It is not often the public comes together and unites is just so blatantly hating on a movie before they’ve even seen it. This is what Cats did. The trailer dropped in July and just had everyone in panic with seeing their nightmares come to life. Yes, the trailer is disturbing, but this is also a big swing Tom Hooper is taking. Can he connect with Cats and prove everyone wrong that doubted this film? Nice try Tom but nope! This is a delirious train wreck of a film that is an embarrassment for everyone involved but the cast.
I saw the entire movie and I still am not completely sure what it is about. I believe its about a cat who is thrown out and taken in by other cats. They then just start singing about a competition where cats perform, and the winner gets to go to heaven or something. It is an adaptation or the hit Broadway musical and that seems to be the biggest problem, it is not an adaptation. It is just the musical put onscreen minus the stage and plus monsters. This is where the story gets lost. When you are adapting anything for film, whether it be a book, play, or even song, you have to translate it so that it works for film audiences. You cannot just do the same thing beat by beat and expect it to translate. Cats makes that mistake. As a result, the story gets completely lost in the midst of all these songs that you can’t hear the lyrics all that well. It quickly loses the audience and just gets boring. Now, the thing you hoped would be the saving grace about this film just contributes to an already huge problem and makes this train wreck just move even slower.
The one thing that made everyone puke in their mouths when watching the trailer for Cats was the look of the cats. They put the actors in motion capture suits and ended up putting the actors faces on the bodies of a cat. It looked disturbing in the trailer and it was haunting in the film. I just don’t understand what they were thinking when they decided this worked. You want to give them that cat like look but when you put actual hands and feet on them as well, it doesn’t work! There is something extremely off-putting about seeing the fingers of a human come out of a cat. The only redeeming quality is the gorgeous production design surrounding the film. It is absolutely beautiful, but it almost exasperates the problem. The design is intended to make the film feel like a dream or a fantasy but when you throw in Frankencats making seductive faces at you, it becomes a nightmare. Yes, the singing is fantastic, and the dancing is well choreographed, but if what is performing looks like a demon out of hell, you lose all your intentions and end up with a mess of a film.
Cats wreaks of a production where everyone involved thought it was a masterpiece. The actors are giving it their all and the design clearly has much thought about it, but it can’t save the end product. You can tell Tom Hooper was off put by the reaction considering he was still working on the film a couple hours before its first screening. You can see that with shots out of focus, unfinished CGI, and sound mixing issues. It has potential to be the next The Room. This film is a dumpster fire that is worse than advertised and should not be seen with innocent eyes.
The Verdict