CRUELLA (2021) - A New Look at a Villain

Cruella (2021)
Dir: Craig Gillespie

My Rating - 3.5/5

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I wasn’t much hyped for this one but wow this is good and different from what I had in my mind. The Cruella I knew from 101 Dalmatians was literally too cruel. I said to myself before watching this, if Cruella touches those Dalmatians, I am going to turn this shit off. Nonetheless watched till the end.

The character was carefully and cleverly adapted into a brand new origin story. I don’t know if I’m too early to say this, but Cruella’s original villainous intentions are watered down in this (at least in this). The movie is family-friendly, but Cruella is still cruel.

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Emma Stone is definitely one of the best performers of her era. Her acting in this is beautiful and so real. I really felt the character after Estella turned into Cruella. How she interacted with her friends made me hate Cruella for a moment, how she ruled the work, how she planned her revenge made me love her for a moment. That is good character development right there. Then there is Emma Thompson who also did a decent job portraying another villain in this villainous movie (or anti-villain now?).

The most significant thing about this movie is its costumes. I would be damned if this did not win the Academy Award for Best Costume Designing (but who cares about Oscar now). But I have my doubts about that flaming dress trick in the party. Also, the music is great but sometimes too great it becomes distracting. Found several new songs cause of this though.

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So, the performance is good, the script is ok has a good twist in the middle, humor is good. But there are several flaws too. I am not happy with most of the CGI, some plot points are dumb, and the first half felt like bit rushed. Not everyone can make perfect movies especially when they are based on Disney characters.

Overall, this is a successful attempt at bringing one of the most famous cartoon characters to life, enjoyable despite those little mistakes. Really like the way they changed Cruella's character but now I have to wonder what are they going to do with her next? A good start to a hopefully successful franchise.

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