Skip to main content

Cinderella Review

   

What I liked: The best part by far was the fairy god mother. She was the funnest and most
interesting character presented. It looked like she had fun with the part and she was entertaining to watch. I also liked the transfiguration of the pumpkin, lizards, mice etc. The portrayal of the evil step mother was also excellent though naturally less fun so not as interesting. But I liked her costuming and she was convincingly evil. I also liked that all the colors were so bright through the whole movie, it certainly made it feel more like a fairy land.
What I didn’t: Um, who permitted the step sisters’ outfits. Clearly their mother has much more refined taste so I’m not sure that she was really trying to get them married off to the prince, despite her many exclamations that she was. Possibly she actually wanted them to join the circus, or a tinsle factory, or she had read the story and knew that in the older versions the birds are evil and to be feared-thanks Hitchcock-so she was trying to drive them away with the shiny metal? Also do we need a narrator the entire time? It felt like the old spiderman movies, let me just explain everything for you because we can’t shoot it in a way that you would be able to follow along on your own. Finally, while I know they were trying to get us to like the prince by giving him more screen time we still have the same fundamental problem: they see eachother once and decide to get married. Really you have two options for these stories 1) stick to the love at first sight approach, it’s a fairy tale those kinds of magical things can happen 2) Invest enough time into building a relationship-like in Everafter-that we believe the characters have actually fallen in love. When films try to take a middle road you end up with a love disaster of Hobbit type proportions and we are left thinking “really to be a good king he probably should have married the politically favorable princess” But he ends up with Cinderella because “it was real”
Who should watch this: Kids who love the princess movies.

Would I watch it again? If I want another Cinderella fix I will watch the original animated one or more likely Everafter or the Roger and Hammerstein version.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Titanic

What I liked: Liked is definitely the wrong word for it but the scenes of the sinking of the Titanic were masterful. They were technologically impressive, apparently remarkably accurate, and emotionally gripping. The variety of ways in which different people dealt with a completely hopeless situation was both touching and thought provoking. Especially beautiful was the string quartet. In isolation from the love story, the sinking of the Titanic is a tragic reminder of the cost of hubris and the necessity of regulating emergency procedures and capacities. It carries similar gravitas as a war film. At the 25th anniversary of the film, I can appreciate how Titanic has impacted movies made later.  What I didn't: So here's the thing. I feel very bad for you if you died in the sinking of the Titanic. I feel less bad for you if you managed to get on a lifeboat on the Titanic and then decided to get off. I question all of your decision making and priorities if you decide to get off a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Reveiw

What I liked: For a movie based on what is in essence a fictional encyclopedia, this movie has a surprising amount of plot. Not great plot, but more than I usually get from reading an alphabetical reference book. I liked the dopey sidekick, his facial expressions were great and he was the only one who acknowledged that what happening on screen was not actually normal. I liked that the president led the tiny army of US wizards to their tiny battle in a subway. So as military victories go, this was not one for the history books, for many reasons. But it did lend more meaning to the phrase Commander in Chief. I felt like Dr Who was once again a bow tie wearing socially awkward guy who lives in a box that is bigger on the inside. Some of the creatures were cool but the CGI didn't quite make them alive. I liked the sloth monkey, I don't really know who it was or what it was doing but I would support a slothmonkey planet of the apes crossover. I like that the guy from SWAT has fina...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clear and Present Danger Review

What I liked: it's the Jack Ryan character, he's pretty cool. That's really all this movie has going for it. Oh and the old school hacking. That was fun. What I didn't: it was boring. Boring boring. It took me three sessions to get through it. If I turn on a movie while folding laundry or grading, it has a good 30-45 minutes to get me interested enough to keep watching, that should be more than enough to get past the plot set up to the for stuff. If a film can't grab me in that time, there is a problem. Blah blah evil president, corrupt spies, bad guys. Been there, seen that done better. Also this is medium in Ryan's career, he is acting director of the CIA, should he really be running around asking under machine gun fire? I mean I like me some good explosions but maybe after all this time in  the CIA he would have meet at least one friend who is trustworthy and could come on adventures with him. If there is no other trustworthy decent agent in the CIA...
Post a Comment
Read more