Movie Details
Movie: Princezna zakletá v case 2 /Alchemist Cursed in Time (2022)
Director: Petr Kubík
Cast: Eliska Krenková, Natalia Germani, and Marek Lambora
Movie type: Fantasy/Comedy
Release date: 17 November 2022
IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
Languages: Czech.
Duration: 2h 14m
Trailer
Synopsis
This year is relatively rich in domestic film fairy tales. Tomáš Klus returned in Tajemstvi staré bambitka 2, and Jan Budař offered us Princ Mamánek for a more mature audience, before Christmas the Greatest gift about Slavic deities is coming our way, and now Alchemist Cursed in Time 2 has arrived in cinemas. It is a continuation of the “fantasy” fairy tale from 2020, where Natalia Germani as Princess Ellena woke up to the same day again and again. Despite the COVID measures, the fairy tale about playing with time found its audience and the second part (unlike Bambitka) did not take long. And again he will be cursed in time.
The idea of a time loop in the style of On the Edge of Tomorrow, from which the slightly unbearable princess Ellena must untangle herself to find herself, know true love, and save half the kingdom, gave the number one the necessary impetus, with the help of which she was able to break the box of “typical Czech movie fairy tale”. Sure, we enjoyed many opulent shots of Czech castles and chateaux, and the central premise about the power of a magical kiss from true love was not missing, but on the other hand, we got alchemists-sorcerers, witch hunters, spells cut out of Warcraft or Doctor Strange, a novel plot and an overall more modern approach to fairy-tale characters. However, number two goes a step further – the authors decided to completely abandon the fairy tale as a genre and replace it with pure fantasy. Sure, we can debate for a long time where the line is between fairy tale and fantasy, but if we have Zdenek Troška on one side and Peter Jackson on the other, she would like to have the Princess Conjured in Time 2 closer to The Lord of the Rings than the Princess of the Mill. And that is appreciated.
The plot practically returns us to the end of the first part, when it turns out that the rune of time is one of the primordial runes, the most powerful magical runes, guarded by the grand masters of the alchemical order. Well, as it happens, the local Thanos, a mad and power-corrupt Lord of the Runes, decided to take all the Infinity Stones, or primordial runes, to gain and rule the world. Apparently. Therefore, he gathers an army of goblins to attack the local Minas Tirith (the magical city of Ayru alchemists), where one of the last primordials is located. In the meantime, he still has to figure out how to take the rune of time from the young alchemist Amelia (Eliška Křenková), who started a very dangerous game with her. Unlike the first (and despite the title), the story does not revolve around Princess Ellena, but rather around Amélia, which we will enjoy twice thanks to the rune of time. Although it is not very clear where and how the second Amélie got married, it does not matter, it’s just there once and then not again for a while. Because of time travel!
I deliberately did not forgive myself for paraphrasing with Marvel and The Lord of the Rings, because the story borrows the basic building blocks of a typical fantasy story from all possible sources. Don’t take this as a criticism, more of a statement. In short, it was safe here. The time travel itself no longer resembles On the Edge of Tomorrow as in the first episode, but rather Tenet and its reverse action. The wanderings of Amelia and her party are like something out of The Lord of the Rings, as is Ayra’s nocturnal conquest.
However, here and there you will also see fragments of Harry Potter, or rather one of his generics. Ayra’s defense against spells is reminiscent of Doctor Strange 2, etc. Unfortunately, at the same time, there is also a very variable and completely unpredictable change of pace and genres, when fateful moments alternate with grotesque, which can destroy the painstakingly built atmosphere. It is entertainment for children, whose demands for storytelling are not yet that high, but betting on one strong card would benefit the film more than trying to portray the fatality of The Lord of the Rings and at the same time throwing embarrassing jokes at the dwarf František (poor Jakub Ouvín).
I understand that director Petr Kubík and screenwriter Lukáš Daniel Pařík have a close relationship with their fairytale fantasy world and wanted to expand it properly in the new sequel, but for the more mature viewer, there are simply too many conflicting ingredients in that cake. The number of new characters corresponds to a more sweeping plot, on the other hand, most of them should not be there at all, because the script has no space for them. Unfortunately, the plot either has significant gaps in elementary genre logic, or fails to explain essential circumstances and regularities.
The quick change of genres takes away from the atmosphere and the entire finale completely turns the previous plot on its head. But damn it, it wouldn’t matter so much if it wasn’t desperately boring and long-winded in places. The entire plot line with Amelia and the rune of time is rather lifeless, and her effort to control the rune (which logically she cannot control because she did something that prevents her from doing so) is soporific from the point of view of the plot. Dramaturgy, which we often crave here, really deserves more space. And the cut is like a joke.
The main currency remains the fine casting, led by the well-honed Eliška Křenková, whose sarcasm and civil expression sometimes seemed a bit too fantasy-like to me, but in the end, she manages to pull the film together. The villain is great in all his guises (yes, expect a plot twist!) and you have to like Natalia Germani and Mark Lambora just for the number one. Praise is clearly due to the production team, which finally abandoned the familiar environments of domestic cultural monuments and thinning forests and replaced them with sweeping backdrop shots of the fictional fantasy city of Ayra, where we will spend most of our time together with the heroes. The costumes are, as in number one, somewhere between the Middle Ages and Dungeons & Dragons, which fits the overall concept of the film perfectly. Unfortunately, even if we add up all these pluses, they cannot raise the film above the average level. But children those who already find devils and ghosts embarrassing will like it. Just don’t buy them a big coke, the footage is really long.
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