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90Hilarious and heartfelt from start to finish, this is the best Shrek of them all, and that's no fairy tale.
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83This movie is a last chance to save the series, which it does.
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83It has a sweetness all its own.
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80More redux than sequel, the final Shrek is more parent- (and specifically dad-) oriented than ever; it may also produce the first twinge of nostalgia in the kids who thrilled to the original at a formative age.
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80This is - allegedly - the final chapter in the series, and everyone involved appears invigorated.
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80DreamWorks could be entering a period of fresh creativity. With How To Train Your Dragon and a balanced, darker-hued and very funny Shrek finale, they’ve found the magic again.
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75The visual jokes -- one standout is an army of ogres condemned by the Pied Piper to perpetual line-dancing -- are pretty irresistible.
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75For this last chapter, the filmmakers play things relatively straight, resulting in the best Shrek movie to date.
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75Believe it or not, there's life in the old boy yet. After a disappointing third outing, this "Shrek" brings the cycle of fairy-tale-themed films to a fine finish.
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75Although Shrek Forever After is not as funny or as impudent is its great-grandparent, some of its comedic jabs land solid blows to the funny bone.
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75Letting Shrek get grumpy again has freshly animated this cartoon series.
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70After an uninspired middle period, the "Shrek" series has, like the revitalized character himself, roared back to form.
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70Whatever else gets tossed into the mix, Shrek must be the heart and soul. In this, Myers is a master; he makes it seem easy being green.
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70What fortifies Shrek Forever After are its brilliantly realized principal characters, who nearly a decade after the first “Shrek” film remain as vital and engaging fusions of image, personality and voice as any characters in the history of animation.
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67Everyone involved fulfills his or her job requirements adequately. But the magic is gone, and Shrek Forever After is no longer an ogre phenomenon to reckon with. Instead, it's a "Hot Swamp Time Machine."
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67Shrek 4 is at its best when it's sadistically doing these character remixes; you can feel the filmmakers' glee at getting to shrug off story continuity and make a mess.
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63It's a fun ride. What's missing is the excitement of a new interpretation.
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63Mediogre at best.
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63Donkey continues to be lovable, and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has one of the funnier character arcs.
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63Worse, Shrek Forever After feels like just another animated movie -- which is exactly what the series was fighting against when it started, and a big reason why it caught on with audiences.
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63It's no classic, but Shrek Forever After is a pleasant reminder that every time a cash register rings, this ogre turns angelic.
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50Reveals a definite been-there, done-that feeling.
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Wanders far away from the infectious and propulsive zing that we've come to expect the past nine years.
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50To see this final installment is to know: It’s time.
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50There’s nothing much wrong with the film’s pacing or characterizations. We’ve just seen it all in fresher and funnier forms, from Donkey’s sassy backtalk to Puss in Boots’ eye-widening charm.
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50Forever After still goes down like warmed-over porridge. You don’t have to be Goldilocks to think that this time they’ve cooked their Golden Goose.
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50If you found "Shrek the Third," the third film in the "Shrek" franchise, tired, it will probably come as no surprise that Shrek Forever After is downright exhausted.
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50Yet even though Forever After is not as fresh-seeming as its predecessors, it provides passable entertainment, especially for the kids who won’t be familiar with the George Bailey storyline retread – or midlife crises, for that matter.
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It takes the film a deadly long time to kick in, and when it does, it largely retreads formula: ironic use of pop standards, musical numbers with contemporary choreography played for maximum laughs, risque one-liners.
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50The resulting adventure is once again lively and clever, although its creative underpinnings -- a sort of flea-market pastiche of antique fairy tales, vintage vaudeville and contemporary pop culture -- seem rather more shabby than chic.
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50The reputed swan song for the series and its first entry in 3D, pic contains a respectable number of laughs, but also borrows its storyline from the oft-recycled "It's a Wonderful Life," and if that's all its creators can do, it's best to put Far Far Away far far away.
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42That’s no huge surprise, given the last two Shrek films, but it’s still dispiriting watching a once-promising series make ever-greater commitments to apathy.
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40Third times are rarely charms in the movies, much less fourth go-rounds, and it takes more than ho-hum 3-D and video-game-ready action sequences to liven up diminishing returns
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40Having run its course in the third installment, the franchise jogs and lurches but mostly meanders through a story that tests the limits of true love (Shrek's, and ours).
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25Tired? This series is as exhausted as Shrek after a day of baby wrangling and diaper changing.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 25 out of 35
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Mixed: 6 out of 35
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Negative: 4 out of 35
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"Shrek Forever After" has permanently changed a funny, pure franchise into a greedy one craving for money. Nice work, Dreamworks...
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The jokes at this point are forced and feel very plastic. The dialogue doesn't flow as it did in the first film.