Cruella is a missed opportunity

It seems like every story has either been serialized, rebooted and or needs to have an origin story developed in order to stay relevant. Disney is the latest to take a shot at this with Cruella.

Right off the bat it fails. Why? Cruella does not need a definitive background story to attempt to show us why she is the way she is. Humanizing the villain with more villainous qualities does not mean an origin story clarifies anything. If anything aside from the name Cruella De Vil this movie has zero ties to 101 Dalmatians. Yes 3 vicious Dalmations are present and the implications of more sinister acts were made. This did not feel like the same Cruella that Glenn Close played for one second.

While the set pieces and the film's aesthetic were particularly dark it really did not offer much. It gave Cruella a tragic past marred with death and split personalities and a clash with a fashion icon who we later learn more about. Its soundtrack was simply a slew of rock and roll snippets of popular music during the 70s.

Emma Stone does let loose with the part and has a lot of fun. She is devilishly delightful even if aside from the crazy outfits and the punk rock vibe this film has nothing memorable about it. It's not telling a unique story by just making everything overly dark and dreary. Emma Thompson was also great as the Baroness, a high class fashion icon who will stop at nothing to be the greatest. Her connection to Cruella/Estella is later established as being much more than that of rivals in the fashion world. We do really get to see what makes these two women special in their scenes together. Very much the highlight of the film.

It simply makes no sense in my brain why Disney wants to be recognized for this style of film. It did not have bold and brash statements, it was simply just too dark for kids and was not a movie crying out to be made let alone announcing a sequel to a character who already has been established now with a definitive origin. After Cruella I am not sure where a Cruella 2 can take the story without muddying the waters even more. It was capitalizing on a trend which is now becoming an exploitation of consumers and their willingness to pay for subpar content because it keeps being promoted with words like "edgy" and "modern".

Nothing apparently screams more modern than taking two things such as high fashion and literal punk rock as Cruella attempts a show with music before it is broken up by authorities. I also cannot end this review without talking about one of the worst thought out scenes in cinematic history when Estella "dies" by falling off a cliff so Cruella can live. It makes absolutely zero sense as she floats away after saving herself with a parachute at the last second. It shows that you cannot just take a series of concepts and mash them all together and hope you can turn into a film style goulash. Goulash is good because you know the flavors it generally combines. Cruella is not because it abandons all traditions while still not thinking about its own subject matter and how viewers will perceive it.

Disney obviously sees this film as a winning situation for them having secured solid box office numbers and positive audience reaction. It is just hard for me to buy into when it needlessly darkens the subject matter and removes all the aspects that make it special. It is one thing to be bold and brash. It is another entirely to essentially recreate the foundations of a long standing series you own just to hit a different demographic and core audience. There are plenty of new stories to be told while leaving the classics the way they are or providing audiences with a modern cinematic experience. This was a half hearted attempt to catch up with studios doing darker stories and doing them better.