★★
It's Christmastime in Aldovia, and a royal baby is on the way. Amber and Richard host royals from a distant kingdom to renew a sacred truce, but when the treaty vanishes, peace is jeopardized and an ancient curse threatens their family.
Classification: PG
In order to prepare for the latest arrival from Netflix's seasonal instalment of their Christmas Prince saga, I treated myself to a quick marathon through Amber and Richard's courtship and found to my surprise not in complete repulsion to it all. The films are in no means works of art but instead expertly crafted pieces of holiday trite that are so perfectly sincere in its clichéd soap opera storytelling its impossible to hate them. This doesn't mean that they're not terrible, with scripting and cinematography having unfortunate noticeable creative chasms making the cheap made for TV feel all the more noticeable. However, nothing about this franchise feels sinister with ulterior motives I mean its probably being used as a tax loophole for someone but with A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, the holiday traditions from the first two films continue making for an amusing but ridiculous adventure.
The film still taps into that fantasy of marrying into a royal family probably inspired by the recent royal weddings of Kate Middleton and Megan Markle but take on a more fairytale aesthetic with all the action once again taking place in the fictional kingdom of Aldovia. Rose McIver's Amber, American journalist turned Aldovian Queen has settled into her dual roles well, continuing to write her blog and be a beloved monarch in what I believe is some type of European kingdom that has a remarkable resemblance to a studio backlot. These Christmas Prince films are paradoxically both reliant and impartial to the performances as while the script or direction gives these actors nothing much to work with, McIver along with the rest of the supporting cast still find ways to make these characters likeable. Films like these can feel so cookie-cutter, that the script is just a Mad Libs filled out five minutes between productions but this earnestness from McIver is probably what has made these films stand out from the crop of Netflix's many, many terrible Christmas adventures.
Classic melodrama and soap opera tropes aren't forgotten for a second as the third film covers theft, conspiracies and an ancient curse on the firstborn, which of course is Queen Amber and King Richard's expectant child, the titular Royal baby. John Schultz's direction balances this absurdity quite well, keeping everything stupid and hilarious but never having it lean too far into terrible unwatchable garbage. It's a Christmas miracle in itself that even when Princess Emily and Dowager Queen Helena get trapped in a cheap dungeon set by a supposed ghost that you don't immediately give up, it somehow all fits into the faux-reality of the film's world. Now, of course, the solution to all these potentially disastrous outcomes for the characters is to continue with Christmas celebrations as board games, Christmas markets and baby showers are used to distract everyone from impending political disasters. The conflicts of the film are weak and filled with red herrings, all centred around the treaty between the two fictional countries of Aldovia and Penglia going missing. The scene featuring several dolly zooms of every character's reaction to the treaties theft being absolutely hilarious for all the wrong reasons. A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby thrives when the poor filmmaking fails to establish credible stakes making the serious moments all the more laughable.
It has snow, curses, ghosts and contrived social commentary on gender roles, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby has it all! and isn't ashamed to let us know. Staying surprisingly consistent with the franchise's canon, this third instalment has plenty of treats for fans of the films with returning characters all getting fun cameos and storylines. It's not terrible but the seemingly intentional low-cost artificial look does make it hard to get emotionally invested in it all. It's Christmas movie trash but so proud to be so as the film isn't embarrassed for a single second by its preposterous plotting or schmaltzy romantic spirit.
Director: #JohnSchultz
Cast: #RoseMcIver, #BenLamb, #AliceKrige, #HonorKneafsey, #SarahDouglas, #TahirahSharif, #TheoDevaney
Release Date: December 5th 2019
Available Exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Synopsis from Internet Movie Database, Images from Netflix
Comments