I watched this movie with my almost 7 year old daughter who is absolutely obsessed with Aurora Teagarden (that was her Halloween costume last year). She's a Candace Cameron Bure super-fan, so we were hesitant about this new movie.
I understand the prequel series plan, having lost CCB to a new network. It was the smartest way to keep the series going, without fans throwing a complete fit for recasting the main character. But this new movie fell flat for me. The story was okay, but it didn't connect well to the established story/characters we've come to know and love. If it were a stand-alone mystery, I'd say it was decent. It just lacked a lot of the magic that kept me coming back to the original series.
A lot of the characters that were back as younger versions seemed so drastically different from the versions we have come to know and love. The young Sally is the biggest example. We've never heard anything from older Sally about almost getting married (which they wrap up at the very end by having Aurora say Sally made her promise to never say his name ever again?) and her fiancé being a suspect/criminal. The actress had a whole new take on the character that just didn't fit, in my opinion, after watching 18 films of a Sally I loved. I understand that people change as they grow up, but I don't think the younger Sally fit with the established character. Young Sally hasn't finished her degree and has a blog? Older Sally seems to love her job as a newspaper reporter. I get that blogs were becoming popular in the mid-2000s, but it just doesn't seem like Sally. This version of Sally seemed much more like a modern-day influencer type as opposed to the down-to-earth, simple Sally we know.
Skyler Samuels did okay with the younger Aurora role, but she had huge shoes to fill. Some scenes, I believed she was a younger Roe, but then the next I'd think the opposite.
Young Arthur was also fine. The version we've come to know of Arthur is that of a former flame that has moved on and now loves Aurora as a friend. It's almost like her protects her the way a brother would protect a sister. The version we saw in this film is a young man who has become interested in this girl he knew in high school but hasn't yet dated. So a very different vibe.
As for Aida, the timeline confuses me a little. In "Til Death Do Us Part", Aida said that she wasn't home for the poker game in question because she was just starting her real estate business and worked long nights. How long was Aida's real estate business struggling to pick up? Because that game was "24 years ago" at the time of the wedding, and this prequel movie was in 2008?
Candace Cameron Bure announced her departure from the network over a year ago. They've had that long to craft a story that made sense and would be a good addition to the series. This looks more like a money/ratings grab. Rather than writing a whole new series, they're planning to ride the coattails of the series' popularity for as long as they can. They should've just let it rest.
I understand the prequel series plan, having lost CCB to a new network. It was the smartest way to keep the series going, without fans throwing a complete fit for recasting the main character. But this new movie fell flat for me. The story was okay, but it didn't connect well to the established story/characters we've come to know and love. If it were a stand-alone mystery, I'd say it was decent. It just lacked a lot of the magic that kept me coming back to the original series.
A lot of the characters that were back as younger versions seemed so drastically different from the versions we have come to know and love. The young Sally is the biggest example. We've never heard anything from older Sally about almost getting married (which they wrap up at the very end by having Aurora say Sally made her promise to never say his name ever again?) and her fiancé being a suspect/criminal. The actress had a whole new take on the character that just didn't fit, in my opinion, after watching 18 films of a Sally I loved. I understand that people change as they grow up, but I don't think the younger Sally fit with the established character. Young Sally hasn't finished her degree and has a blog? Older Sally seems to love her job as a newspaper reporter. I get that blogs were becoming popular in the mid-2000s, but it just doesn't seem like Sally. This version of Sally seemed much more like a modern-day influencer type as opposed to the down-to-earth, simple Sally we know.
Skyler Samuels did okay with the younger Aurora role, but she had huge shoes to fill. Some scenes, I believed she was a younger Roe, but then the next I'd think the opposite.
Young Arthur was also fine. The version we've come to know of Arthur is that of a former flame that has moved on and now loves Aurora as a friend. It's almost like her protects her the way a brother would protect a sister. The version we saw in this film is a young man who has become interested in this girl he knew in high school but hasn't yet dated. So a very different vibe.
As for Aida, the timeline confuses me a little. In "Til Death Do Us Part", Aida said that she wasn't home for the poker game in question because she was just starting her real estate business and worked long nights. How long was Aida's real estate business struggling to pick up? Because that game was "24 years ago" at the time of the wedding, and this prequel movie was in 2008?
Candace Cameron Bure announced her departure from the network over a year ago. They've had that long to craft a story that made sense and would be a good addition to the series. This looks more like a money/ratings grab. Rather than writing a whole new series, they're planning to ride the coattails of the series' popularity for as long as they can. They should've just let it rest.