Y’all, I had such high hopes for this film. I thought it looked awesome, the story was unique, and who doesn’t love a story about dragons? About halfway through, I turned to look at my brother in the theater and gave him a look of, “This is not a good movie.” He gave me a look that said, “Yup. Really not good.”
Now, before I go on with my remarks, let me say this: even though I didn’t think it was a good movie, I still enjoyed it. The graphics (per Disney-usual) were incredibly mesmerizing and I thought the score was very interesting to listen to. There were some moments that were genuinely funny and I think it had a few plot points that were unique and put a cool spin on the fantasy genre. So don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Boss Baby bad. But still, I have quite a bit to say about what I didn’t like.
Like the title of this piece says, the dragon was probably the worst part of the whole movie. The first part of the film explains how the world was destroyed by creatures called Druun, and the only hope is to find the last dragon. The characters spent a lot of time building up the dragon to be this fantastic, mythical creature. But when Raya actually meets the dragon (Sisu), it turns out that she was actually one of the lesser dragons, and she’s kind of clueless to the ways of the world. That I don’t mind. Sisu’s personality, however, is quite obnoxious. She spends basically the entire rest of the movie making bad jokes that don’t ever land quite right and ruining any tension that might’ve been building in the story. I don’t mind a clueless character, but the comedic writing/timing was really not there.
The other main issue I had was the contradiction in worldbuilding. The story took place in a mythical place called Kumandra, yet there are several moments that seemed very modern-day America. Even though it seemed like they were old-fashioned in a lot of ways (still using swords and having modern-day technology) they use language like “dragon-nerd” and concepts like “credit.” It would completely take me out of the story and make me wonder what time period this was actually supposed to be taking place in. There’s even one part where Sisu shapeshifts into a human, but her hair is blue and purple like her dragon fur is. Even so, no one bats an eye at the weird hair color. So are they able to bleach and perfectly dye their hair in Kumandra? Even though it’s supposed to be a dying world? I wish there was a little more thought into creating a cohesive culture for the world.
Overall, Raya and the Last Dragon is not a bad movie. It’s simply mediocre. I feel like Disney and Pixar have led us on to expect spectacular things from every movie that they create, and that’s just not always the case. It’s still an enjoyable film and the artistic value probably makes it worth seeing in theater at least once, but I have a feeling it’s going to be forgotten pretty easily.
One final note: the opening short, Us Again, was (in my opinion) better than the entire film that followed it. So definitely check that out once it’s on Disney+.
Spoiler Alert is an Opinion culture column used to give reviews for movies, television shows, or other related media.
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