YMMV / Cinderella (2021)

• Anvilicious: The film is very heavy-handed in its attempts to push messages about female empowerment and equality, to the point that several critics and viewers found it pandering more than anything.
• Awesome Music: A lot of the songs qualify, to name a few, the "Rhythm Nation/You Gotta Be" mash-up, the Stepmother's rendition of "Material Girl" and her original "Dream Girl", and the mash-up of "Whatta Man/Seven Nation Army".
• Cliché Storm: It's a Cinderella adaptation so naturally many plot points will be known by default, but the film's attempts to add new elements are predictable as well: the heroine is Not Like Other Girls because she has ambitions beyond marrying a rich man (though she scores a prince anyway), the prince doesn't want to be a prince or get married until he meets the heroine, the king is resistant to the match until he's persuaded to change his mind because of The Power of Love, the Wicked Stepmother has a Freudian Excuse intended to make her more sympathetic, etc.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A frequent criticism of the film. It was marketed as a more modern, feminist take on Cinderella, but many feel that it doesn't bring much new to the table or do anything that other 'modernized' Cinderella adaptations - such as Ever After and Ella Enchanted - haven't already done first (and, in their opinion, better).
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • More than a few British comedy fans admitted to watching the film just for the cast including Romesh Ranganathan, James Acaster, Doc Brown and Rob Beckett.
  • After Red, White & Royal Blue came out in 2023, many people came back to (re)watch this film for Nicholas Galitzine.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Gaslight, Gatekeep, Glass Slipper^Explanation A variation of the “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” meme joking that Cinderella’s fashion designer ambitions in the film make her a girlboss.
  • James Corden Flash Mob^Explanation As part of the film's marketing, James Corden took part in a viral stunt where he danced with the movie's cast in traffic while dressed in a mouse costume. The stunt was torn to shreds online, as the stunt blocked traffic in Los Angeles (known for already having a congested traffic as it is) significantly.
    • Ban James Corden^Explanation A sign held by an audience member at the All Elite Wrestling's All Out 2021 event. It's assumed to be referring to Corden's viral stunt, as it happened a few days before the event.
• Older Than They Think:
  • This is far from the first time the Fairy Godmother has been subjected to a Gender Flip. Gioachino Rossini had a fairy godfather in his Cinderella opera, and Oliver Platt played the role in Sesame Street's take on the fairy tale. It's not even the first time the character has been portrayed as a sassy gay black man; a porn parody of the story released back in 1977 used the same idea.
  • This isn't the first film in which Cinderella was race lifted into a woman of color as it happened in the 1997 TV film adaptation of Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein), though the difference between the two is that Camila Cabello, who plays the princess in this film, is a Latina of Cuban-Mexican descent, while Brandy, who played the princess in the latter film, is African American. It's also worth noting that one of the oldest versions of the Cinderella story, "Ye Xian", originates from China.
  • Cinderella having a goal besides marrying a prince occurs in many previous iterations of the tale. In several versions, including Disney's animated film, Cinderella just wants to go to the ball and have a night off from being her stepfamily's servant, and she just so happens to fall in love with the prince. In the live-action remake, she does go hoping to see the prince — but she doesn't know he's the prince, as they'd met in the forest and she thinks he's merely an apprentice at the palace (in other words, she wants to see her friend, not The Prince). In Ella Enchanted and its film adaptation, Ella's main goal is to reverse the spell that forces her to be obedient. And in all the films in the A Cinderella Story series, the lead girl has a goal they're aspiring to achieve well before they meet their love interest (e.g. in the first one, Sam is trying to save up money to attend Princeton University).
  • Cinderella was also a dressmaker in Shirley Hughes' retelling Ella's Big Chance, which was published in 2003 and sets the story in the 1920s. Ella also turns down the prince's proposal in this version, though in this case it's because she's already in love with someone else.
• Retroactive Recognition: Two years after this movie was released, Nicholas Galitzine (who plays Prince Robert) would become better known for playing another prince — namely, the gay Prince Henry in Red, White & Royal Blue.
• So Okay, It's Average: The more positive reviews tend to fall around here. While a lot of people have stated that no one was exactly clamoring for a yet another Cinderella adaptation and that this movie's take on the story isn't as groundbreaking or fresh as it could be, it's otherwise harmless fun with some good musical numbers if you have an Amazon Prime subscription.
• Spiritual Successor: As has been pointed out in a variety of comments, several of the musical numbers (particularly "Whatta Man/Seven Nation Army") feel more like they belong in Moulin Rouge! than in an otherwise fairly average Cinderella film.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The movie could've explored Ella's stepfamily exploiting her talent for dressmaking to keep themselves afloat while denying Ella the profits, potentially even taking credit for her work. Ella's goals could've then revolved around her wanting to make dresses purely out of love for it as opposed to slaving away for her family, seeking to gain independence and work for herself, and/or simply wanting to be acknowledged for her work. In the film itself though, her stepfamily simply dismiss her dressmaking out of hand and nothing more is done with it.
  • Given the film's emphasis on Ella defying her society's expectations of gender roles by pursuing a career, some viewers have suggested the film could've gone a step further by having Ella be interested in a career that's not seen as traditionally 'acceptable' for a woman (seeing as for centuries being a seamstress is one of the careers that has been deemed 'appropriate' for women). It's been stated this might've been more relevant to the target audience, seeing as in most modern Western countries it's not uncommon nor seen as unacceptable for a woman to run her own business and/or be involved in the fashion industry.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The 'girlboss' adaptation of Cinderella makes her come off as much more arrogant and disrespectful than the empowering idea they had; when she talks back to the King early on, she comes off as a complete brat, as an example.
  • The wicked stepmother, Vivian. The movie tries to present her as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is harsh to Ella and discourages her dressmaking ambition because of her own bad experience: her first husband cast away Vivian and her daughters because she wanted to study music, and she had to marry Ella's father for financial support. In the end, Ella is quick to forgive her and everyone becomes friends. The problem is, Vivian is still horrible to Ella for most of the movie such as making nasty comments about her appearance, forcing her into a marriage, forbidding her from going to the ball for no reason beyond spite ^note although Ella was already betrothed at this point, Vivian could still have allowed her to attend as she certatinly wasn't the only woman attending who wasn't aiming to woo the prince and throwing ink on a dress she'd made. For a lot of viewers, Vivian's supposed sympathetic backstory and Ella's swiftness to forgive her just ends up feeling like Vivian gets let off the hook for mistreating her stepdaughter.^note For comparison, in Cinderella (2015) Lady Tremaine is given a sad backstory that partly explains her cruelty, but it's still made clear that she's a villain and it doesn't excuse her abuse of Ella (if anything, Tremaine comes off looking worse because Ella has also suffered tragedy but doesn't take it out on other people).
  • King Rowan is supposed to be an Innocently Insensitive Jerk with a Heart of Gold who eventually learns to respect the women in his life and becomes a better father, husband and monarch by the end, but it can feel pretty unearned. Rowan's treatment of his wife in particular goes beyond simply overlooking her wants and needs into straight-up callousness; he comes off as borderline-emotionally abusive towards her, yet apparently him badly serenading her is enough to win back her affection. Rowan making Gwen the heir to the throne over Robert near the end also seems triggered more by him wanting to make his son happy by letting him give up the throne to be with Ella - and Gwen just happening to be the next in line - as up until this point he never properly listens to his daughter's ideas nor takes her interest in politics seriously.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The sequences where Fab G transforms from a butterfly and Ella's dress is transformed via flower petals are beautifully done.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: While Ella's ballgown isn't a terrible-looking outfit by any means, the bodice is ill-fitting and there's not much to make it stand out from all the other dresses at the ball; it's got tulle, a poofy skirt and excess glitter much like the others, and the pale pink-and-white color makes it look washed out more than anything, especially compared to the bolder colors and patterns of the background characters' dresses. Ella's also still wearing her hair in the same messy plait she always has rather than something more elegant. Considering that Ella is supposed to have the most stunning outfit at the ball and is also meant to be a trend-setting fashion designer here, the dress falls a bit flat. A lot of people have also stated they preferred how the dress looked in promotional pictures, which had a more eye-catching purple-and-lilac ombre look.

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