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Shrek 2 (Full Screen Edition) Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 17 Reviews)

Half-Done and ultimately unrewarding
Shrek 2 is the follow-up to the almighty 'Shrek', a 2002 offering from Warner Bros., and re-teams the vocal talents of Mike Myers as the titular Ogre, along with Cameron Diaz (his lovely bride Princess Fiona), and Eddie Murphy (Donkey).

When Fiona's parents, the King and Queen of Far Far Away, meet Shrek, her Father, disgusted with an Ogre for a son-in-law, is blackmailed by the Fairy Godmother (Absolutely Fabulous' Jennifer Saunders) into having him 'taken care of', so her son Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) may have her instead. Enter Puss-In-Boots (Antonio Banderas) who, failing in his task to dispatch our Heroes, joins them instead, and they uncover a dastardly plot full of magical intrigue and mayhem.

The first thing one notices about Shrek 2 (besides the absolutely flawless, magnificent animation, that is) is the slightly darker, more adult theme of the first half of the movie. Here we are dealing with more grown-up themes like love and familial rejection, and unfortunately the comedy value of the movie suffers for it. It's down to Donkey and a couple of nice visual in-jokes (the Kingdom of Far Far Away, the transgendered Ugly Stepsister, the Drive-Thru restaurant) to keep us amused. Sadly, in the wake of the first movie where Shrek himself dealt out a fair share of the jokes, this doesn't work as well as it could have and forced smiles seem to be the order of the day while we wait for something funnier.

It does come - 'Shrek 2' does not disappoint with the hilarious second half of the movie - and the comic talents of Jennifer Saunders and Antonio Banderas are wisely put to very good use, making for a sequel that is, at least in part, as good as the original. The final ballroom scene and parallel battle sequence with Mongo The Giant Gingerbread Man is worth the price of admission alone and the movie does come into its own with more visual and verbal jokes than it's possible to take in.

The animation is superb - it's really getting to the stage where we won't be able to distinguish between CGI and human actors for much longer - check out the human form of Shrek and Princess Fiona's facial expressions for proof of this - and the visual sumptuousness of the movie is an absolute delight.

That said, for a slow beginning and some rather advanced themes (especially for smaller kids), 'Shrek 2' just doesn;t push as many Happy Buttons as the excellent Original. It's good, but it could have been so, so much better.

Maybe for rental, instead.

Amusing
Shrek 2 takes up where the original left off. To start the movie Shrek and his lovable bride Fiona are on their honeymoon. When they return they find Donkey at their swamp house and a rather formal invitation to join Fiona's parents at their kingdom -- "Far Far Away". What Fiona's parents don't know is that Fiona has married an ogre. Needless to say, her parents are a bit shocked to find that she has married Shrek. The rest of the plot of the movie entails Fiona's father, the king, as he wrestles with the fact that his daughter is married to an ogre and his machinations with Fairy Godmother...who is the real witch in this movie as she conspires to split Shrek and Fiona so that her son, Prince Charming, may marry the fair princess.

This movie is quite funny. There are lots of jokes...both for the adults in the audience and the kids. The animation is quite good, though the words didn't seem to quite fit the movement of the characters' lips. Overall, this movie is surely worth seeing, as you are virtually guaranteed to laugh at least a bit...and perhaps quite a bit more than that.

As Good As the First
Sequelitis is a common affliction among movies. Often times the follow-up to a film is of a lesser quality than the original. 2004 seems to be the year of the sequels, with Spider-Man 2 and the third Harry Potter film. The first offering is Shrek 2.

Shrek 2 picks up where the orginial left off. Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) return from their honeymoon only to recived an invitation from Fiona's parents. The King (John Cleese) and Queen (Julie Andrews) of the land Far, Far Away have invited the couple to a wedding ball in their honor. Despite Shrek's misgivings, the couple are soon on their way, with the irritating Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in tow. But Fiona has neglected to tell her parents that her new husband is an ogre, and that she's now an ogre as well, so when they arrive, they take her parents, and the town, by surprise. Adding to the king's displeasure at Shrek is the fact that when he locked Fiona in the tower, he had made a deal with the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) that Fiona would marry the Godmother's son, the vain Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). And Fairy Godmother's hell bent on matching her son up with Fiona, so the king hires ogre killer Puss-in-Boots (Antonio Banderas) to take care of Shrek.

The plot has some similarities with the original Shrek, but is unique enough to be its own vehicle. For a sequel that was never intended to be, it's an entertaining romp with old and new characters. The main villian in this movie, who fans will undoubtedly refer to as "Dama Fortuna", though never refered to as such in the film, is played with a delicious combination of benign malice throughout the film, a match for John Lithgow's Lord Farquaad in the first. Fiona is given less of a role here in this movie, but that's fine as most of the action is set on Shrek, Donkey, and Puss-in-Boots. The lampooning of previous films and Hollywood itself is rampant in this movie, from "Lord of the Rings" to Starbucks Coffee.

The only disappointment to this film was the music. As might have been expected, the score is almost the same as the original film, which isn't a bad thing. Most of the songs used in the film is okay, but there were a few that didn't fit with the scene it was playing on. Still, it's hard to find fault with the Counting Crows' "Accidentally in Love" or Jennifer Saunders' rendition of "Holding Out For a Hero."

Despite the flaws and several goofs, "Shrek 2" is as good as the original. Go see it while it's still in theaters, but catch the mantinee showings.

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