The romantic-comedy Netflix Original “The Knight Before Christmas” is about a medieval knight, Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse), who is transported to present-day Bracebridge, Ohio after having an interaction with a magical sorceress who gave him a magical medallion. He is given a quest and must become a true knight by Christmas Eve, but instead, he ends up falling in love with the main character - Brooke Winters (Vanessa Hudgens). 

     The movie starts off by introducing Cole and Winters living their mundane lives. Winters is a high school teacher that lost faith in love after her boyfriend cheated on her. Meanwhile, Cole is looking to be a successful knight in 1134 Norwich, England. Cole rides to the forest to hunt only to find an old woman who is in the snowy forest alone. He offers to help the woman and take her back to the castle on his horse, so to reward his kindness, she gives him a magical medallion that transports him to the present. 

     Upon his arrival, Cole briefly runs into Winters after she spilled her hot chocolate over his armor, and they both go their separate ways until Winters ironically hits him with her car during a blizzard later that night. Despite Cole not having any injuries, he is escorted to the hospital by a police officer. Instead of getting extended medical help, Winters decided to take care of him and let him stay in her guest house since he had no place to go and she felt responsible for the situation. 

     This movie is not special compared to other Christmas movies, other than the weird idea of there being a knight that is trying to fulfill a quest, which he has no idea what it is. Either way, he needs to finish it before Christmas Eve, but there are no stakes whatsoever, which is another issue with this movie: the lack of excitement. In the end, it is revealed that his quest is to find true love, which is typical of a romantic-comedy movie. 

     There is not much to say about the middle of the movie because it was simply boring. The entirety of the movie was very corny and a little cringy and lacks material viewers crave. It is just an hour and a half of a poorly played out romance. There was little to no action or conflicts and there were no consequences for anything which is the worst part. This movie had the same idea of boy meets girl, girl is not interested, boy does something intriguing, girl is interested, then the boy and girl live happily ever after. If someone makes a Christmas movie, they should strive to differentiate from other Christmas movies. There are so many ways to create excellent Christmas movies, and this movie completely ignored that. 

     One thing that was hard to understand is how Winter’s saw her ex-boyfriend with his new girlfriend everywhere, and he never saw her once. In the beginning of the movie when she brought Cole home, the first thing she did was pull out a box of her ex-boyfriend’s things he left at her house and gave Cole his old clothes. There was a brief period later in the movie where they talked about the ex, and viewers learned that she did not actually love him and knew he was not the one. But instead of breaking up with him as most people would, she decided to remain unhappy. It was actually noticeable she was not that invested in that relationship by her lack of emotion every time she saw or talked about him throughout the movie.

     Towards the end of the movie, Cole and Winters finally have their first kiss, but soon after, the medallion the sorceresses gave him started to light up again, meaning he completed his quest. He decided to go home despite telling Winters he was going to stay in the 21st century. As soon as Cole vanishes and returns to his home, Winters runs into one of her students, Paige, who she told true love does not exist and to focus on her goals. In this scene, however, she tells her the exact opposite and confesses she is in love with Cole. Meanwhile, in Norwich, England, Cole safely returns. Cole confesses his feelings for Winters to his brother, and even though he tells Cole to go back to her, Cole insists on staying for his knighting ceremony. Cole finally gave in and the scene ended with them saying goodbye, which was a complete waste of time. Finally, Cole and Winters are reunited on Christmas day and Cole said some cheesy line, then they kissed, and the movie ended with Cole and Winters riding away on a horse. 

     Despite the movie being approximately an hour and a half, it felt like it was five hours of never-ending cheesy romance. It seemed like there were a lot of scenes that were dragged out, and some that could have been excluded. The worst part is that it is no different than the hundreds of romantic-comedy Christmas movies that are out there. Adding the knight and the play on words in the title makes it stand out a bit more, but it felt like watching a never-ending Hallmark movie. There was not much character development for any of the other characters, except possibly Cole. The only development Winters had was she “learned how to love again” after her boyfriend, that she was not that committed to, cheated on her with another girl. The only “development” Cole had was learning how to be a productive member of society, which is something we all have to do. 

     Overall, this movie earns a 4 out of 10 stars. The lack of excitement and originality makes this movie unbearable, and there is no point in watching it. If someone is looking to enjoy a poorly made Christmas movies, or maybe if they are are looking for background noise to fall asleep to, then, by all means, they should watch this movie, but if not, this movie was not meant for them. The demand for Christmas movies is high around this time, but movies like this should be nothing more than an idea.