MovieChat Forums > Cinderella (2015) Discussion > Worst story ever written!

Worst story ever written!


So you have Cinderella who is classically beautiful, kind, sweet, intelligent, hard-working and prudent when it comes to money, and she is stacked up against her two ugly step-sisters who are physically and spiritually ugly, mean, petty, idiotic, vain and frivolous.

The odds are so stacked in Cinderella's favour as far as the Prince falling in love with her because there is absolutely no real competition for his affections. In other words, a completely boring story with no sense of tension or nuance or dimension whatsoever. Characters are either pretty and good or ugly and bad.

What a great message to send to kids, huh? You know, it's what is inside that counts and don't judge a book by its cover...and then we read them or let them watch this crap that associates physical beauty with spiritual beauty.

But that's besides the point. From a storytelling POV it's simply not interesting to make the villains so pathetic and completely outmatched by the heroine. Instead of hating them you end up almost pitying them and their weaknesses.

reply

That may be because you're trying to watch the movie as a sort of Jane Austen "competition" between females fighting for the affections of a particular man. But that's never what this story was about. This is about Cinderella herself, overcoming the hatefulness from her stepmother and stepsisters, managing to escape their control, and building a lovely life for herself - a life of love and luxury. If this story had been written today, the "token" of her "happily ever after" would've most likely NOT even been a man. She would've just stepped up for herself and abandoned those cruel women. But the time the story was written says its word, because back then the best a woman could do for herself was find a very wealthy and powerful man to keep her happy.

The story is what it is. I love it when a fairytale can become "contemporary" in its morals (like Tangled and Beauty and the Beast do) but when that's impossible due to the very plot of the original, I understand it and watch it for what it is. And I believe the result here is quite charming, even though a bit too old-fashioned.

reply

If at least there was a lost will like that one in "A Cinderella Story".

reply

LOL. Worst story ever written? Yet it has survived more than 2000 years!!! ;)
Time is the best judge for quality. If you don't like it, that's your problem. Don't go blaming a story that goes beyond your understanding!

reply

My thoughts EXACTLY.

reply

[deleted]