In this sequel to the first film (which was ELEVEN years ago, I'm surprised Dreamworks is revisiting the property two, but rumor has it they're trying to revive the Shrek franchise), adventuring feline Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) is on the last of his nine lives. When, he hears word of a magical wishing star, he goes forth to find it, but several other parties are also after it.
The last PiB movie was just okay. It was stronger than Shrek 3 and 4 and the montage bit was comedy gold, but it was something you watched once and had no interest in revisiting. So, I was surprised at how much better this one was. It was like the creators of Last Wish made notes of everything that didn't work the last time around.
This is one part a fantasy adventure story. Last Wish has more action to it than any other film in the Shrekverse, and the only one where the fight scenes stand out.
Problem with the last PiB was that the quest wasn't that memorable. Here though, a lot of thought was put into the enchanted forest that Puss and company journey through. It's more creative than you'd think and has a pure unadulterated, children's fantasy feel to it that I haven't seen in a long time.
This new film revamped the the physical look a bit, which to be honest, was really needed for the human characters. The original Shrek came out during the early days of 3D animation when some films tried to make the characters realistic looking before it became the trend to go with more stylistic designs. These resulted in humans whose appearances haven't aged well. They can look kinda off-putting and uncanny valley-ish. In Last Wish, the people look decent. This movie combines 3D with sort of a 2d-ish cell shadingesque effect that makes everything look stylish and results in action scenes that work really well.
A lot of thought went into the plot this time around. Dialogue is strong and funny, but it's really all about the characters' personal journeys. Puss has a very solid personal storyline this time, the most solid since the first two Shrek films. (Although I think it's a good story, a lot of people online love it a lot more than me. Maybe I'm dead inside. Ehhhh, I'm not going to let it bother me.) Another thing the filmmakers realized was missing from the last entry was a comic relief character. Perrito (What we do in the Shadows' Harvey Guillen) is basically the Donkey to Puss' Shrek. The super-good-natured, optimistic character has been done before, but Guillen brings such a positive warmth to the dog that he never feels cookie cutter. The relationship between the main trio, Puss, Perrito, and Kitty Southpaws (Salma Hayek), returning from the last film, feels really natural.
Remember when I said that one part of the film was a fantasy adventure? The other part of this is basically a "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" scenario. What really makes this movie and keeps it interesting are all the other characters, with varying levels of antagonism and varying motives, who are also after the star. Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and The Three Bears are really likable. Wolf (Narcos' Wagner Moura), is the only antagonist in the Shrekverse who's a real physical threat and the only one who's ever been really intimidating. The other foe in this hasn't been shown much in the trailers, so I'll let you find out who they are, but they are definitely one of the funniest parts.
For those with younger kids, be forewarned that this has a lot more death and violence than your typical Shrekverse film.
Highly recommended. Again, the best Shrekverse movie since the first two. I'd rank it below 2 and above 1. It's just a really well told and entertaining story.
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