Okay, to put my thoughts into a little more words, the movie was fine. It’s fine. It’s not bad. It had a better conclusion that Rise of Red, but ultimately, nothing really mattered in the actual plot. The character development feels… rushed? And half the cast didn’t even do anything.
1) I don’t love Hazel. Her and Luis’s song is just… bad. I’ll say it. It’s bad. Hazel and Luis live vastly different lives. To have Hazel, who has an established sibling and we know how Harry is, act like she did all these big bad things and yet, she’s just parenting the Smee twins half the movie is odd to me. I know that the VKs have to look out for themselves and all, but Hazel spent the entire movie pretending to be selfish and actually just looking out for everyone else. And Luis? I just don’t care about Luis. He’s a thrown in addition to the movie to give Red a love interest so Red and Chloe wouldn’t be shipped anymore. (Fandom will do whatever they want. I know I will still ship them.)
2) Felix, the Smee Twins, and Luis pretty much do nothing the whole film. Hazel and Pink are only necessary for half the time. Chloe has been shoved to the background intentionally. So Max and Red are the main characters the entire movie.
3) I think it’s great that they engaged in the whole butterfly effect with the film but everything just works out for them in the end? Red was a VK. Grew up as a VK. She grew up with a mother that didn’t love her. And I just… don’t feel that the entire film. Pink shows up every once in a while, but there’s nothing Pink ever says that makes me feel like they’re supposed to have known each other their entire lives. The closest I got was the tickle flower/rose? So all the arguments that Chloe and Red have feel… off. Like, yeah, obviously Red would side with the VKs more. She *is* one. She grew up one.
This isn’t to say that Chloe can’t feel like Red is ignoring her and they can have conflict over it. It’s just that the whole thing felt superficial. Chloe and Red have only known each other for a short amount of time and while they haven’t changed, their entire world has. I feel like this could have been explored a lot more thoroughly and without the whole “why are you acting like a villain?” reading that I initially got from it.
4) Chloe being evil feels really cheap to me. It’s just a redo of Audrey. And Max used Chloe the same way Red did and it’s just… never talked about. I think Chloe getting mad at Red was great, but also, friends fight. And Red wanted to engage and have a conversation with her and Chloe just kept saying “well, figure it out! The fact that you don’t know hurts!” When Red is genuinely trying to understand. So Chloe going evil for five minutes of the film and it being fixed by Red singing a song about how they are in this together feels cheap. They just didn’t commit hard enough to it.
And they just don’t… try to explain that “yeah, we fucked with the timeline and actually, neither of us know what is happening.” The entire film. Red just has a sister that she’s never met before. I kept waiting for Red to tell Pink that. I think that was a missed opportunity for real bonding. Yeah, it would be a shock to Pink, but Pink could have used it as a moment to prove how strong she is and that she can do hard things, because Hazel’s pep talk just… existed. And then Pink did the rest of the movie the exact same.
I don’t know. I love this franchise. I just feel like they could do so much more here. It has the chance to be so good. And it’s a fine movie to watch. I just wish it was more.
