Cinderella

[prettyxcool]

Thanks to a friend, who got me invite only tickets to Cinderella for this morning at Odeon Leicester Square, I arrived at 9.30am for a 10am door opening to find that only people holding physical glossy tickets were allowed in first, even though SFF ticket holders had been queueing earlier. Basically, those with the glossy tickets rolled up at 10am and afterwards, and just walked in without queuing. Finally, just before half past 10, they decided to let a few SFF ticket holders in, and they did not even check our tickets.

As expected all the good seats were taken. Anyway, a little later, I went back downstairs to get a picture with Prince Charming and the glass shoe, I saw the queue for SFF ticket holders were still very, very long and they were not letting anymore in, while they were still letting people with glossy tickets in. I wonder if anyone got turned away. Glad I did arrive early to be at the front of the queue, nevertheless.

The usual fun in the foyer, with a lot more face painters and nails being done, and lots and lots of cute little girls in their princess dresses. Lovely to see Izzy with tilly. Cannot believe how much she has grown.

We were treated to two trailers, one was Pixar's Inside Out (so funny) and Frozen Fever (exclusive first screening in the UK), where Elsa is ill, with a fever and continuously sneezing with ever so funny results.

Cinderella is best when there is magic. Some parts felt too sugary sweet and the pacing was quite slow. Did not help when there was surround sound of noisy rustling of popcorn wrappers in the cinema! The Ball at the palace was amazing though and the best bits were with the pumpkin exploding into a golden carriage, and the turning back at midnight. On the whole it is charming, fun, a lovely fairy tale and the romantic leads are really likeable. Lily James (the lovely Rosa from Downtown Abbey) is Cinderella. Richard Madden as Prince Charming is definitely handsome and prince like. Cate Blanchett is brilliant as the wicked stepmum, but looks like a ravishing and beautiful femme fatale. 7/10

[tilly]

Great to see you prettyxcool too!
We got there at 10am and there was already a queue. Not sure why showfilmfirst issue out so many tickets only for the cinema to turn them away.

It appears we were lucky in going early as we got in around 10.20am and managed to grab good seats.

My 4 year old loved the 2 trailers especially the frozen short film.

I really enjoyed the film but I don't think my daughter really did as she asked to leave a few times

6.5/10 from me

[prettyxcool]

Oh, my watch may have been fast then, as you were behind me in the queue when we waved to each other! Yeah, the kids round me were fidgeting during the long slow bits, so not surprised that Izzy wanted to leave!

[funthing29]

I wasn't impressed with the trailer for this one so my expectations were rather low. As a result I thought it was OK but the pacing was too slow as a result is felt longer than 106 minutes and the visuals too precendence over the story at points (especially the extended Fairy Godmother and arriving at the ball sequences). James and Madden were decent enough but Cate Blanchett almost stole the show. 6/10.

[raj101]

This is the basic version of the Cinderella story, no tinkering at all. That's not a bad thing for a fairytale...Tim Burton, you!

What there is, is each scene being dressed up with as much fleur, décor and plumage as is physically possible. Its the ultimate extreme of dressing up, with Branagh not afraid to dip copiously into the CGI pot. The result is the movie appears like one of those mega-expensive perfume adverts except it lasts 106 minutes, not two.

As expected Blanchett's performance blots out pretty much anyone else in the movie, and totally eclipses the performance of the Cinderella actress almost completely. Lily James appears to be doing a toned down Hannah Murray (the anorexic goofy chick from Skins) impersonation in an effort, I suspect, to appear younger than she is. Shes ok, but we have been spoilt by better, stronger, smarter Ellas than hers.

Its clear Branagh now knows he is no film making genius and is happy to keep things simple these days in place of the convoluted messes he began making years ago. Its a very simple story, but the sumptuous scenery is enough to make you want to watch this movie more than once, and I'd advise a pretty big screen.

[alythonian]

This was fine. Perfectly acceptable fodder for an afternoon at the cinema. It was too long though.

6/10