A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding is a cinematic turkey with all the trimmings

By Jasmine Norden, Third Year, Psychology

From the mind of whichever producer keeps greenlighting these terrible Christmas films at Netflix comes A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding, the hotly anticipated sequel to 2017’s A Christmas Prince. The only real connection between that film and its sequel is its protagonist’s insistence on wearing Converse at all times.

The sequel begins, as all good Christmas romances should, with multiple establishing shots of New York City. Amber (Rose McIver) is now a professional blogger, who feels strangled by all the rules that come with being royalty.

She and Prince-turned-King Richard (Ben Lamb), the ruler of a fictional country called Aldovia, are still engaged, and still in possession of absolutely zero chemistry. The tone of the entire film is set early on, when we are informed of what Amber and the King have been doing for the past year via a montage that looks like it uses PowerPoint slide transitions.

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

The best aspect of The Royal Wedding is its attempt to insert some hilariously clumsy politics in between all the romance. The King has come up with an economic revitalisation initiative called ’New Aldovia’, which we’re never really told the actual purpose of. Unfortunately, this new initiative has caused many of the citizens of Aldovia to lose their jobs, and they are understandably not particularly pleased.

This brewing political tension is expertly demonstrated in a scene where the people of Aldovia protest at one of King Richard’s speeches, holding signs with very political slogans such as ‘This is Aldovia’ and ‘WHY?’ Kendall Jenner would be proud.

The King is frustrated at the workers’ anger, and we’re clearly supposed to sympathise with him and the rest of the Royal Family when a strike leads to the Princess’ play being cancelled. Here’s a thought: maybe pay your workers, King Richard?

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

The apathy of the Royal Family to the problems of their people is so wonderfully dense, perfectly summed up in a scene where the King’s mother is reading Christmas cards. She comes to one from someone bemoaning them for all the layoffs, and closes it abruptly, saying ‘this one isn’t very festive’.

Of course, all these problems are resolved when Amber reminds us that she used to be an investigative journalist and goes on a mission to uncover the culprit for discrepancies in the Kingdom’s finances, culminating in her threatening the man responsible with a bow and arrow. This film truly does transcend genres.

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

Everything is resolved in the space of less than a scene and all the workers are reinstated; the fact that the Royals didn’t care in the slightest about them before is quite conveniently forgotten. Perhaps the inherent problems with capitalism will be explored in the next film: ‘A Christmas Prince: The Revolution’.

We do indeed end with the titular Royal Wedding. In a frankly horrible throwback to the first film, Amber is wearing sparkly converse under her dress to remind us she’s “still her”. Other highlights not mentioned include: every vaguely shocking scene being punctuated with a slow zoom in on every character’s face; a green screen in a sledging scene that makes no attempt to be subtle; and a bizarre side plot about a Russian chef whose tragic backstory basically comes down to her feeling a little bit nostalgic.

Every single part of this film is one-star standard, from the acting to the editing, but it’s so entertainingly bad it’s almost worth watching. If you’re looking for one truly awful film this Christmas, make it this one.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding is streaming now on Netflix.

Featured Image Credit: Netflix / A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding

Will A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding be on your Christmas list this year?

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