My Review of Raya and the Last Dragon

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

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Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This evening, I will be reviewing Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon from 2021. At first, I wasn't interested in checking this out until recently when I was in a happy mood to watch something new. So, just like with the previous Disney movies, I watched this on Disney+ with an open mind and see if it was worth my time or not. After seeing this not too long ago, I must say......it was unsurprisingly dull. It's literally the same story that we've often heard so many times before, and Disney expresses no shame in recycling the same overused tropes, clichés, and subplots with zero originality.

This movie tells us the tale of a land filled with humans and dragons co-existing in peace and harmony. However, evil supernatural beings called the Druun wreak chaos on the land, turning everyone they encountered into stone. The dragons gave up their lives to keep their human companions safe except for one dragon. Years later, Raya must find the last dragon to help her restore peace and stop the Druun once and for all.

Look, it wasn't exactly terrible per se, but it wasn't that good either. I mean, come on, do we really need to watch another movie that tells the same story about friendship, trust, and love only for it to be lazily written in the process? How exactly did the Druun arise to spread chaos and destruction in the first place? If trust is what ultimately saved the day at the end, where was that same trust when everybody was already friends with each other before the enemy took over? Those were some of the questions I had while I watched the film. And the way all the humans from different kingdoms suddenly went on an all-out power struggle for Sisu's gem out of nowhere felt so out-of-place and nonsensical.

Also, I wasn't pleased with the way they wrote the conflict for the plot. It did start off decent at the beginning, but later on, the writing became a lot more predictable and generic. Yes, of course we need to have an antagonist who was actually a toxic "friend" you met since childhood, of course we need to have a heroic parent sacrifice himself to save the protagonist (as expected from classic Disney), and of course we need to have the silly comedic deuteragonist mess things up that will result in the thickening of the plot and for the main character to get upset, start drama, and so on and so forth. Disney, please stop recycling old plotlines and give us something raw and original. But hey, if you have to make a similar story which we've seen before, at least make it more interesting and captivating for the audience. I mean, it certainly didn't impress me, that's for sure.

As always, the voice acting and the animation reign supreme in this movie. Regardless, those shouldn't be the only things to look for in an animated film. The story is the number one thing that matters the most, and if you can't make a compelling story....well, the movie experience isn't gonna be that enriching. This isn't to say that I absolutely hate the story in and of itself, but the way they wrote it was unappealing and predictable.

I do appreciate their attempt in spreading the message about trust and friendship. However, given the questionable character development, the way the conflict was finally resolved felt rushed and stale. Trust is something that has to be earned, and even though Namaari earned it during the heat of the moment, it was rushed and badly paced. By the way, her character was pretty interesting to look at, but the manner through which she turned over a new leaf felt empty to me. I kinda wish she remained antagonistic until she is killed off; for me, it would show that not everyone can be softened by the notions of trust and friendship. After all, she was the one who started the drama since childhood.

With that said, I didn't enjoy this movie. None of the characters were relatable, the story was lackluster, and the drama felt so lazily written I was just bored out of my mind. It's not the worst Disney movie I have ever seen, but they could have done so much better. I give it a 5/10. Keep pushing me with your mediocrity, Disney, keep pushing me. You surely know how to make me roll my eyes.

Peace.

Comments

[A Man Undercover]

Personally, I enjoyed this movie regardless of whatever flaws it may have.

Even today, I still think that it was far better than "My Little Pony: A New Generation" will ever be, especially in terms of...well, everything. Heck, I also believe that Namaari and Queen Virana were better written and developed than Sprout Cloverleaf and Phyllis, and that the heroic characters were more fun and relatable than the Mane 5.

But, that's just my two cents on the matter. Whatever you think of the two movies in general is something I won't stop you on, and I respect your opinions on them. Besides, I find that prospect fun because it gives the impression that we're similar yet different regardless.