A bad movie

Obviously, I didn’t expect much from this movie but I have to admit that I was quite curious to see if it was really so bad after all. Well, first of all, it was slightly difficult to judge this movie as I’m completely unfamiliar with the musical it was based on. I mean, putting aside the countless issues regarding this adaptation, it still seemed to be a really weird and surreal musical focusing on some anthropomorphic cats. The lack of plot is basically hidden behind a non-stop succession of songs but, to be honest, it did seem narratively rather weak. Anyway, even if I’m still not convinced by the actual potential of the original classic musical, there is no doubt that they completely botched this adaptation though. Indeed, instead of wearing some silly cat costumes, they thought it would be a great idea to go full-on CGI but the end-result was just awful. The CGI team complained that the production had been rushed but, even if they had been given more time, it would still have been ugly as hell and the concept was just completely misguided. On top of that, not only the characters looked seriously weird but also all their surroundings and background looked completely fake as well. At some point, Spielberg was actually trying to adapt it as an animated feature which might have been a better idea. Coming back on the CGI, they also took the opportunity to completely white-wash Francesca Hayward. Indeed, even though Hayward is a beautiful black woman, she actually played the whitest cat of the bunch which was again another misguided choice. Concerning the songs, I have to admit that they were not bad but, like the rest of the movie, they all felt weird and surreal. On the other hand, I still think that Jennifer Hudson’s solo song was actually quite beautiful and actually saved this movie from becoming a complete disaster. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing does deserve its abysmal reputation and you should definitely avoid it. 

4/10