journal features

movie review - Descendants 2

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2019.07.28

When I reviewed the Disney direct-to-whatever movie "Descendants" two weeks ago, my hasty review contained a lie.

> about the only thing I can say for it is that there aren't sequels

This is incorrect, dear reader. For there is in fact a sequel and now I have seen. This movie raises important philosophical questions like : Why? Why did they make a sequel? And eventually, why did I have children? And finally, did I do something to deserve this?

The melodrama is back but now there are no adults to anchor the thing. There are still songs and camp and mugging for the camera, of course, and a tissue-thin plot involving said melodrama.

Not recommended. I don't think it even holds as much for the kids as the first one.

rand()m quote

In the wake of 9/11, we [in America] have made the decision as a society that we can never again create something in which we can take pride, for fear that someone will destroy it. Moreover, we must suppress any trace of individualism, lest someone have the desire to rise above the bland sameness that protects us. I have, alas, no idea how to recapture our courage.

—Anonymous post to boingboing.net, 2009