At one point in 'Shrek Forever After,' the amiable hero sees his face on a poster nailed to a tree and says, 'Sure is great to be wanted again.' Wanted, yes, but needed? Not on the strength of this fourth and presumably last installment, which is enhanced, within reason, by 3-D. Having 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).

The starting point is domesticity, which isn't sitting well with Shrek at all. He has a loving wife in Fiona, and three cute kidlets (plus, of course, the benefit of Mike Myers's endearing voice), but he's undone by doing diapers and has fallen victim to the kind of toothless fame that overtook Buffalo Bill. To reclaim his inner ogre, Shrek signs a contract with Rumpelstiltskin that makes him an Ogre for a Day. But the contract dramatizes, if nothing else, the importance of reading the fine print. Before you can say 'It's a Wonderful Life,' Shrek is plunged into an alternateuniverse where he and Fiona have never met, old friends like Eddie Murphy's Donkey and Antonio Banderas's Puss in Boots don't know him and Fiona, voiced appealingly as before by Cameron Diaz, has left her castle to assume command of a guerrilla army that's resisting Rumpelstiltskin's ruthless rule.

The film, which was directed by Mike Mitchell, has its intermittent pleasures: toy-like landscapes rendered in enchanting colors; the mysterious charm of Mr. Banderas's delivery, which gets laughs from every one of his lines; a spell woven by the Pied Piper's flute in a scene reminiscent of the 'Man Piaba' sequence in 'Beetlejuice'; a witches' ball, followed by the witches' vertiginous pursuit of Shrek through the 3-D spaces of a palace. (It's all too easy to take computer animation for granted until a set piece like that one leaves you absolutely dazzled.)

But it's important to read the fine print in screenplays too. This one, by Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke, turns out to be a recycling machine that recalls the high points of previousinstallments without demonstrating the need for a new one. While there's some suspense in whether Shrek will be able to break Rumpelstilstskin's contract with an out clause that posits the power of a loving kiss, there's also a sense of filmmakers searching for whatever will help fill the running time. Ninety-three minutes isn't a long time, but some of it passes very, very slowly.

Joe Morgenstern

• mostly [´məustli] ad.主要地；多半；通常 (初中英语单词)
• victim [´viktim] n.牺牲者；受害者 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
• pursuit [pə´sju:t] n.追踪；追击；事务 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• installment [in´stɔ:lmənt] n.分期付款 (高中英语单词)
• loving [´lʌviŋ] a.爱的，有爱情的 (高中英语单词)
• buffalo [´bʌfələu] n.水牛；野牛 (高中英语单词)
• alternate [ɔ:l´tə:nit, ´ɔ:ltə:neit] a.交替的 v.轮流 (高中英语单词)
• universe [´ju:nivə:s] n.天地；全人类；银河系 (高中英语单词)
• donkey [´dɔŋki] n.驴子；蠢人；顽固的人 (高中英语单词)
• delivery [di´livəri] n.送交；分娩；交货 (高中英语单词)
• amiable [´eimiəbəl] a.亲切的，温和的 (英语四级单词)
• overtook [,əuvə´tuk] overtake的过去式 (英语四级单词)
• sequence [´si:kwəns] n.继续；顺序；程序 (英语四级单词)
• clause [klɔ:z] n.条(款)；分句，从句 (英语四级单词)
• poster [´pəustə] n.招贴；贴标语的人 (英语六级单词)
• presumably [pri´zju:məbli] ad.推测起来；大概 (英语六级单词)
• franchise [´fræntʃaiz] n.选举权；特许权 (英语六级单词)
• undone [,ʌn´dʌn] a.未完成的，没有做的 (英语六级单词)
• ruthless [´ru:θləs] a.无情的；残忍的 (英语六级单词)
• suspense [sə´spens] n.悬挂；悬虑不安 (英语六级单词)