Disney very seldom lets us down. After all they’re responsible for some of the best family films ever made. But this time… I’m afraid they really dropped the ball with this one. I was a bit concerned going into the theater, given some of the reviews that had come out about it. My concerns were made very real about 10 or 15 minutes into the film, It was then I got the sense of what kind of movie this was going to be. But before I jump straight into all the mistakes that are within The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, I’ll start with some of the nice things about it.
I saw this film in 3D, which made the experience a whole lot better. If you’re going to see it make sure it’s in 3D because it improves the experience by a huge margin. The visuals are for sure the number one/best thing here as they are truly beautiful. And I don’t wanna diminish that because striking visuals are very much needed with this type of film.
Unfortunately, you can’t just make a film look pretty and expect everything else to fall in place. Strong lead performances, a competent script, and a storyline that holds people’s attention are all needed. This film is something very pretty to look at, but aside from that and a couple decent performances there’s really nothing of any quality here.
The list of negatives is much longer I’m afraid For starters, we have two leads who simply have not molded enough as actors to carry a film. Foy gives a largely cringeworthy performance. Then, we have Jayden Fowora-Knight, who is also very inexperienced and at this point just doesn’t have the talent to fulfill a lead character. Oddly, these two are the leads and the more talented, experienced actors have smaller roles.
In addition to the poor lead performances, the story is extremely dull and phoned in. With Disney, you expect something grand and investing, but here it’s just a very poorly strung together, messy story that is devoid of any feeling or emotion. Chemistry is another thing that is completely missing, none of the characters have any chemistry with each other, both the story and performances are to blame for that.
I haven’t seen a Disney film more choppy and poorly written since A Wrinkle In Time, which was great for diversity but terrible when it came to everything else. To be honest, it’s the same thing here, there’s a good diverse cast, which is great to see, but the actual meat of the film is so lacking. It’s disappointing that this fell so flat because I feel like Disney could and should have done so much better with this material. This could have been a very engaging, grand film with strong performances and an interesting story. Unfortunately, Disney chose to phone it in here and give a bland, lifeless story with stellar visuals. No matter how well you dress something up it still doesn’t change what it is at it’s core.
So all in all, no this isn’t worth your money, but if you are hellbent on seeing it, do 3D since it actually looks very good. But I don’t suggest wasting money on this dud.
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