“Fight Club is the best movie ever made.”
No it’s not (disclaimer: I’ve never watched Fight Club). Shrek 2 is.
A “good” film has layers (like an onion): cast, cinematography, plot, impact (on the viewer and on pop culture), and soundtrack.
But first: Shrek 2 passes the Bechdel Test (#diversitywin). Fight Club doesn’t. Enough said.
Cast: Fight Club, nor any other famous film bro movie, even holds a candle to Shrek 2. Don’t believe me? That’s okay, I wouldn’t either – I mean, it’s Shrek. Let’s go through the list and I’ll see if I can convince you otherwise. In Fight Club, I recognized a total of four people – Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Jared Leto. Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Far Far Away, the list goes on – Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Jennifer Saunders, and more! Also, Fight Club can’t say they had Larry King and Regis Philbin play drag queen evil stepsisters (this was in Shrek 3, but my point still stands). Regardless – Shrek 2’s cast contains the A-list of the A-list, and the cast works together just incredibly to bring the movie together.
Cinematography: I don’t really know what this means, and I will reiterate that I have never watched Fight Club. But I want to put in some of my favorite frames from Shrek 2 as a way of proving it’s cinematic supremacy.
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I know this whole blog post seems very ironic, which it is, but I’m not going to try to deny the emotion and excellent framing conveyed through these shots.
With Fight Club being a more “cinematic” film, it obviously has more merit in the cinematography department. To reiterate, I haven’t watched it so I can’t speak to this merit, but I found a video compiling the most beautiful shots, shown below.
Plot: Fight Club – two emotionally repressed men start living with each other and form an underground fight club as an escape from their grim reality – but their seemingly perfect duo is challenged when ulterior motives are revealed (I think? I got this from Wikipedia so I don’t know how accurate it is).
Shrek 2 – after their honeymoon, Shrek and Fiona are invited back home to Fiona’s unsuspecting parents, who have no idea their daughter is an ogre. Shrek, who wants to give his wife a sense of belonging, figures out how to turn them human – all the while, the Fairy Godmother is behind the scenes, giving her charming son a chance at the throne.
Yes, I’ll admit that I purposefully made the Shrek synopsis more interesting, but how interesting can I make Fight Club sound if I’ve never watched it? With Fight Club, you get an original but slightly uninspired (at first) story about men who don’t know how to express their anger healthily. What’s new? But Shrek. Glorious Shrek. A tale as old as time, a remarkable interpretation of the hero’s journey – just a simple ogre who wants to make his wife happy, and is willing to go to the greatest lengths for just that. Dare I say, the greatest love story ever to grace the silver screen.
And if my word isn’t good enough for you (it shouldn’t be), what do others have to say about Shrek 2? It has an 89% Rotten Tomatoes to Fight Club’s 79%. Even the greatest film critics on the Internet, which I know isn’t saying much, believe in the life changing potential of Shrek 2.
Speaking of life changing – how did Shrek 2, or rather Shrek in general, impact pop culture? Let’s talk about the message this film sends to kids – it is really what’s on the inside that counts. Fiona grew up dreading her transformation from human to ogre that happened every night, but when she fell in love with Shrek and took her permanent form as what she thought was an ugly green monster, Shrek taught her that she was perfectly beautiful the way she was.
Fight Club also had a cultural impact, according to the “Cultural Impact” section on its Wikipedia page. It was an instant cult classic in cinematic style and gained popularity for its introspective twists and turns – also introducing the famous “first rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club”. In real life, the movie actually inspired many fight clubs, and somehow influenced American evangelical Christianity (don’t worry, I don’t get it either). In my opinion however, Fight Club’s most notable pop culture impact was being named #20 of the “50 Best Guy Movies of All Time” by Men’s Journal in 2003 (yeah it’s a real list. Boggles my mind too). Shrek 2 can’t beat that.
I feel like a soundtrack isn’t something that you can really describe, it’s more so something you have to experience alongside the movie. I will say that Shrek 2’s soundtrack – including “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows, “Changes” by David Bowie, “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc., and “Holding out for a Hero”, originally by Bonnie Tyler should be on everyone’s Spotify Wrapped this year.
I feel like you can track my guilt increasing as the post goes on. I do feel bad that I’m judging Fight Club solely by its Wikipedia plot and pitting it against an indisputably superior movie like Shrek 2. At the end of the day, you should be the judge – watch them both and then tell me the real winner.
If you say Shrek 2, I’ll give you five bucks.
Works Cited:
“Bechdel Test Movie List.” Bechdeltest.com, 2022, bechdeltest.com/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
Movieclips. “Shrek 2 (2004) – I Need a Hero Scene (7/10) | Movieclips.” YouTube, 15 May 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_HjMIjzyMU. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
Rotten Tomatoes Family. “Shrek 2 – Shrek & Fiona Get Married | Fandango Family.” YouTube, 1 June 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBk2ilI43Q. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
The Beauty Of. “The Beauty of Fight Club.” YouTube, 20 Nov. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRGtnDTQoyY. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Fight Club.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Nov. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club#Cultural_impact. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
I’ve never watched Fight Club, but Shrek 2 I can attest to!!! First of all, once I was driving around with my brother, and he started playing the Shrek 2 soundtrack. It. was. life-changing. I kid you not, it is the greatest way to pump up your energy. I am a fan of “Funkytown”. In all seriousness, the impact Shrek as a series has had on me is astounding. The themes of home and what it means to truly belong stuck with me. Even the addition of Puss N Boots in Shrek 2 made me smile because Puss N Boots was able to find his people – or ogres should I say. The sheer strangeness of the combination of two ogres, a talking donkey and a warrior cat is enough to make me love Shrek 2, but the storywriters’ ability to teach love, caring, and understanding is something I will always appreciate. I’ll never forget Shrek talking about how ogres are like onions in that they both have layers. That is such a complex theme for children to understand, yet it is incorporated so well. Talking about cultural impact, my calculus teacher even brought up Shrek when teaching chain rule. She said it was like an onion, having many layers. I thought that was….interesting to say the least.
Hey Anjana! I saw your title and was immediately enticed to see if I could be persuaded to like Shrek 2. (Very good job with the photo I might add). I found your entire analysis very entertaining, however I especially liked when you began to dive into the cultural impact of Shrek 2. Promotion about inside beauty and not outward appearances is a truly powerful message and should be promoted not just to children, but also to adults. I think Shrek is beneficial and enjoyable for people of all ages. There is an animation that those with an artistic eye can enjoy, powerful messages, and yours always in for a good laight. I totally forgot about the soundtrack until you mentioned it near the end! It is so iconic and definitely an experience more than something that can be described. Overall I agree with your message that film bros need to discuss this movie more, and I hope to see more analysis like this (and hopefully more photoshop) in the future. Alright, now I’m going to play rock paper scissors with you through the log comment…don’t look yet….rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
Rock.
I’ll leave it up to the honors system, let me know what the outcome was.
Hello Anjana,
This post was nothing short of beautiful. I have signed up to watch Fight Club for a psychology assignment but have not gotten around to watching it. Shrek 2, however, I have watched and I have loved. I remember seeing various posts on the beautiful craft of Shrek 2, speaking to how it was even better than the original Shrek movie. I watched it for the first time less than a year ago, and it taught me what love is. Speaking of love, I loved your consistent comparisons of both movies and your journey of guilt along the way. I always seem to be on the lookout for films that don’t pass the Bechdel test, often even placing this test on the people around me in the real world, and Brad Pitt always seems to be a part of these failing films. I am now starting to wonder does he specifically attempt to star in these kinds of “Guy Movies”? Or do I just have a limited amount of Brad Pitt movies in my mind right now? Who knows! The shots you’ve included of Shrek 2 are some of the most impactful images I’ve ever seen. The fairy godmother’s performance of “Holding Out for a Hero” was unimaginably life-changing. Shrek 2 was an amazing movie with a well-paced plot and important life lessons for anyone watching. Thank you so much for releasing such an informative and impactful blog post into this world.
Anjana, after talking to you this week and finding out about our blogs both including Shrek in some way or another, I just had to read your blog. First of all, I actually have never seen Fight Club and therefore cannot form a proper opinion on it. However, I also have forgotten all of the plots for Shrek 2, so I don’t really think I can have an opinion on that either. I also don’t know that many celebrities, so I can’t say that I recognized anyone from any of the movies. I did like the inclusions of little snippets of images from the Shrek 2 movie because they were actually pretty fun to look through. I liked that you chose to compare the two together and build your argument on why Shrek 2 is so much better, and you honestly might have me convinced. I do plan on watching the two movies sometime soon so that I can properly form an opinion on which one is better, but until then I’ll just say that Shrek 2 is better so that I can get the five bucks that you promised at the end of the blog. Thank you for yet another entertaining blog!
Anjana, I am once again engaged and challenged to think beyond the norm with your blog. The nuance you bring to the Shrek 2 vs. Fight Club debate is unmatched. I have never seen Fight Club and I’m assuming that I’ve seen Shrek 2 but I honestly don’t remember. Even with my limited knowledge on both movies I am confident in stating that Shrek 2 is in fact a better movie than Fight Club. For me the soundtrack alone proves its superiority. But I also enjoyed your points about it passing the Bechdel test and the numerous cinematic frames you provided from the movie. I think it’s easy to overlook the design choices made by the producers just because the film is made for kids and has main characters that do not align with societal standards of beauty. I would also like to share that in my personal opinion, Fight Club being on the list for the top 50 movies for men is honestly a red flag. I feel like the intended audience for Fight Club is most likely other men that either like fighting or don’t know who to process their emotions, or both. I would probably have to watch both films in a row to determine for sure which one is best. But I trust your movie review wholeheartedly.