Lachlan Montgomery

I love this movie. Despite being cliché and predictable in its writing, this film somehow surprised me with every turn, perhaps due to the sheer audacity the writers show. As soon as you get settled in the weirdness, you’re thrown into a poorly-synced musical number or goofy special effects, both surprisingly endearing in a movie like this. Of course I have to say that the villain, Simon, is a highlight of the film for me, being the ONLY rational character that gets any development. The political themes are strange and unexpected, but only tie into the chaos of this horribly lovely movie. Give it a watch.

I ironically quite enjoyed this movie. The whole thing shows shameless disregard for historical accuracy, which gives the film a certain charm comparable to “A Knight’s Tale.” The songs almost all feel like they were picked from a hat. I don’t think making Cinderella a jukebox musical was a bad idea, per se, but the songs picked have very little synergy with the story, making up too much of the run time without progressing the story in any real way. Camila Cabelo’s songs also had some dubbing match up errors that were distracting. However, I was amused by how the musical numbers were shot like a music video. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I appreciated it. The musical numbers that were written for the film were by no means ingenious, but they filled their purpose. The costumes, hair, and makeup were hilariously inconsistent, ranging from baroque period nobility to modern street fashion. As said before, there is some charm to this, and I get what the creators were going for, but the attempt backfired, making the world building quite puzzling. I find that the movie had its funny moments, though there was a lot more ‘cringe,’ ironically funny humour than actually effective jokes. For me, Minnie Driver and Pierce Brosnan as the king and queen somehow stole the show. After the Mama Mia! movies, it was an absolute joy to see Brosnan’s singing played for laughs. Tallulah Grieve as the princess was quite a bit of fun as well. Everyone else had a lot of ups and downs. Ultimately, this new Cinderella is nothing to write home about, but it’s a fun watch if you’re bored.