PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT

RATING:

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Heather Matarazzo, Julie Andrews, and Hector Elizondo. Written by Gina Wendkos, Shonda Rhimes. Directed by Garry Marshall

Rated G

When the first installment of Disney's "Princess Diaries" franchise became a huge box office hit, few acknowledged its biggest asset: Anne Hathaway. Though she is just as attractive and a competent actress with great potential, Hathaway is never mentioned in the press alongside current teen queens Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff. Lohan and Duff both get massive PR attention for their less than stellar outings ("Confessions of a Drama Queen" anyone?). Entertainment Weekly's recent cover story which begged to know who in Hollywood could be the next Julia Roberts, seems like a great segue for Miss Hathaway's next career step. She's even set up with the same director. "Pretty Woman" helmer Garry Marshall also did the honors on both "Princess" movies. Then again, if the soulless sequel that is "Royal Engagement" is any indication, her road to superstardom may come to a screeching halt.

I am not really into kid films unless there are Muppets involved. That being said I just recently started to tolerate kid films because I now have 3 little cousins who watch The Disney Channel the same way radical Christians watch Billy Graham. I was actually tricked into watching the original "Diaries" in-between a marathon of "Lizzie Maguire" and what seemed to be the 1900th airing of "The Cheetah Girls" TV Movie on Disney.

I was surprised that the original film was not as terrible as I thought it would be. It had a good story, good direction, and most importantly good acting by a new breakout star in Hathaway. As for this sequel, she is the only thing that saves this film from being a total waste of time. "Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" is boring, formulaic, and just way too long for it's own good.

Mia, the Princess of the country Genovia, is now a college grad. She returns to Genovia, a country by the way that bares a striking resemblance to Disney World. Upon her return to Genovia she prepares to learn about being the future Queen. She has decided, along with her grandmother (Julie Andrews) to not take on the role of Queen just yet. But postpone it and have Mia learn the royal ways from her Grandmother. Their plan is quickly foiled when Viscount Mabrey (John Rhys-Davies) says that his nephew Sir Nicholas (Chris Pine) is the rightful heir to the throne. With this new development, the only way Mia can assume the throne is by marrying someone in 30 days.

That's the basic premise of the film. And from there, nothing really happens. Headstrong Mia must now get married. We all know what happens next. I actually sat in the theater and predicted everything that happened before it happened and that wasn't a fun experience.

Mia prepares for an arranged marriage to a guy she does not truly love. This of course results in a predictable love triangle with Mia, her Fiancé and the scheming Sir Nicholas, who hatched a plot with his uncle to make Mia fall for him so that she wont get married.

There is also an obvious set up for a "Will they? Won't they?" couple to finally get together (watching the movie you will know who I am talking about). Heather Matarazzo returns for no good reason other than a paycheck (in a best friend role that seemed old in the first film) to make faces and say snide remarks to the uptight people who work in the castle.

Speaking of no good reason, actress Raven (who seems to have lost her last name somewhere) appears in the film wearing horrible clothing as if she borrowed Queen Latifah's wardrobe from her "Ladies First" music video. She has a contrived scene with Anne where they both screech and scream in delight upon seeing each other. I originally thought that Raven replaced Heather in the best friend role, but then Raven disappears for the majority of the film. It then became completely obvious to me that the only reason she is in the movie is to promote the films soundtrack. Here is where the evil corporate machine kicks in.

She magically re-appears and has a musical scene with Julie Andrews and it's supposed to be a touching scene because Julie has not really sang since her 1997 throat surgery. But then here comes greedy Disney, inserting Raven with an over produced, pro-tools enhanced vocal that is louder than Julie's singing. How could they do this to the both of them? While I may not like Raven as a singer, she has good comedic timing on her show "That's So Raven". Speaking of the soundtrack, there are so many song changes during the film that its blatant Disney is shilling the soundtrack. At one point in the film, one song plays for about 30 seconds and then cuts off and is replaced immediately with a silly Lindsay Lohan song where she is yelling about deciding on something. Whatever.

Anne's character Mia does not develop at all in this film. She just changes into lots of different outfits, and grows up a bit more because she decides to begin to do more charitable work for the orphans of Genovia. Awww. Speaking of Genovia, the country just looks so ridiculous at times I was partly wishing for the realism of the sets from "National Lampoons European Vacation" to make a comeback. Every race and language seems to be represented in the country. Where is this utopia supposed to be located anyway? Orlando Florida I assume. I guess it really is a small world after all. And I will not even get into how silly the Genovian Anthem is.

By the end, the love triangle in this film with Mia is resolved but here comes sneaky Disney again setting up another one that is sure to be the basis for "Princess Diaries 3: Michael Eisner Needs A Hit To Pay For His Forced Retirement."

The direction by Garry Marshall was surprisingly lazy. To this day he is still recycling scenes from "Pretty Woman" and I think it's time he put the hackneyed direction to rest. The opening scene of the movie is filmed in a ridiculous fashion. Marshall hides Mia's face for about 10 minutes. We already know what she looks like, why hide her?

The script by Shonda Rhimes (who also had a hand in the Britney Spears flop "Crossroads") is very weak. Need I go further? There is virtually no story to tell here. It all seems like it was written as a quick cash in to a film that was a surprise hit and to bank on the "Princess" franchise. The fresh original did not warrant a sequel.

This film has all the quality of one of those Disney DVD sequels. Anne Hathaway tries her best to make it all work, but my suggestion to her is to leave the Wonderful World of Disney and try to score her a "Mean Girls" sized hit. Her career could greatly benefit from doing so.

"Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" is a film that is merely a two-hour exercise in greed by the Walt Disney Corporation. After suffering a bad year, I don't think that this film will do much to help the studio. And it's a shame since the first movie was of a higher quality. It just goes to show you how you can easily ruin a good thing with a needless sequel.

I seriously don't think any girl younger than 13 would even have patience to sit through a two-hour film where nothing really happens. But the critically lambasted "A Cinderella Story" made a decent amount of money this summer, so I am rating the film on a curve.