Movie Review: What do these three movies have in common?

 

Movies have a way of influencing our opinions as well as entertaining us. While we celebrate  Women's month worldwide, these are the movies that caught and held my attention:

3. Raya and the last dragon 

2. Flora and Ulysses 

1. Coming to America 2

Some of these underlying issues include: Feminism, Girl power, and struggling families. Did you catch any or all of them? 

Let's find out. 

3. Raya and the last dragon is an action packed  2021 Disney animation. 

Synopsis: In a fantasy world of Kumandra,  humans and dragons lives together in peace, until the dark monsters  Drunn came and threatened  the world.  The dragons sacrificed themselves to save the humans but Kumandra fell apart. After 500 years, the monster returns, and it is up to the brave Raya do save the day.  Can she complete this mission?  Can Kunmadra exist again? Find out in the film. 😁

Review: The first east Asian Disney princess story. Also one of the few princess tales without the storyline of marriage, romance,  or a prince. The film is as heartwarming as you'll expect a Disney animation to be. With enough action, and charm to go round. The dragon's 'dry' jokes tho, I didn't find funny. 

Girl power is what screams at you in this film.  The male characters who are meant to be strong protectors were either incapacitated or outwitted. 

It is also interesting to see that all major voices are of Asian ancestry.  Raya was voiced by Kelly Marie Tran who is Vietnamese,  Sisu was voiced by Awkwafina who is of Korean/Chinese descent, and Namaari was voiced by  Gemma Chan who is Chinese. 

It was rated 7.5/10 by IMBd, 94% by Rotten Tomatoes and 85% by RHD. While I may be sceptical about their method of passing  the message that women are strong, capable  beings, that may not need men, I enjoyed the film.  

2. Flora and Ulysses: A 2021 super hero comedy from Disney, to the whole family. It's tough to come by movies adults and children can enjoy these days.  So I tried not to think too much, and enjoy the story.  😁

Synopsis: Ten year old Flora rescues a squirrel and soon discovers he's has super powers. It's cute watching her trying to convince her dad that such an animal has powers. 

Anyway, once their adventures begin in full, everyone eventually finds out what Ulysses is capable of, and everyone has an opinion on what to do with him. 

Review: Flora's dad writes comic books about superheroes, but finds it hard to sell. Flora's mum writes romance books,  but can't  seem to find inspiration. Might be why they can't see the magic of Ulysses. How did their marriage fail tho?  Is it the norm to be accepted in this 21st century? Are people just too quick to give up these days?  How will Ulysses survive amongst humans?  

Again, the strong-willed girl character is  focal point here.  I'm glad there were active male supporting characters in this story though. It balanced things out a bit.  

It was rated 6.4 by IMDb,  72% by Rotten Tomatoes, and 6.5 by RHD. 

1. Coming to America 2: The 2021 sequel to this 30 year old, legendary Eddie Murphy movie made lots of noise since the first time it was announced. Sadly, lots of people were disappointed. I'd say if you look in the right places though, you'll enjoy the film. 😋

Synopsis: In the African kingdom of Zamunda, Prince Akeem is now King Akeem. He learns that he has a son. The king has to find, and build a relationship with his unexpected heir. This leads him to embark with his friend and trusted confidante Semmi on a new adventure to America where it all began. 

Review: It didn't capture the original magic of the first installment. It really should have been called 'Return to Zamunda' or something like that. 😁 

My first worry was how the news of an unexpected heir  will affect the royal family. Especially the queen. 

The comedy felt forced, raw, and most of the scenes were nolstagic reunions of all the old characters. However, the story did focus on the strength of women, how rules should be changed to let women rule, and how strong women could be in combat with the right amount of training. Again we have some incapacitated and silly looking male characters and I have to wonder: does one gender have to be weak for the other to be strong? 

Spoiler alert(I had to say this.. I'm sorry 😊): General Izzy's scenes made me laugh, his daughter's first scene was bad ass, where did the barking come from...? 🤔

Anyway, It's a film to watch cos everyone will watch, so you have something to jist about.

It was rated 5.4 by IMDb, 50% by Rotten Tomatoes and 4.5 by RHD.  

How many  of these movies have you seen? Did you notice the underlying themes in them ? Share in the comment section below. I'll see you there  😉

XoXo: RHD 💜💜💜