Cruella is one that I found interesting from the trailer so was looking forward to seeing this film.
It's rather good and keeps you entertained throughout. The film is simple enough but has some great performances from Stone and Thompson.
Overall I wouldnt say it's a classic but it will entertain families with older children.
After the well received and very good Maleficent (2014) Disney has seen the potential for the origin stories of its iconic villains. DC Comics has cashed in on this and so it's probably fairly obvious that Disney would get round to Cruella de Vil eventually. There's much to admire here not least in Emma Stone's full on charismatic performance as the punk fuelled young orphan, Estella, living on the streets of London with two young thieves Jaspar (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser - doing a bit of a Dick Van Dyke with his accent). She dreams of becoming a major fashion designer just like The Baroness, played with gusto and cold evil by Emma Thompson channelling a bit of Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada (2006). As things turn out the two characters have a history which fuels Estella's decision to create her alter-ego, Cruella. In short she has to out bad guy another bad guy. It's all very lavish and has its entertainment moments although many of the side characters have little to do including Mark Strong, although I suspect there's s sequel on the way which will bring some to the foreground. All very watchable but lacking a certain something.
For little ones, it's too visually unsettling and charmless, for adults it's too juvenile, and for everyone its just too long and tedious. It is like being stuck in a mediocre cat walk show with unsuccessful attempts at being edgy - it soon gets boring, and lacks narrative drive. The duels of bitchiness and bile between the two Emmas become repetitive, and you wonder why two such (usually) good actresses got involved in this misconceived project.