The fourth installment of the hit kid’s movie series Descendants has been out for a bit, and the reviews lean negative due to the quality of the movie.
Many people point out the drop of quality in the movie’s costumes, backgrounds, writing, and editing. From the way the character Chloe Charming’s wig kept changing throughout the movie, to commenting about how the outfits look right off the walls of a Hot Topic, blaming the fact the costume designer for the previous installments of Descendants didn’t return for the fourth one. Critics also talked about the settings of the movie being low quality. A main one audiences talk about is when the two main characters went to their old parent’s school Merlin Academy. Saying the wall looked unfinished, the plants looked fake, and the overall atmosphere didn’t seem like students actually went there. They compare to how the school Auradon prep felt lived in and a established school that a person could walk around in with many different areas of the school, while the one in Rise of Red only had about eight to ten different rooms of the school, while at the same time the settings were really small, and felt tight.
The writing of the movie is what most people dislike. The internet has had their thoughts on how most of the movie is exposition, barely leaving space for an actual plot progression. Rise of Red spends most of the time explaining the two main characters, Red and Chole, plus their moms. It also explains a lot of the villains’ and heroes’ backstories, which people seemed to think was about eighty percent of the movie. The rest of the plot, besides exposition, didn’t make too much sense to audiences either. It had a lot of plot holes in the world building, and went back on statements they had made previously.
The editing of the movie didn’t save it either. Many of the movie cuts between the shots taken don’t make sense. Two scenes that critics keep coming back too is when the main character Red falls from a pipe. As the scene plays out the audience members watch Red get dropped into a pipe from a high distance and end up laying softly on her bed on the other side. People have deemed this to make no sense whatsoever. The other clip talked about is when Chole and Red start struggling with one another. Chole is trying to pull out her sword to defend herself against Red, it is implied that Red doesn’t want that, and rushes over to prevent her from doing so. Once the audience gets a close up of the fight, the sudden cuts make it look like Red is actually trying to help Chloe pull out her sword.
Now some people think this is all because of backstage changes. An example being the director change from Kenny Oretega, who did the first three movies, to Jennifer Phang. Also the fact that most of the original cast members of the first three movies are not present. Many OG fans complained about that fact, saying without them the movies would never be as good without them.
Which leads to the opposite perspective of viewers actually enjoying the movie. Some older viewers found it unserious and fun, making it a good change of pace than the previous that had a little more serious beats.
What a lot of older fans don’t remember is that the movie is also made for the next generation of kids. While the people that grew up with the franchise may now find these aspects stupid or dumb in newer movies. Also some treat it harsher because it might not have the content they expected. A lot of kids had enjoyed the movie for what it’s worth.
Aria Anderson states, “Personally I loved the movie, but more in an ironic way. As someone who grew up with the Descendants movies, it was really fun to watch a new one. I know it wasn’t necessarily a good movie but I very much enjoyed it because of how stupid and ridiculous it was. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to watch an awful movie with no plot, but still enjoyable.” Another fellow student that watched the movie states, “I enjoyed the movie, I love descendents, it was extremely entertaining, and it’s a super fun movie. Objectively, the movie is not a masterpiece, it’s not the best, but i think people are being too critical. It’s made for a younger audience and it gets the job done a hundred percent! I am a descendents defender for life! I love this movie! It’s stupid and cute, and people need to learn to be more whimsical!” While the student acknowledges the flaws they still love the movie!
While some say it might be a cash grab due to the film’s low quality. It hasn’t stopped die hard descendants fans from enjoying the unserious mood, singing along with the catchy tunes and letting the movie be.
