Love Christmas with all my heart. Love the fun and nostalgia it brings, and cherish all the time spent with family and friends every year. Decided in 2019 to see some newly released (at that time) Christmas films to broaden my Christmas film horizons (namely those from Hallmark and Lifetime), this turned into a quest that is still ongoing. Feelings have been extremely mixed doing this and even when trying to take them for what they're meant to be some have been lacking (though there have been some surprisingly good ones too).
Didn't care very much for the first two 'Christmas with a Prince' films, a few good things in each but a lot of bad for pretty much the same reasons. Still saw the second sequel 'The Royal Baby' anyway for curiosity, to see whether it was better, same level or worse. 'The Royal Baby' fares worse than both, it has the same few redeeming qualities minus one redeeming merit that 'Becoming Royal' had. But also the same numerous flaws that outweigh the pros, with the worst being executed territory.
'Christmas with a Prince: The Royal Baby' has a few good things. The scenery is lovely to look at. The music captures the festive spirit with great affection, although some of the placement was questionable.
A few parts are cute.
However, there are a lot of bad things. Both leads are poor, with Kaitlyn Leeb being too over eager and Nick Hounslow looks uncomfortable and is very bland. The chemistry between the two is completely charmless and not even there. The supporting cast really overdo it with the mugging embarrassingly and their characters are like exaggerated caricatures (and annoying ones like that) rather than real people. Even Josh Dean, who was a redeeming quality in 'Becoming Royal' isn't good here, from trying too hard.
While liking the scenery and decor, the very slapdash photography gives the film an incredibly cheap look. The direction is some of the most disorganised and leaden for any film seen recently and of all the recently seen Christmas films, clearly having no idea what to do with the story and the direction of the actors. The story is thin as a wafer and also lacking in charm and full of ridiculousness and excessive predictability. It was actually pretty insulting how truly stupid and incompetent Dr Tasha is made to behave.
Likewise, the script still has no tension or emotional connection and is ruined by an overload of the cheesiest of cheese and equally excessive difficult to stomach sentimentality. The story jumps around and is so dreary and predictable not to mention jawdrop inducing daft.
Concluding, very weak. 3/10.
