A few years ago, Hollywood found for itself a bonafide teenage star in Anne Hathaway, whose inspired performance in Princess Diaries transformed what was a low-budget girlie movie into a sleeper hit. Her charismatic presence has been alikened to that of Julia Roberts but unfortunately, this aforesaid charisma was not enough to save PD2: Royal Engagement.
Amazingly, director Garry Marshall (the same man responsible for Pretty Woman & Runaway Bride) have patched together the most boring of cliches and comic gags for PD2: Royal Engagement. This is a great disappointment to me because I felt that the original Princess Diaries was able to rise above a predictable plot to engage audiences with its sincere story-telling and characterization. In my honest opinion, only pre-pubescent girls and tolerant juvenile minds are most able to appreciate its sequel. Some aspects of the movie are too incredibly puzzling for me to ignore (thus preventing my enjoyment of the film). For instance, the scenes which are set in Genovia (the fictional country which Hathaway's princess character is supposed to rule) are filled with unrealistically narrow streets and small houses. Heck, the roads aren't even paved with tar or asphalt; they're actually cobblestoned! Even the Genovian castle seems small (rather than grand) because the same twin staircase is used for the ballroom scene, indoor sleepover scene, and the finale coronation scene. Talk about saving costs~!!
It's quite sad to see the luminous Dame Julie Andrews having to work with such lackluster material. Even the wonderfully quirky Heather Matarazzo (who plays Hathaway's best friend) has been relegated to a very unfunny backseat character. Moreover, the visuals and cinematography are rather flat and dull, rather than impressive, and this adds on to the distracting unrealistic-ness of the film. Seriously, I know that movies are not real to begin with but some things are just too cheesy for me to just sit down and assimilate quietly~!
While I know it's all a matter of choice and preference, I certainly like nothing much about this wash-out of a sequel, except perhaps its obviously very talented star, Anne Hathaway. Luckily, I caught this show on a Monday... that's two dollars off the normal ticket price!! ;p
My ratings ---- 2.8/5 stars!
