Author: Megan Williams

Frozen 2 – Spoiler Review. I am a huge fan of Disney’s ‘Frozen’. I loved the visuals, songs and the characters in the first film and I thought it was clever by going against our expectations of the Disney princess formula. However, even I can admit that the decision to make a sequel to one of Disney’s highest earning animated films was a strange, and unnecessary, choice.

‘Frozen 2’ sees the return of Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Olaf the Snowman, Kristoff and Sven the Reindeer. After hearing voices, Elsa and co. leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa’s powers in order to save their kingdom.

Overall, I thought ‘Frozen 2’ was decent, but nowhere near  as good as its predecessor. While its animation and visuals were incredible, the songs weren’t as strong and memorable as the songs in the first film. The scene that best portrayed Disney’s advancement in animation was either the sequence for ‘Into the Unknown’ (which was boasted by the songwriters to be the next ‘Let It Go’ – a statement I disagree with), or a scene where Anna and Elsa find the remains of their parents’ ship. The close ups of this setting looked like it was pulled out of a live action film! 

‘Frozen 2’ is a lot darker than its predecessor and is aware that its audience has grown up. Anna and Elsa’s friendship are more focused here, now that they’ve reconnected, and I enjoyed seeing them side-by-side on screen. However, the film should’ve focused on the sisters and not included Olaf, Sven and Kristoff. 

Kristoff was completely wasted in this film; his whole story arc is that he wants to propose to Anna but gets left behind in the woods a quarter way through the film. As well as this, Kristoff has a longer song of his own. However, the song, called ‘Lost in the Woods’, was strange and felt out of place. While every other song here sounds like they’re inspired by the musical ‘Wicked’, this song sounds like a rock ballad and feels like it takes up a lot of the running time. 

When Olaf the snowman was first introduced in ‘Frozen’, I was worried that he would be portrayed as a cringey character and used only for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, when it comes to the second film, I was proven right. Olaf is purely featured in this film to give children slapstick scenes or jokes, or to give viewers a recap of the first film. Admittedly, his re-enactment of the first ‘Frozen’ is genius and very funny. However, the rest of his scenes are cringey and unfortunately break up any tension that the film was building up. 

The overall pacing and structure were uneven due to the slapstick forced in; the three previously mentioned characters should’ve been removed entirely, therefore making ‘Frozen 2’ a much more serious and mature film that it desperately needed to be. Some events unfold and are answered too quickly.  An example of this is after Arrendale has been evacuated due to the four element spirits partly destroying the kingdom. Anna and Elsa decide to follow the voice that Elsa has been hearing while convincing Anna that the spirits might be friendly. A split second later, the troll characters from the first film (Kristoff’s guardians) find the two sisters, and the elder troll tells Elsa that the spirits are not friendly. The event unfolds that quickly, therefore not giving the audience a chance to absorb said moment and wonder for themselves.

Overall ‘Frozen 2’ was decent, but a little clunky in places. While the soundtrack wasn’t as memorable as the first one, the animation is incredible, and Disney just keep improving in that aspect. Another script edit would’ve made this sequel a lot tighter and more enjoyable.

3/5

When I was younger, in the early ages of the internet, I remember there being a website called ‘Death Clock’. This was a one-page site that ‘predicted’ how long you had left to live. Obviously, it was not real, however, it did pique the interest (and morbid curiosity) of me and my school classmates. More than 10 years later, and it’s strange to see a film revolving around this idea.

‘Countdown’ is a horror film written and directed by Justin Dec and starring Elizabeth Lail (Once Upon A Time) as Quinn Harris, a nurse who downloads a mobile app called ‘Countdown’. This app is one page that gives you a countdown on how long you have left to live. After downloading it and discovering she has only two days left, she tries to see if she can bypass the system and cheat death.

This should’ve been renamed ‘Final Destination 6’. The concept is extremely similar in that the main characters are trying to cheat death and figure out how to do so. In this sense, the film would’ve benefited from being a fun horror movie with creative death scenes. Instead, ‘Countdown’ is a film that tries to go down the character development route with commentary, technology and our morbid curiosity with the End and demons. Unfortunately, this makes for a less interesting film than it could’ve been.

And, yes, I did say demons.

The film goes into a silly mess once this aspect is introduced and, unfortunately, just gets more ridiculous right up until the great, and unexpected, ending. But, by that point, it’s too late and a film that carried potential is completely wasted. Yes, it has some decent scares in it, and the cast do a good enough job in this but, in the end, this is all undermined by the empty and bland plot.

Overall, ‘Countdown’ was fine. The worst thing that can be said about a film is ‘Well, it had potential’ and this film definitely fits that statement. It would’ve been a lot more interesting if it had replaced the character development and commentary for a mystery plot and creative deaths scenes.

While Elizabeth Lail carried the film well enough and there were some good scares sprinkled throughout, it was not enough to hide this fact. While I wouldn’t recommend seeing it in cinema, it would be a decent Halloween movie to rent later in the year. Order a pizza, get a few friends together and switch the lights off. The Countdown has begun…

3/5