Source: Disney
In this world practically ruled by Disney, it’s not exactly controversial to say that their ego has reached insane levels and they spend a lot of their time stroking their own ego. I’m going to be straightforward on this one — I didn’t like Frozen 2, but it’s not because I’m a tried and true cynic (though I am). I don’t want to dislike things that makes people happy simply on principle. I know it’s a kid’s movie and shouldn’t be taken so “seriously”. But here’s the thing — companies like Disney, who have so much money and time and resources, have no business making such lazy movies. If Frozen was a little uncoordinated (which it was), then Frozen 2 is incoherent.
To be clear, the movie looks gorgeous. In fact, I would have loved to watch the movie without sound just to look at the visuals. But alas, they had audio in my theater. I guess while we’re talking about audio we should talk about the songs — they were fine. Nothing can touch “Let It Go”, but boy do they try. All of the songs try to reach that level of epic, but the film’s total lack of emotional beats make the songs ring hallow.
The issue is that there is no plot and no buildup, and rather than answering the (many) questions people had from the first one, this film skips all that and goes straight to asking more questions. The film spends most of its runtime referring back to things that happened in the first one instead of developing its own story. It’s all too aware of how successful the first film was, and it can’t seem to *ahem* let it go.
The characters also face the same problems, and somehow develop even less. We’ve seen it all before, and it offers no surprises. Well, the one surprise was perhaps how contemporary the humor felt, but it also felt very out of place and awkward more than funny.
I really don’t mean to be so negative, but this movie really did nothing for me. The first one was far from a perfect film, but I remember having so much fun watching it, and still finding some joy on the rewatch. It was charming and different and exciting. With Frozen 2, I was lucky to get through the first viewing.
If you liked it, I’m going to let you have that because honestly it’s not worth my effort to argue. Frozen 2 is a rehash, it’s completely wasted potential. But at least it looks pretty, and at this point that’s par for the Disney course.
Final Grade: C-
