The Princess Switch: Switched Again(2020)- Review
The Princess Switch: Switched Again is a 2020 American Christmas romantic comedy, sequel to The Princess Switch (2018). It continues two years after the ending of its prequel, Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens) being married to Prince Edward (Sam Palladio) is now the Princess of Belgravia and Margaret (Vanessa Hudgens) is to ascend the throne of Montenaro after the death of the king and his successor choosing to abdicate. With the unexpected responsibility bestowed upon her, Margret finds herself in a conundrum and tries to juggle between her personal and her new ‘professional’ life which leads to Kevin (Nick Sagar) and her splitting up. Stacy and Olivia (Mia Lloyd), Kevin’s daughter, are heartbroken seeing this break-up, are trying their best to get them back together. This task is full of difficulties as Margret is fancied by a count/ his childhood friend/ his chief of staff Antonio Rossi (Lachlan Nieboer) who tries to stymie any new developments in Kevin and Margret’s relationship. Stacy hoping for them to get back together suggests doing the good ol’ switcheroo. But things get complicated with the arrival of Fiona (Vanessa Hudgens), Margret’s cousin, who has a switcheroo plan of her own. Needless to say Fiona also resembles Stacy and Fiona.
If you think that the film seems a forced and unnecessary sequel, you are not alone. The film tries to stretch out the story of the original film that too without much thought. Even after keeping very low expectations from the film it is still disappointing. The original film too lacked a good script & screenplay but it still had a little flare to its story which is completely missing here. Vanessa Hudgens tries her best to portray the three different characters, but her efforts do nothing more than make the viewer realise the absurdity of the story. Of course we have seen absurd stories be highly entertaining in the past, but here there are no attempts to make the movie better with other aspects of the movie.
One can hardly make out which side of the Atlantic the fictional country of Montenaro is, with uncanny European accents of the characters and portrayal of American-esque environment in the backdrop. Or even better it may belong to a new fictional continent, who knows. The movie could have been at least named better with something like ‘The Queen Switch’, in line with the continuation of the story.
In conclusion, the film is a thorough let down and barely entertaining. One would be using their time better doing anything but watching this movie.
Acting- 7
Casting- 7.5
Cinematography- 8
Dialogue- 5.5
Directing- 7
Editing & Effects- 7
Sound & Music- 6
Story- 4
Storytelling- 5
Rating- 5.5