Why do they keep making these movies?! Oh, right, because they make shitloads of money. If people stopped eating donuts, no one would make them.
Why do they keep making these movies?! Oh, right, because they make shitloads of money. If people stopped eating donuts, no one would make them.
Anyway, Shrek 4 is exactly what you expect it to be. An angry Ogre who saves the day, loud pop music, and wisecracking comedians getting bored playing animals. Is it better than the third one? Who cares? I don’t know, maybe it is. Shrek jumped the Donkey after the second movie. We’re now on the fourth.
Interestingly, there are a few cool ideas and setups here, but they never go anywhere. Not that I was expecting them to. Not after seeing a new character who was an effeminate ogre who is of course the chef. OK, got where this is going.
Shrek’s setup is that he is completely settled into family life and the routine is slowly killing him. He misses being an ogre: Being wild, free and scaring the hay out of peasants. Totally relatable. For reals. I mean, what guy with kids HASN’T been stuck at a Chuck E Cheese type hell party and wanted to punch a cake? I was right there with him. We can also interpret some subtext about a franchise that’s gone on for far too long and feels lifeless, but I’m not sure if that was intended…
But as we progress we get the same old “don’t know what you got until it’s gone” type messages so there is certainly nothing new here. But at the same time it is a kids movie, so to five year olds the message may seem revelatory. But I’m guessing, no.
Now, let’s get this 3D bullshit out of the way. SAVE YOUR MONEY. This movie is useless in 3D. There are a few cool scenes with some depth and that is IT. 3D has simply not been used properly except for Coraline, Avatar, and How to Train your Dragon. Avoid everything else in 3D, including that stupid Not Avatar Airbender M Night Disaster that’s coming soon.
This movie was also a little darker, both in tone and in color palate but the main problem is that it wasn’t FUN. It was tired, boring and they seem to have given the punch-up writers a lot of time off because there were a lot less jokes in this one. Or at least things that seemed to try and be jokes but just came off as tired and awkward.
Rumplestiltskin was kinda funny as a villain but the whole alternate universe thing is a device used when you have nowhere else to go and you’re out of ideas. Shrek has been out of ideas for a while now. And it’s not his fault. Really, after watching the first one, everyone thought OK, it made money, they’ll make a sequel. But after that, I mean what’s left? Oh, a Puss in Boots spinoff, right…
My five year old daughter liked it. But not as much as the other ones, apparently. She summed it up quite succinctly, “It was better than nothing.” Fair enough. If you have kids, you’ll see this movie. You probably just won’t enjoy it. But at least you won’t be watching Furry Vengeance. Little victories.
Oh, and this movie made 70 mil in the opening weekend. I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of Shrek. (sigh)
–Chris Mancini
