Shrek Forever After 3D

[Cudzoziemiec]

Saw this on Monday, and there doesn't seem to be a review of it here yet, so I'll try. Without wanting to give away too much of the story for those who haven't seen it, the plot is more action-oriented than previous Shrek films. I expect this is partly because this is supposedly the last Shrek in the series, so there's no need to develop the characters any further, and partly to make use of the 3D effect to the max, which it does.

So on the 3D. I've never seen a 3D film before, and didn't know what to expect, but it was impressive. You really feel you could reach out and touch the things you see, at some points. Particularly the scene at the beginning when the six white horses pulling the carriage seem to actually ride up to you and pass on either side. Some of these effects were the only time I've heard an entire Indian cinema audience go silent! Indian audiences do not normally restrain themselves from discussing the film while it's happening. OTOH, some of the big fight scenes with the witches flying around seem not to have benefitted as much as you might have expected, once you've seen some other scenes. If you see what I mean...

The special glasses were my only niggle concerning the 3D effects. Firstly, it turned out you had to pay a fairly high sum cash deposit to get them. It was only chance I had enough cash on me. But that will vary from cinema to cinema, or at least chain to chain, presumably. It would have been ok if it had been announced in advance, but we didn't find this out until entering the theatre. The glasses were advertised as "enhancing your enjoyment" but in reality if you didn't have them, you would see everything in double vision with red and green tints around the edge. The glasses were in plastic packaging advertising they had been UV sterilised. Well, they may have been sterile, but they weren't clean, there were big fingerprints on the lenses. They cut out quite a bit of light even without that. Also they are only in one size, but that didn't seem to be a problem for me - I have quite a small head - or even my son (age 6). I found wearing the glasses a bit tiring after a while, though not unduly. I don't know how it affects people who normally wear specs - there didn't look to be space for another pair under or over.

We're used to lots of movie references in Shrek, but this one gets self-referential, which is funny, but repeated a bit too much I thought.

Anyway, a good movie, I thought. What did you think?

[rogerzilla]

It's not out in the UK for another month or so.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ahh. They'll have sold a million pirated DVDs here by then. 50 rupees but dreadful quality.

[Jules]

I saw it yesterday in Kingston. The 3D glasses cost £1 and you can keep them.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It was 200 rupees - about L3 - returnable deposit. We already have a pair of 3D glasses from some Lego something-or-other, but I don't know if they're the same.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't recall the glasses being heavy, but certainly they weren't the most comfortable. Maybe the design varies from cinema to cinema, or distributor to distributor?

In India the price was not much more than for a normal film, though had we gone at the weekend it would have been more. Not 133.3% more though.

I would have been quite happy to see it in 2D, but I rather enjoyed the 3D experience. I wouldn't now go out of my way to see a 3D film, but nor would I avoid one - assuming there wasn't a huge price differential.

[TimO]

I just watched this in traditional 2D, rather than the 3D variant, and in my own house, rather than a cinema, and it's not too bad.

It's definitely better than Shrek 3 (Shrek The Third), which I felt was a bit pants compared to the earlier two.  It's always hard to make a comparison between films, but my initial impression is that it wasn't quite as good as the first two films, which were very good.

Of course with the first two films, since they introduced all the characters, they had it relatively easy.  In some respects, without giving too much away, they sort of managed to do that again with this film, and introduced a smattering of new novel, and interesting characters.  Admittedly the third film also did that, but it didn't seem to work as well then.  I think the third film felt rather too juvenile, whereas the final film had more adult humour, like the original two (not necessarily "Adult", but things that adults found funny differently to children, and some bits on two levels).

I've always liked the way that the music they've used in the films is relatively good, and contemporary not "period", whatever that would be for a fairytale, but nothing involving lutes and harpsichords!  The music seems to be some of the better bits of the films, so it's good that they've not skimped on it.

I can't quite believe it's a decade since the first film was broadcast, at least the stars haven't noticeably aged (unlike me!)

I probably need to watch the older ones again, and see how well they stand up to those criticisms.