After “Maleficent” earned mixed reviews and made a bunch of money, Disney worked on an unnecessary live-action remake of “Cinderella” starring Lily James as the titular character. Released in 2015, (same year Logic’s album The Incredible True Story came out) it received positive reviews from critics and movie goers alike. Plus, it made enough money at the box office. As I’ve mentioned on my review of the original animated Cinderella, I hated it. It doesn’t hold up. If you’re curious to know why, check out my article.
I have one reason why I’m reviewing Kenneth Branagh’s 2015 remake. Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of “Lilo and Stitch” will be released on May 23, 2025. Around the same time as “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. I’m skipping this unnecessary remake in favor of seeing Tom Cruise awesome stunts.
It doesn’t matter if SPOILERS are listed. We’ve all seen Cinderella countless times.
Polished & Rusty Qualities
Polished: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, (Robb Stark from Game of Thrones) Helena Bonham Carter & Stellan Skarsgard all did a decent job for their respective performances.
Patrick Doyle (Carlito’s Way Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) orchestrated the soundtrack.
Visual Effects are fine.
Costume Designs and Set Pieces were manually crafted.
Cinematography didn’t succumb to technical issues.
Ben Chaplin & Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) make brief appearances as Cinderella’s parents.
Improvements
Better pacing adding more layer to the characters.
- Cinderella (Ella for short) gets characterization. She mourns the loss of her parents. She doesn’t take kindly over Lady Tremaine’s abuse. She always says her mother’s words, “Have courage and be kind.”
- Prince Charming’s renamed as Kit. He’s fleshed out and has more dialogue than the original. Thankfully, he doesn’t attend a “red wedding.” If you know, you know.
- Unlike the original, karma bites Tremaine and her daughters in the rear. They are banished from the kingdom something Walt Disney failed to change the fairy tale’s outcome.
- Tremaine’s mistreatment towards Ella is justified. She lost her husband. Uses Ella as a punching bag. Near the end, Tremaine lets Ella get married. She doesn’t want Ella to follow a similar path. Similar to real life, a friend or loved one encourages somebody to follow his/her own path to prevent history from repeating itself. Life can be cruel for other people. Helping a somebody providing a better future. Tremaine redeems herself at the cost of being shunned by society.
Rusty: Kenneth Branagh didn’t double check Chris Weitz’s script for significant improvements. The latter used to work on great movies such as “American Pie” & “Star Wars: Rouge One.” Upon writing the script for Robert Zemekicks’ “Pinocchio” remake, he lost his mojo.
Tremaine isn’t an old hag. If you’re gonna adapt a evil old lady, apply heavy amount of prosthetic makeup. Besides Tremaine, The Stepsisters are also pretty. The Fairy Godmother’s given a beautiful look. As if Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin came up with the idea making them all beautiful. They’re the same guys who turned “Godzilla” into an iguana in their god-awful remake.
The mice never utter a single word. Let me get this straight. Kit has more lines, but the mice only squeak? That’s like sewing Deadpool’s mouth in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” He’s supposed to be a motor mouth.
The Stepsisters aren’t as repugnant as they were in the original. Could’ve been better if they act hostile towards Ella from the get-go. They’re called ugly for a legit reason. Both physically and mentally.
The remake retains one of Disney’s worst tropes. An early romance between Ella and Kit. If this were real life, it would take a few weeks or months for two people to know one another until a relationship is fully established Don’t give me a poor excuse saying, “But, Nick this is supposed to be a bedtime story for little kids.” I don’t give a crud if it’s a fairy tale written ages ago. If I were around in ancient times, I’d point out the problems.
Kit fails to recognize Ella. How does he identify? Make every woman try on a glass slipper. It’s still present in the original. You have to be a complete moron not recognizing faces.
Random Thought: I’m not into Disney Princesses or Fairy Tales. I didn’t grew up on ’em. My childhood consists of Marvel, “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy,” Toonami, James Bond & Harry Potter. I was raised in a masculine environment.
I didn’t cry when Cinderella’s parents died or gets mistreated by Tremaine. Only movies that made cry are listed below.
- Matilda 1996 (happy cry)
- Interstellar
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Furious 7
- Now Is Good
- Boys Don’t Cry
- Logan
- Avengers: Endgame
- No Time to Die
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The Final Verdict: D, FOR DOGPOOP!
I wanted to like the remake, but it’s on the same quality of top-tier remakes like John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” & Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead.” At least it improved a few aspects regarding the characters allowing me to comprehend their actions. Reminder, I hated OG animated Cinderella. The remake, it’s bad. Don’t bother watching both versions. At least Maleficent was an improvement.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 