Amazon’s Cinderella tries to set itself apart from Disney animations and the live-action film, but it fails in every possible department. Apart from minor things, this movie has nothing good to offer; it is an absolute waste of time to watch.
*This review contains spoilers from the Cinderella movie.*
At first, it might sound weird why there is a Cinderella on Amazon Prime Video and not on Disney +. Most people assume Cinderella is a Disney original princess, but it’s quite the opposite. Cinderella is an ancient tale that has taken many forms depending on where and when it was told.
Most mythologists believe that the first Cinderella story was named Rhodopis. Rhodopis was a tale about an Egyptian king marrying a Greek girl that he found by following her shoes.
The thing about these kinds of tales is that you can change them. Since no one knows who indeed wrote the story, everyone tells their version of it. But not everyone can tell a good version.
In general, Amazon’s Cinderella is the same as Disney’s, but it has its differences. I don’t intend to compare them and say which one is better but instead to review this film. The first thing in every movie like Cinderella that catches the eyes of viewers is the costumes.
The only thing I didn’t have a lot of problems with in Cinderella was the costume design. It wasn’t perfect or ambitious like Cruella, which was released earlier this year, but was well-made. It helps very much to create the atmosphere. Same as the costume design, the set design is also good, but it could have been much better.
After 30 minutes, the movie starts its fall. Everything becomes weak and less valuable with each passing minute. The first thing that made me mad was the literature that was used in the movie. Apart from some words, it feels like the script was written for a modern age Cinderella. I don’t think anyone called their brother or friend “dude” in the period in which the movie is set.
When I see or read a story, I don’t want it to teach me and ideology, whatever it may be. When I read or see a tale, the first thing I want is amusement, not its subcontext. If I wanted to read about ideology, I would have watched a non-fiction documentary or read a non-fiction book.
When I started watching Cinderella, I had one goal, and that was to be amused. I don’t mind a moral lesson in a blockbuster movie, but I don’t want it to be the primary goal. Unfortunately, from halfway onwards, Cinderella took itself seriously. The subcontext becomes the main context. Cinderella transforms from a simple blockbuster story to a feeble written feminism story.
You can change some historical events in your films, but you cannot change the whole history. No queen would ever do something like what Queen Beatrice did at the ending of the film. It would have worked as an excellent joke, only if Cinderella didn’t take itself seriously.
Cinderella apart from being a fantasy romance film is also a musical. Except for the first Hear Yea song and Million to One, the film has no good music. Not only are songs written poorly for the movie, except Camila Cabello, a professional singer, no one else sings appropriately. Not only was the singing terrible, but the cast of the film also did a poor job of acting, even for a blockbuster movie. You can tell from miles away that all the emotions are fake.
The usage of auto-tune is so much that I don’t think they can sing these songs live. And I couldn’t believe it when they used Perfect by Ed Sheeran in the film. That indicates one thing, lazy writing. The worst part is that the writer and director of this film is Kay Cannon, the same person who directed the Pitch Perfect movies.
With enough creativity, a person can make a cliché story work properly. Unfortunately, we don’t see that kind of creativity in the film, and even if there is some, it wasn’t applied well. For instance, in the ball, there is a girl who has shaven her head. It is excellent that we can have different people in the film, but it doesn’t work because no girl in the Cinderella era would shave their hair. The differences between things only work if they are used at the proper time.
As much as the musical part of the film is broken, the comedy is well written. It has some amusing moments, and the jokes are used cleverly. I wish other parts of the film were as good as the comedy.
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Conclusion
Cinderella is a terrible movie that has nothing good to offer. It is an absolute waste of time, and if I didn’t decide to review the film, I wouldn’t have watched it after the first 20 minutes. Costume and set design along with some jokes are the only things that are not broken in this film. Not only are the songs poorly written, but they sing badly as well. From midway, Cinderella transforms in the worst way possible into a moral and feministic film. Not only does it fail to do that, but only ridiculous itself and what true feminism has achieved so far.