Cats

I don't really know what people are complaining about. Just for fans of the original... I haven't seen it and I absolutely loved this. Brilliant music, great actors, quite fantastic in my opinion.

This made me ascend. 10/10

Best new film of the week of December 15-21 2019

This is gonna be a CLASSIC omg

Cats absolutely does not deserve the hatred that it got!

I though it was an outstanding movie about belonging, redemption, friendship, loss, forgiveness, hope, and acceptance.

I must admit, the first few minutes of Cats were a bit jarring: the human-cats look unsettling on all fours for an extended period of time, which is almost exclusively how they were for much of the introduction (The vast majority of the movie they're on two feet so that aspect improves quickly). Robbie Fairchild and Francesca Hayward are phenomenal actors, and the facial motion capture brilliantly preserves the the emotion they bring to the film.

Watching Cats a full year after it was released was an interesting experience. I'd say it's an experience similar to what Victoria the main character experiences in the movie herself. The main plot is about regular cat who is actually tossed into a bizarre and unknown world with weird characters and a bunch of nonsense, spectacle, bizarre other cats, traditions, and situations completely foreign to her. Watching the first 20 minutes of Cats I felt like Victoria: "How did I get here?" "What the heck is going on?" "What am I supposed to do with myself?"

I began warming up to Cats at the same time the Jellicle cats were warming up to Victoria. The Jellicle cats welcomed Victoria to their cat group, and they wanted to teach Victoria the ways of their society. The cats are whimsical, but they have one super special ritual that Victoria is introduced to: a ritual that the evil wizard cat wants to steal. With that, we have the basic plot of Cats.

It continues on: Victoria learning more about the Jellicle society, about the bad guy, and the movie progresses naturally from there. It's a rated PG movie released during Christmas time 2019, it's not going to have any insane plot twists like Se7en (1995) or Upgrade (2018) and I thought this movie was wonderful overall. You get accustomed to the GGI quickly, and the good pacing and storyline strongly overshadows the small complaints there are about the visuals.

While watching the intro I would have rated Cats a 4/10. Middle of the movie, 5.5/10, but the ending of the movie, and thinking back on it while listening to the music and the credits, Cats a solid 6.5/10 in my book, rounded up to 7 in the Trakt system. I would recommend you watch this movie. I re-watched this again two days after seeing it for the first time and am boosting it to a 9/10 rating. I absolutely love this movie. Wait, no. The ending is.. strange. 8/10

The rest of my thoughts here might contain soft spoilers about popular and well-known big moments in the film, but any hard spoilers have been marked.

When Victoria met Grizabella, I thought that was remarkable: a newcomer not understanding why someone had been cast-out and shunned by her society goes to show that a fresh perspective, and listening free of judgement can go a long way to help someone out who is hurting.

Things I liked:
The facial motion capture. The overall theme. The pacing. Jason Derulo. The performances of Francesca Hayward and Robbie Fairchild. [spoiler] I liked when the magician cat tried a couple times to bring back the grandma cat, then everyone started cheering for him and singing their support of him, that was a heartwarming event in the movie [/spoiler] Ian McKellen's number. It was emotional and portrayed a lived-in world that didn't need any over-explaining about his history, and his past as an actor.

Things I did not like: (i have a lot of things nit-picky to say, these are all minor things even though there a lot of them)
Yeah, the mice and the cockroaches are irredeemably terrible, in all aspects. The inconsistent size of the cats in respect to their environment? At the end of the movie (this is not a spoiler) there is a statue that the cats are sitting on and standing around. That statue looks just AWFUL in the CGI. If you pay close attention to where the characters hands and feet meet the 'stage' or background, you can tell that it doesn't 100% match up flawlessly. Rebel Wilson has a zipper-down cat fur costume that she wears *OVER* her performance outfit. I don't understand the logistics of that. Also, many characters wear wither fur coats, or actual tennis shoes and / or flats or heels. Who is making these shoes for these cats? Tap-Dancing.

Things that surprised me: [spoiler] I didn't know that Taylor Swift was a henchman for the bad guy! [/spoiler] This movie made me cry a couple times! This movie was overall an enjoyable experience. I'm a HUGE Taylor Swift fan, but I was pleasantly surprised that Jason Derulo just brightened up and improved every single scene he was in. He played a big role in most of the movie, not just a one-off scene as Swift had. Ian McKellen, I was worried it would be a sad, confusing, frustrating affair, but his number was wonderful. I honestly decided to watch Cats as a half joke, half morbid curiosity but I was very pleasantly surprised.

[spoiler] An outsider is introduced, an insider had been cast out, a pre-established group set in their own ways and tradition but is willing to listen to the newcomer, the same group seeing the fresh perspective of the newcomer and finding forgiveness and understanding toward the one they had previously cast out, and finally, acceptance of the newcomer and introducing her as one of their own. [/spoiler]

I am so grateful that this movie exists. Thank you, Movie Gods. We don't deserve ye.

The critics had their claws out for this one, long before the film was actually released. And when it was released...well you couldn't hear the kind mieows for the film because of all the caterwauling circling it. And so I went into the film with low expectations, assuming I would have the opportunity to write something critical, full of hissing and venom. However, I enjoyed it! And I write this fact as somebody who has a low tolerance for musicals. The songs were good, the performances were fine, and the special effects (which were improved upon after release, admittedly) were perfectly acceptable. I even sang along with the film at a couple of points, so that is evidence of the exuberant nature of the piece.

Give it a go then, and try to put aside the reviews you have already seen, because you might just take to this like a cat takes to a bowl of delicious cream!

First off, let's remember that this is based off a Broadway musical, a musical where people dress as cats. Some people have complained about how the people looked, that it was creepy to see them dressed as Cats, but that's exactly what they do on Broadway. So if you're going to complain about people dressing as Cats you were probably never going to see this anyway. Having said that, the hype and all the criticism seems unfair. If you don't know the musical or don't enjoy this kind of stuff, that's fine, but don't judge it based on that because Cats is a weird musical in and of itself but it's highly regarded by many.
Now, this is a bit different from the original as they added a lot to the character of Victoria, but I actually liked that. It's gives you this introduction into the world of the cats through her eyes. And I liked the interactions and the new song. Overall, I enjoyed it and I think a lot of the criticism comes from people who don't understand or appreciate this type of genre. I know there are those who prefer the original broadway play but I thought most of the singing was great, the dancing was great and I enjoyed it.

A cool movie, not as bad I people says, its a disaster like Rocky horro show, and I love Rocky, the main problem its his CGI that suits good only in a couple of cats, I noticed a worst CGI on Shazam's monsters and Aladdi tbh, just give it a chance.