The Christmas Chronicles Part Two - Not as Heart Warming as its Predecessor but Still got Enough Charms to Lift Christmas Spirit Up

Another Christmas movie was released by Netflix few days ago and it was a sequel to 2018 film which I had not seen yet. Obviously I watched that first before I see this one, but I am not going to write about that movie and go straight to this.

Brief Story Line

2 years after the event of the first film, Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) felt unhappy having to spend Christmas in the tropics with her older brother Teddy (Judah Lewis - I See You, The Babysitter movies etc), their mother (Kimberly Williams-Paisley - Father of the Bride, Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Road Trip etc) plus her new boyfriend and his son Jack (Jahzir Bruno).

Meanwhile a mysterious person (Julian Dennison - Deadpool 2 etc) who was upset with Santa Claus (Kurt Russel - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Deepwater Horizon etc) & Mrs. Claus (Goldie Hawn - Bird on a Wire, The First Wives Club etc) had some villainous plan on the Santa village. Kate and Jack were somehow entangled in this matter and had to lend their hands before Christmas was ruined.

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this nice family friendly Christmas movie.

End of Brief Story Line

You know, when I watched The Christmas Chronicles, I immediately loved that one as from the early part already hinted it would be having some lovely family relationship. And with an unusual type of Santa Claus certainly made the movie entertaining (although there was the part in jail that I personally did not really like as it felt a bit out of place). Anyway, as we are now talking about its sequel, I'll go into more details of it.

For me the sequel seemed to want to show more on Santa, Mrs. Claus and in particular the Santa village with a "villain" who wanted to ruin Christmas. I could sense that it would focus more on the adventures rather than the family values which were quite apparent in the first movie. The shifting of focus here made me felt this film a bit missing the warmth I felt earlier. Yes it is still entertaining and had some fun stuff as well, but somehow it just feel different.

Don't get me wrong though, Kurt Russel still charming as Santa Claus and his chemistry with Mrs. Claus was truly awesome (which should not be a surprise considering Kurt and Goldie had been in relationship for more than 30 years). It was so sweet watching these two as the couple who brings joy of Christmas. And this time, the elves were given larger role and they were really a lot. So if you like those funny elves from the first movie, you would certainly love this one. This also serves as a reminder that if you want to watch the sequel, definitely watch the first movie first to get a better understanding. This movie was directed by Chris Columbus (director of several successful family movies like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, Nine Months, Bicentennial Man and many more) who replaced Clay Atkins's post in the original movie.  

The special effects of this film were quite good. The Santa village were done beautifully, which should make children really happy to see it, and also the realistic reindeers. For a Christmas movie, there were only few classic Christmas song and there was a different kind of Christmas song sung by Kurt himself together with Darlene Love. Btw there was also Tyrese Gibson (Fast and Furious movies, Transformers movies etc) in this movie which was kind of surprising to me. Oh, no mid or post end credit scenes here in case you are wondering.

Overall this one is still a good Christmas movie. It has enough magic for us to enjoy, a lovely and charming Santa & Mrs. Claus, plus some exciting adventures with lots and lots of funny cute elves. Definitely a nice Christimas movie for families to enjoy. However, my personal opinion is the first movie is more heartwarming than the sequel. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars