Cruella Movie Review

Who would have thought that Disney's attempt at Joker would turn out to be one of their more original products. Though technically a pseudo-prequel to its animated predecessor, Cruella is nevertheless part of Disney's long line of live-action reinterpretations of classic animated films, some of which have been well received, and some not so much. Does Craig Gillespie's attempt at a fashion driven psychopath break the mold?

My Quick Thoughts on the Other Live Action Disney Remakes

There are two remakes that I have enjoyed up until this point, and oddly enough, they're the ones that arguably stick the closest to the originals; Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella and Jon Favreau's Lion King. The rest, for me, can't seem to decide whether they want to be the originals or if they want to be their own thing. Jungle Book, for instance, is sort of a remake of the animated film but also sort of an adaptation of the book.... Sort of. On top of that, though, some of them try less to stay true to what made the originals classics and instead turn them into whatever's popular at the time, like turning Sleeping Beauty into Wicked, turning Mulan into a superhero, or turning Beauty and the Beast into a young adult story, right down to getting the director of Twilight. Speaking of directors, though, some of them have solid ideas for reinterpretations, but choose entirely wrong directors. The idea of bringing Aladdin to the modern age Bollywood style is a great idea, but Guy Ritchie has no experience with children's films or musicals, and yet he's brought on to direct a children's musical. The idea of Hook, but with Winnie the Pooh characters is clever, but Marc Foster is.... Well, Marc Foster.

To sum it up:

-If you're going to be different, be different

-Don't give into the latest fad

-Pick suitable directors

I bring all of that up because, thankfully, Cruella does all three of those things and more.

The Story

The film follows a girl with a passion for fashion named Estella, played by Emma Stone, who lost her mother and started a life as a thief at a young age. Years later, her two partners hook her up with an opportunity that leads her to a well acclaimed fashion icon known as The Baroness, played by Emma Thompson. However, as more and more secrets get revealed about her, Estella decides she wants to ruin her reputation by upstaging her under the alias Cruella.

What Doesn't Work About It

The Opening is Rushed

This is the exact same issue I had with the remake of Aladdin. The opening hits a ton of bullet points and takes little to no time to breathe. I thought this would be another remake dud when it first started, but luckily, that pacing only lasts in that opening.

Side note: Yes, I do think it's silly that the black and white hair is Estella's natural hair.

The Narrative is a Tad Crowded

The focus of the film primarily is the rivalry between Cruella and Baroness, but that rivalry does ultimately have a lot to unpack. The film goes from a heist to a montage of Cruella's shows to this big twist that ends in this final battle.... If the film just picked one of those things to focus on, it could have been something great.

Other Bits:

-There are a ton of CG animals that might be distracting for lovers of real animals

-Emma Stone's narration feels forced

What's Good About It

Emma Stone and Emma Thompson are Superb

These two nail their roles. Emma Stone makes the transition from girl who thinks she's a fashion genius but still wants to make her mom proud to cold, detached, ravishing Cruella smoothly. Emma Thompson makes for her perfect rival as well as someone to challenge Estella as she makes the transition.

The Film Has the Best Direction of All the Remakes

The whole film feels like a passion project, not something cold or calculated like most of the other remakes, but something that someone wanted to put together. It has a great sense of visual storytelling and just oozes in style.

Other Bits:

-The music is suitably old fashioned

-The other performances are serviceable

Where Should You See It? In Theaters

It took me a little bit to think about it, because there's not too much that would necessitate seeing it on the big screen, but there's nothing that just screams Disney+ either. My tipping point, however, is that this is the kind of remake I want to see get a big budget. The cold, calculated remakes similar to Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast can head down the Disney+ toilet, but original visions like this deserve the big screen treatment.

Overall Thoughts

Cruella is one of the better live action reinterpretations of classic Disney films. It's an unabashedly original vision with outstanding direction and phenomenal performances from Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. It has some narrative shortcomings, sure, but not enough to throw it completely off course. Don't miss this one, folks!

My Rating:

Mortal Kombat (2021) Movie Review

Give them some credit, they did create the film equivalent of a fatality. Based on the popular fighting game franchise, Mortal Kombat is the second attempt at a film adaptation after the 1995 film received backlash for being a PG-13 version of an essentially M for Mature arcade game. Now, it's a hard R for the franchise, and people couldn't be more excited. With that said, will the gore help the film earn a flawless victory, or should you save your quarters? (I refer you to my opening line.)

My Thoughts on the Games

I can't say that I'm a huge follower of the games, so I don't know for sure how closely this movie or the previous movies follow them. I had the Super Nintendo game growing up (which was the version without the blood, mind you), and it was a decent fighting game to pick up and play every once in a while. It had a wide variety of characters with a wide variety of abilities.

My Thoughts on the Previous Movies

At a time when Yoshi was a velociraptor and Guile from Street Fighter was foreign, it was easy to see why this 1995 adaptation was considered the highlight of video game movies, simply because it was the first one to actually look like the games..... But I'm not sure if that alone makes it a good movie. By staying true to the cookie cutter characters that players could easily understand as they're quickly trying to select characters to fight with, the result was.... Well, cookie cutter characters. Besides that, the fight scenes, without the intense gore that the games were famous for, mostly came off as generic martial arts stunt work. It did its job and nothing else.... Which is more than I can say for its laughably abysmal sequel.

Now, on to the actual movie.

The Story

The film follows Cole Young, the descendant of Hanzo Hasashi (aka Scorpion), whose family held the reputation of representing Earthrealm and defeating Outworld in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat. He, along with Sonya Blade, a conspiracy theorist who's been researching the tournament all her life, her friend Jax, and an assassin named Kano, are being hunted down by Outworld's assassin named Bi-Han (aka Sub-Zero) until they retreat to a temple with the elder god, Rayden, to each unlock their "arcana" to defeat Bi-Han, along with his leader, Shang Tsung, and the rest of his assassins.

What's Good About It

The Blood Level is Through the Roof

Like I said earlier, I played the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat growing up, so I didn't think too deeply about the lack of blood in the 1995 film, but if that's your biggest concern, you shan't worry here. This is not only a hard R, it's a creatively hard R. There's hearts ripping out, guts spilling everywhere.... There's enough blood here to fill a pool!

Other Bits:

-The action is well choreographed

-The few moments where the Mortal Kombat theme is played are awesome

-The effects are better

What Doesn't Work About It

The Story is Overly Complicated

Thanks to this film, this is one thing I learned to appreciate about the 95 movie. As cookie cutter as its characters are, the story was straight forward: Three talented fighters were selected to compete in a tournament. This one throws in conspiracy theories, backstories, training segments.... In the 95 movie, they were already skilled, but here, they try to squeeze in this idea of finding their "arcana;" nothing inherently wrong with that, but it leaves little to no room for the fighting, and when they do get to the actual tournament, it comes out of nowhere and catches you off guard.

Kano is Mind-Numbingly Annoying

At first, I liked Kano's sarcastic tone and witty remarks, and I thought he was going to be the energy that carried this movie to the end, and that's definitely what they go for. However, after hearing that exaggeration for about twenty minutes, it overstayed its welcome and I was just about ready to scream "SHUT UP!"

Other Bits:

-The non-theme music is forgettable

-The action is repetitive

-The characters are also cookie cutter here

Where Should I See It? HBOMax

I saw this movie in a Cinemark XD theater, and I don't feel like the theater experience enhanced it at all. It had very few larger-than-life moments (the above picture being the only one I can think of), and it comes off more like the kind of movie that you'd watch at a house party. I could just see a bunch of guy friends shouting "OHHHHH MAAAAAN" at the gory moments.

Final Thoughts

Mortal Kombat is easily the weakest video game movie to come out in the past two years. It was nice of the producers to give us an R-Rated gorefest after the PG-13 snorefest, but by running wild with that gimmick, it forgot the most essential parts of a solid script: a simple story and interesting characters. If the gore and action alone do it for you, power to ya, but for me, this one just eats up my quarters.

My rating: