Wicked is a smash hit, and I loved it, I want to see it again in theaters and get the Blu-Ray as soon as I can when it is released, but seeing it become a smash hit over the holiday weekend reminded me of just how many musical movies get released this time of year, such as last year with "Wonka" and "The Color Purple", how musical movies are released during the holiday season all the time. My mind went back to movie musicals released during the holiday window and I remembered the one that baffled everyone from the moment a trailer was released, of course, I am talking about Cats which crash landed into a critical and box office disaster in 2019. With Wicked I went to the gravity-defying peak, so now it is time to tour the musical opposite Deep Valley which is considered one of the worst movie musicals of all time... five years after it hit the big screen this review is very timely.
What can be said about the musical Cats that has not been said before? Some of the music is absolutely iconic, it was a smash hit and one of the works of Broadway mega-musical legend Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, I have listened to a song or two but it is far from a musical I long to see or even listen to on its own. "Memory" is a very beautiful song but if I am listening to his work it is either "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" or what many consider his magnum opus "Phantom Of The Opera" including myself.
This movie made me never want to see the musical on stage, yet also curious. I wondered if it fared better on stage. This movie is a disaster, some of the songs are fun, and some are sung quite well, I may look up a song or two from this, but my goodness I should have heeded the warnings of my friends. The original song made for the movie is nothing and as is the plot, the songs all stumble into each other, and nothing makes sense. The film goes from song to song, and I still have no idea what it is about. Some cats trying to be reborn, plots, attempted drowning, deceitful cats, contests, magic cats,, and burglar cats, old cats, forsaken cats, theater cats, a contest, evil cat who cheats, and new cats, there are just cats running around. No more then a second will pass before another song is thrown out, and it takes a whole hour for the main character to have a solo song or even share an ounce of her story and feelings. This movie left me with one feeling over and over, which was confusion.
Then there is the visuals, yes they are as bad as you have heard. Seeing them in motion with special effects and CGI made me laugh on more occasions then one. Adding to the absurd and confusing nature of this film, making me wonder how someone could do something, why they did that, or why something looked the way it did. This film is wild for all the wrong reasons.
"Why are they singing now?", "Who is that?", "Why are they doing that?". I found myself laughing over and over at the pure absurdity of this film. From the use of a synthesizer that made the most unpleasant of sounds, to a villain who just shows up, and poofs people away for no reason. But there is no time to hang on plot because there are more songs to get to about one note felines that sometimes will never be addressed again. I found myself laughing at this film more then I should have but I could not help it, from the evil scheme of the villain, to the lack of any coherent plot, to some of the lines and one liners, to the action sequences, to musical numbers popping up every twenty seconds with the 15 whole songs performed in this film, to the crazy visuals. There is a scene with cockroaches with human faces that I am still trying to figure out, thus I laugh, I laugh because I will never understand.
And this movie has some incredibly talented people in it, Judie Dench, Sir Ian Maclellan, and so many others, but the subject material is where it all falls down. I have no idea if the stage version is better or if it is just more of this, and part of me wishes to never find out. If this is a faithful adaptation then I am certainly stopping my journey here. A song is never earned, a dance break never needed in this mess of a film, it can all be described in one scene, where James Corden cat is smacked in the nuts, that sums up the feel of this whole movie. This movie has no ideas what a musical is or what makes them special, the importance and care of adapting a stage show. The villain of Macavity played by Idris Elba is hilarious, and he just shows up at random and does just whatever, it makes me laugh every time, but every actor is taking this so seriously I can't help but laugh. Then there's Taylor Swift, yes that's a phrase that can be said about this movie and the song she wrote for this "Beautiful Ghosts" is indeed a song. The only thing of quality is that some of the songs are well sung and well performed, and they are but even though they are well sung, I feel no connection to these songs, and the creepy, yet hilarious visuals and effects distract from them.
But would I watch this again? Yes I would, this is so bad it's good, perfect riffing material, "The Room" for musical fans. Even the worst of musical movies sometimes have a bright spot, this one makes my least favorite movie musicals look like the symphonies of Mozart. So bad its good, and I am sure I will not be forgetting this anytime soon. A so bad it's just bad, that I can't help but laugh., well acted and sung but has so much going wrong it's a wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment