This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Fish and guests stink after three days.” The same could be said of movie franchises that overstay their welcome and don’t know when to pack up gracefully. The good news is, Shrek Forever After is an improvement on its predecessor, universally acknowledged as the worst in the series. That film was too snarky for its own good and lost the tender charms that made the earlier installments so enjoyable. With Shrek Forever After, the magic is gone but at least the heart is back.

Instead of pillaging fairy tales for the material this time around, the screenwriters of Shrek Forever After chose to pattern their film on It’s a Wonderful Life. Like George Bailey, our hero (Mike Myers) begins dreaming of what life was like before domesticity robbed him of his independence and turned the once fearsome ogre into Mr. Mom with three tiny mouths to feed. Fed up and in need of a break, Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) that will magically transport him to an alternate reality where he can enjoy one, 24-hour day just like it used to be.

But of course Rumpelstiltskin is up to no good (didn’t Shrek actually read the Brothers Grimm!?) and while Shrek is away, inadvertently altering the timeline, Rumpelstiltskin is seizing power in the country of Far Far Away. The only way for Shrek to make things right is to befriend his old mates Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), who no longer know him, and win the trust and affection of the Amazonian queen of the ogres, none other than his own wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz).

It’s not that Shrek Forever After is bad; it’s not. It’s just unnecessary. It neither adds anything to the story nor detracts from it. Perhaps, after the widely panned third outing, the filmmakers thought they’d try to go out on a high note. The film is actually clever from the starting gate; the first few minutes have enough material for the adults to keep you interested even after it’s clear they won’t survive the first act. After that, the film becomes one gigantic cliché—“The grass is always greener on the other side,” “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” “Be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it”—you take your pick.

The Shrek films have lost their power to charm and, if I am honest, this one never really even tries. Oh it makes jokes, several of them funny, but almost gone are the usual pop-cultural nods, the subversive sense of humor and the inverted Disney fairy tales that, at first, made the series so endearing. There is no need for this story to have taken place in this universe with these characters. It could have happened just about anywhere, and that’s the problem. Likewise, the 3D is incidental at best, innocuous at worst. In most films, the technology calling attention to itself would be regarded as indulgent; here, to ignore it, is simply a terrible misuse of tools.

If Shrek Forever After has lost its cranky irascibility, it has rediscovered its soul. While its message, that those crying babies with dirty diapers are actually a temporary byproduct of a tremendous blessing and reward, is simplistic and threadbare, and that falling in love twice is therefore twice as nice, it is hard to fault the film for wearing its sweet on its sleeve. This is a kid’s movie after all. But it has the unfortunate side effect of alienating the adult viewers hoping for the usual double entendres and snide in-jokes to see them through. More than all the films that went before it, this outing is most reminiscent of a typical kid’s film. There was nothing typical about the first Shrek film and the franchise is certainly poorer for its current blandness.

At some point, you simply have to say, “And they lived happily ever after. The End,” and mean it.

© Copyright 2010 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by Mike Mitchell
Starring: Mike Myers, Walt Dohrn, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Cameron Diaz
Rated PG for mild action, some rude humor and brief language.
Running Time: 93 minutes