Descendants: The Rise of Red

Positives are this movie is fun with good performances and lots of good musical moments.

It's costume designs and visuals are top tier for a straight to Disney+ movie, seriously the CGI was surprisingly good. (Like better than a lot of recent blockbusters I've seen) Rita Ora gives such a delicious performance as Queen of Hearts, she's the easy standout and has a real classic Disney villain vibe to her. The fun evil kind with a great evil laugh. Brandy as Cinderella is also amazing, she has a warmth and calmth that make her so motherly while also being so regal and her contrast with the Queen of Heart just works so well! The first Act of the movie sets up the plot well and was my favourite.

Negatives are well the writing and character actions are certainly off, particularly after Act 1. But what lets this movie down is the ending. Without spoiling, it's certainly not satisfying and makes you go wait it's over? While the cast are all teasing a sequel it makes me feel they rushed to the end and wasted lots of the build up throughout just for a potential to return to it later rather than properly fleshing out the story and developing it's new characters with the first movie. Every character feels underdeveloped and like they did very little because, in truth, very little actually happened.

Still though I'd recommend but I hope the sequel actually feels complete and doesn't opt for setting up a 3rd movie.

Not gonna lie, I was STUPID excited when I saw Brandy was going to be Cinderella. She's my favorite version of the character. I think I was more excited to see her than anything else. And I was happy they got Paolo Montalban to come back as Charming.

And I loved Jeremy Swift as Merlin. He was just like the one from Sword in the Stone. Made him a delight to watch.

For what it is, an adolescent fantasy movie, I really enjoyed it. Music had more of a rock feel then previous Descendants movies. Cast was fun to watch.

The writing could have used a little more work. Feels like they were trying a little bit too hard at times.

Says a lot about a film and its prospects when only 2 of the original cast are involved. Not only that it is flat from the get go that Kenny Ortega's directing/ choreography is not included in the film which just puts a dampener on the whole film. Overall the film isn't the most terrible thing to have ever watched and a good one for younger ones (watched with a 9 year old who loved it). Plot holes especially towards the end of the film and many things that just don't make sense. A highlight of the film was by far China Anne McClain's performance of Uma, very excited by the reprise of "What my name" from the second movie a great feature for older views who grew up watching the original film(s).

Exactly when the movie seemed to redeem itself, like it was finally heading on a better path- it abruptly ended. I understand the writers might want to leave an open window for a potential 2nd movie, but I think the plot could have been worked with in order to give us something else. There are thousands of ways they could have made this, and the result certainly wouldn't have been this quirky, edgy failed attempt to what could have been otherwise an interesting film. They somehow created sparkling details- the atmosphere, the confrontatione, even the characters were interesting enough, and I adore Red, I see pontential in her character development. But it totally lacked what the original series had: good songs, and the magic that overall glued all the other elements together.

The songs have absolutely nothing near the vibes of the original series. I would rather say all the songs sounded like badly timed pop songs. All the essence from the original series- gone.

This gets 1 higher mark purely for how beautiful they made Wonderland look, and even Merlin Academy.

Like everybody else, I had higher expectations. Like Red & Chloe, I wish I had a time-turning clock, so I could give this movie a higher time-ranged, and a not-so-rushed plot.

I loved the first 3 Descendants movies and was super excited to see what Rise of Red would do now that most of the original cast didn't wanna come back. Started out super strong with both Chole and Red's intros. I wish they stayed in the past a little more and extended the end giving it a bit more impact than what they did. Some of the songs I agree were a bit unnecessary for plot progression. Costumes were pretty good and felt like they would do nicely next to the OG Vks. I will say that we could have spent more time in Wonderland with Red seeing more of how life is there. I feel like seeing a young Maddox would also have been neat as well. There was definitely a missed opportunity to have the time machine break and have young Maddox fix it. As well as the Queens maybe remembering that they saw their daughters in the past. Just also making the ending longer would have been great.