Directed by: Tom Hooper.
Written by: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper, Andrew Lloyd Webber, & T.S Eliot.
Starring: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Francesca Hayward, Rebel Wilson, Ian McKellen, Laurie Davidson, Ray Winstone, Robbie Fairchild.
Cats is a musical created initially by Andrew Lloyd Webber from his record-breaking West End musical, which has been recreated for the big screen by Tom Hooper (creator of The King’s Speech). The plot of the story revolves around a group of cats called the Jellicles, who every year decide which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and return to a new Jellicle life.
It has taken me a year to finally sit down and watch this film, as it has been on my watch list since December 2019. I am not one to criticize anything I watch. Still, I can understand now why it took me a year to watch this, especially after I had plenty of time to watch it earlier this year, while I was furloughed from my previous job. However, I had other priorities, which pushed this further into delays. I was not impressed one bit.
I have read reviews on this film, and the majority have not been great. Because I like to believe that people’s views are different, I finally had the chance to watch this film, and I can understand why the reviews are not great. I made it through 37 minutes of the film and had to turn it off, as I had found myself falling asleep.
I had hoped the film would be better as it features Taylor Swift and Idris Elba, but in all honesty, I did not find this film good enough to keep me awake! I know it is the Christmas holidays, and I may have overindulged on food and alcohol, but it is not sufficient to cause me to become ahead of my age and fall asleep in front of the TV watching a film I had been trying to watch for a year.
The CGI in the film is subpar, the editing of human faces onto cats can be triggering for some viewers, and it just looks bizarre. I haven’t seen the original musical of Cats for years, but from what I can remember, I think the way the cats were just humans dressed in cat costumes would’ve worked better for this film, rather than attempting poorly constructed editing, CGI, and the human faces to cat bodies – didn’t look good at all!
If someone were to ask me if I would recommend this film to them to watch, I would categorically say no from my own personal view. Still, I would also suggest that they give it a watch, as what I found boring – literally to the point of my falling asleep – someone else may actually enjoy it, maybe?
This is the first review I am writing where I am giving it such a low rating, but I still recommend it if you haven’t watched it yet, as I always do with everything I watch.
I give this film a 1 star rating!
Room For A Review 