The Christmas Chronicles 2
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 Holy Jingle Bells! -Kurt Russell as Santa
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The Christmas Chronicles 2 (titled The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two on-screen) is a 2020 American Christmas comedy film directed and produced by Chris Columbus, who wrote the screenplay with Matt Lieberman. It is the second installment in The Christmas Chronicles film series. A sequel to the 2018 film The Christmas Chronicles, it features Kurt Russell reprising his role as Santa Claus. Also reprising their roles are Goldie Hawn, Darby Camp, Judah Lewis, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, with new cast members Julian Dennison, Jahzir Bruno, Tyrese Gibson, Sunny Suljic, Darlene Love, and Malcolm McDowell. The film had a limited theatrical release before beginning to stream on Netflix on November 25, 2020.
Plot
Two years after the evens of the first film, Kate Pierce and Jack Booker are transported back to the North Pole after falling into the hands of Belsnickel. After being rescued by Santa Claus, the 2 must reunite with him to save Christmas before it gets ruined by Belsnickel.
Bad Qualities
- Like its predecessor, the film is nothing but yet another typical and generic "sAvE ChIsTmAs!" story that has been done so many times (and maybe even better). In fact, the entire movie is filled with cliches and unoriginality and feels like it was rushed just so kids stuck at home during the pandemic would have something to watch (to add insult to injury, despite being barely longer than the first film, it feels way too short).
- We're introduced to some new characters, specifically Jack Booker and his father. Jack Booker replaces Kate's brother, Teddy Pierce, as Kate's sidekick for the film, except he has no character value. He's constantly the annoying positive one that never changes at all. He even also believes in Santa, which barely affects him once he meets him.
- There's also a villain, unlike the first film, who happens to be the generic "castaway" villain and only wants to destroy Santa's Village because he's mad at Santa.
- Terrible acting, save for Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, although especially for Julian Dennison (known for playing Firefist in Deadpool 2), since he sounds very monotone and bored out of his mind.
- The Elves are massive rip-offs of the Minions from Illumination, the foreign Trolls from Trolls: World Tour, and in one way, the naughties from The Smurfs 2 since they only serve a sub-plot where Belsnickel's sidekick elf uses blue powder known as "Elf Bane" (which is just the elf equivalent of crack cocaine) and makes the elves insane, only for Jack to go find a berry to make red powder to cure them.
- As for the Minions, they both share very similar behavior, since they only serve as servants for the Claus couple (particularly Santa) and speak in a near-Gibberish language (possibly similar to Minonese). They also appear to have the "cute" and "furry" look just for the sake of this movie being targeted towards children. Another point is when they become insane, which is similar in Despicable Me 2 where the Minions turn evil when given a purple serum.
- As for the foreign Trolls, the film tries to experiment with them, going as far as to create a new tribe of elves called the Forest Elves. Although they do serve some elements for the plot, it's kinda pointless and there could've been really other ways that the plot could advance without them. If anything, the Forest Elves only exist for the sake of being a cute childrens' movie.
- As for the Naughties, the elves, when evil, resemble the behavior of these characters.
- Not to mention Belsnickel's elf sidekick Speck seems to disappear from the story midway with no proper explanation as to what happened to him.
- The CGI and special effects are absolutely awful, as it all looks like it was made from the early 2000s, and compared to other movies like Hellboy or the live-action Scooby-Doo movie. The aforementioned elves are actually ugly and a bit nightmarish to look at.
- The film introduces some of the dumbest information about the elves. According to a story Mrs. Claus reads to the kids, there is an Elf code that includes 5 strikes all involving naughty behavior, and if they break the Elf code, they get cursed, which is literally an elf turning into a human (and the irony is, elves were first hunted by humans), and is proven by Belsnickel, the villain. But, if they just believe, they turn back to an elf, again, proven by Belsnickel in the end. In a nutshell, it literally has the urge to shoehorn the "believe in yourself" message.
- On top of that, Belsnickel is way too easily forgiven by the Clauses, Kate, Jack and the other elves, considering he sent Jola the Yule Cat to scare the reindeer off (only for Jola to attack one of them), had the star of Bethlehem destroyed, poisoned the elves with Elf Bane which would make them go rambunctious, and overall nearly ruined Christmas over the most petty reasons. There's no way he'd be welcomed back into the village with open arms after everything he's down.
- Painfully unfunny humor relying on puns and Christmas pop culture references. The biggest offenders are Santa's "Holy Jingle Bells!" shout, the theater in Santa's Village playing Elf for free, and the same time having elves skate around an ice rink similar to the beginning of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- There's a flashback from the first movie where the elves are seen flossing, which makes this particular scene dated on arrival.
Good Qualities
- Despite being predictable, the ending is actually pretty good, since Belsnickel does revert to an elf and reunites with Santa.
- Another heartwarming moment is when Kate finally meets his dad as a kid in 1990, except for out-of place musical number.
- Kurt Russell as Goldie Hawn do a near-pitch-perfect job portraying the two Clauses, to the point where even people who don't like the overall movie will admit to enjoying these two.
- Santa's (or Saint Nicholas') origin story of how he discovered the joy of giving, met up with the elves and became the famous icon we all know, is incredibly well done, and it really shed a whole new layer to depth to the character, making him more enjoyable.
Videos
Reception
The Christmas Chronicles 2 received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, earning a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, claiming it was inferior to the original. Audiences gave it mainly negative reactions, with a 44% audience score on said website, as well as a 6 on IMDb. It also has a 51 on Metacritic.
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