This mash-up of Once Upon a Time and The Avengers definitely played out like a movie that wanted to go somewhere, but didn't quite have the oomph to pull it off. All the actors suffered to a degree, attempting to squeeze out lines that might work whilst working with a director who clearly didn't care about performance quality enough to do a whole lot of retakes.
Iron John (Lou Ferringo) was an excellent addition to this film's mythos, though his arc was a tad rushed. The princesses are tolerable for their roles, but again, could have used some better acting coaching. Red easily steals the show.
The girls say each other's names so seldom, it can be easy to forget that the purple-haired one is Cinderella - or even why she has purple hair. By far, the most effort appears to have been put into Rumpelstiltskin as the villain. As a dime store Loki, he chews up every scene he's in and does it with class.
Sadly, most of the other characters are quite forgettable. And the logistics of how the princesses would survive in our world are barely even mentioned outside of clothing choices.
If you can tolerate some of the movie's shortcomings, however, it has a lot of great nods to the properties it shamelessly rips off. Some have complained that it depends too much on the "babes" being "hot" to sell its point, but I'd say it manages without that. Outside Red, I personally had difficulty seeing how any of them were treated as sex objects. Or if they were supposed to be that, even Rumpelstiltskin's secretary did a better job at it. Making Rapunzel a redhead instead of a blonde also struck me as an odd choice.
This movie definitely wanted to be something. And if your standards aren't astronomically high, it will succeed. Just don't count on this measuring up to any of Marvel's Avengers films any time soon.
Iron John (Lou Ferringo) was an excellent addition to this film's mythos, though his arc was a tad rushed. The princesses are tolerable for their roles, but again, could have used some better acting coaching. Red easily steals the show.
The girls say each other's names so seldom, it can be easy to forget that the purple-haired one is Cinderella - or even why she has purple hair. By far, the most effort appears to have been put into Rumpelstiltskin as the villain. As a dime store Loki, he chews up every scene he's in and does it with class.
Sadly, most of the other characters are quite forgettable. And the logistics of how the princesses would survive in our world are barely even mentioned outside of clothing choices.
If you can tolerate some of the movie's shortcomings, however, it has a lot of great nods to the properties it shamelessly rips off. Some have complained that it depends too much on the "babes" being "hot" to sell its point, but I'd say it manages without that. Outside Red, I personally had difficulty seeing how any of them were treated as sex objects. Or if they were supposed to be that, even Rumpelstiltskin's secretary did a better job at it. Making Rapunzel a redhead instead of a blonde also struck me as an odd choice.
This movie definitely wanted to be something. And if your standards aren't astronomically high, it will succeed. Just don't count on this measuring up to any of Marvel's Avengers films any time soon.