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The Highs and Lows of A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding

Dec 06 2018 by Romance.com.au writer

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The Highs and Lows of A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding

** Most anticipated movie event of 2018??**

 

The key principle for wringing the most enjoyment possible from a Netflix Christmas movie is: go in with low expectations. For a sequel that was made due to the first movie being a surprise hit, due to said movie somehow hitting a near impossible balance of ridiculous and charming, my expectations were as low as the South Pole.

This is a movie about the happily ever after of two people who barely had any plot to keep them apart to begin with, apart from him—prince her—commoner; him—momentarily-arrogant her—momentarily-clumsy … so what surprised me the most was that A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding had a surprisingly solid plot! Taking not so much a leaf as the entire block from The Princess Diaries, ACPTRW (as we will call it) runs on the premise that a dastardly villain is embezzling away the kingdom’s fortunes, and therefore putting the WEDDING and the future of the prince and his journalist in peril.

 

High points: When the teenage princess turns out to be a HACKER because OF COURSE SHE IS. (I was a little disappointed that there was no Jurassic-Park shout-out reference to Unix though.) I also hooted in delight when Sour Simon (who was almost a little too creepy last time) joins the Scooby Gang, giving just the right sprinkling of cynical to their cinnamon spice.

Low points: Pretty much every time the hero and heroine went to kiss, or did kiss? I felt zero chemistry between them this time, I just wanted to get back to the gang solving royal crimes.

 

Moments that I could not decide if they were hilarious or terrible: When Amber and Richard bail up the royal family and … make sure they are now in control of the aesthetic details of their wedding BEFORE they deal with internal treachery and embezzlement. PRIORITIES guys.

I had mixed feeling also about us getting to SEE the awkward pre-teen Aldovian pantomime …and the whole folktale with Santa Claus as a magical baby. HILARIOUS or TERRIBLE I don’t have an answer.

** did anyone else LOL at the magazine simply called ‘COVER’?**

Missed opportunities: Why did Simple Simon and gorgeous Melissa get several moments of magical-Christmas frission-time, but cinnamon-roll Andy and diva Sahill got barely a look? I would have enjoyed Sahill getting a relief-from-comic-relief hero moment where he helps save the day and um, got to step out of the stereotype for a couple of minutes? Did we really need a storyline about the childhood of the palace chef instead of a bit of an arc for one of the few characters of colour who was also a key antagonist for Amber? Get your plot together, screenwriters.

 

Lingering questions:

  1. Um, are none of these American-born citizens going to say anything about the fact that a dude appears to have been arrested and vanished without trial by the royal family of this small country? Seems like someone’s ‘journalistic instincts’ might kick in over this?

  1. Less important, but also bugged me the whole movie … why was the wedding planning scheduled to START a WEEK before a ROYAL WEDDING? Is planning weddings months in advance actually an activity of the social-climbing bourgeoisie with an actual limit to their budgets? THIS IS THE KIND OF THING YOU’VE MADE ME THINK ABOUT, NETFLIX.

#same

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

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