was not as good as the first two films. The second being my personal favorite, I'd say this would come in third because I also didn't enjoy the 3rd film. I did find it very disappointing that there was such a lack of the secondary characters. I missed how important gingy, pinoke, the big bad wolf, and the rest of that gang once was.

Overall a not so bad effort to close the series with some dignity, but in all honesty I would've preferred if it all ended after the second installment.

[PixarFan2006]

After the terrible third entry, I do not care if I see this one in theaters.

[Scarred4life]

They should have quit with number three.

They should have quit with 1! I know I'm absolutely alone on this, but the only one I liked was the first. Everything after that just kept getting worse. I might see the fourth, I've heard it's not as bad as the third.