The history of “Cats” began back in 1939 with the release of a collection of poems by TS Eliot "A Popular Cat Science Written by Old Opossum." In the early 1980s, Andrew Lloyd Webber, at that time already known to the public for the performances of "Jesus Christ is a superstar" and "Evita", decided to turn poetry into a musical. The production was about 20 years on Broadway and in London.
Oscar winner Tom Hooper took up the film adaptation. In his filmography there are many successful films, including Les Miserables and King Says. For "Cats", the director assembled a selective caste: Judy Dench, Taylor Swift, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, James Corden and others. However, Hooper's new tape was a failure.
At the moment, the professional rating of the film on the Rotten Tomatoes website is only 19%. The audience rating is higher - 54%, but this is not enough for the film to cease to be considered unsuccessful.
Mostly experts criticize the film in three ways. Dissatisfaction was caused by problems with special effects (primarily painted cat fur), the discrepancy with the expectations of fans of the musical and a miscalculation in terms of format. The tape was awarded epithets such as “bear service” and “collective hallucination.”
Selfish interests
Perhaps the most severe criticism has been the special effects. The first trailer of the tape, published in the summer of 2019, caused ridicule and was instantly dismantled for memes. At the end of November, it became known that due to such a negative reaction from the audience, the film team made adjustments to the special effects. However, apparently, these efforts did not have the desired effect.
So, the author of the site about the pop culture of AV Club Ignatius Vishnevsky compared the heroes of the tape with unhealthy people, at the same time noting the high cost of the project:
“Millions of dollars and thousands of hours of work went into making cats from Cats look like hypertrichosis-tailed tail mutants from Dr. Moro’s sinister valley with furry faces but human hairless fingers and toes.”
Clariss Logry from the British publication The Independent also calls the mutants of the heroes. And the employee of The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney draws attention to the disproportionate image of cats and the environment - according to the observations of the critic, they look either gigantic in relation to familiar objects, or, on the contrary, tiny, and the scale can vary within one scene.
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Rooney, like his other colleagues, is dissatisfied with the visual solution of the film as a whole - he sees the problem both in the abundance of special effects and in their unsatisfactory quality. He is echoed by Stephanie Zakharek from Time Magazine, who doubted that anyone needs a replacement for a musical with costumes with a film with special effects.
Disappointment for fans
Those who are familiar with the original musical will be upset, first of all, by one of the main songs of the production - well-known by dozens of Musicians. In the film, Jennifer Hudson got the legendary party of Grisabella's cat, and critics greeted her version with extremely unfavorable.
Clariss Logri calls Hudson's performance “rude” and “snotty,” and Stephanie Zakharek notes that the lyrics in this issue have lost all meaning. Variety author Peter Debrewge explains his position in more detail: he considers reading Hudson too literal and overly emotional.
David Rooney's questions were prompted by the image of Duteronomy, who underwent significant changes in the film:
“The eyes of Judy Dench, playing the role of old Duty, glow with kindness, but this casting decision cost the character a sex change. And when she first appears on the screen and walks along the pavement in the moonlight, she resembles a golden yeti. ”
The solo scene of Rebel Wilson, who plays the Janienidots domestic cat, was not too successful. Stephanie Zakharek got the impression that the film team tried so hard to make this episode fun, that it achieved exactly the opposite effect.
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Most experts also concluded that the film is inferior to the musical in terms of plot. Some note: the very idea of transferring “Cats” to the movie screens was a failure - they say that the story is not completely worked out, it lacks humor. The situation is aggravated by poor character positioning.
Clariss Logri is extremely categorical in her verdict: “Cats” - from those rare films that seem to be a collective hallucination - they are so implausible and defy description ”.
In turn, Stephanie Zakharek warmly responded to the leading role, but, like her colleagues, did not praise the tape: “The best in Cats is Francesca Hayward’s game. Otherwise, this film is as full of contradictions as the animals in whose honor it is named. “Cats” are monstrous, but at the same time they have a hypnotic effect, and, as T.S. Eliot, there's nothing you can do about it. "