Horrendous Yet Enjoyable Experience: A Cats Film Review

Cats the movie

was released on December 16, 2019, and was adapted from the eponymous 1981 stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber -- who also wrote and arranged the Official Motion Picture Soundtrack for this movie. It was directed by the Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper, who also directed the musical film Les Miserables in 2012. The movie is debauchery of high profile actors, musicians, and dancers. Featuring appearances of Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Francesca Hayward, Rebel Wilson, Ian McKellen, and Taylor Swift. A tribe of cats called the Jellicle Cats to compete against one another through music and dance presentations, but only one worthy cat, to be called "The Jellicle Choice" will be chosen to ascend to the next life. In my own understanding of the film, I'm certain to say that the movie is not exactly an epitome of great films, but also not as bad as what the media made it out to be.

SUMMARY

At the beginning of the film, we see Victoria, a juvenile white cat, get thrown into the cold and gloomy streets of London by her owner in the middle of the night. Abandoned and vulnerable, Victoria was almost immediately surrounded by the alley cats who  introduced themselves through a song that has the same name as the name ascribed to the tribe which they belong called "Jellicle Cats."Victoria tagged along with the mischievous twin cats Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer who love to mess around in the house of their owners. Mr. Mistoffelees, who Victoria met earlier that night with the Jellicle Cats, came to her rescue right when she was about to get attacked by the family dog, because of the uproar that she and the twins made. Preceding the ball, some candidates for the Jellice Choice were cornered and held captive by the sly Macavity, including Bustopher Jones,Jennyanydots the Gumbie Cat, in an effort to maximize his chance of being chosen.

In the middle of the ball, an accomplice of Macavity named Bombalurina did an intermission, singing in awe of the wicked cat along the lines of "There never was a cat of such deceitfulness and suavity." She introduced Macavity to the stage, ultimately, swiping Old Deuteronomy-- who makes the verdict of who gets to be the Jellicle Choice-- to a shabby ship where she was held captive along with all the other missing contestants.

Mr. Mistoffelees who was an ambitious Cat Magician was cheered on to conjure Old Deuteronomy back to safety; it was a rollercoaster of hope and disappointment but in one of his multiple mutated attempts, was one breakthrough that brought Old Deuteronomy back to the ball where she can finally decide who the Jellicle Choice is. Victoria who witnessed everything that night, from start to finish, urged one of the Cats who she was fascinated by called "Grizabella the Glamour Cat," to sing for the Old Deuteronomy, convincing her with yet another song number "Beautiful GGhost. Grizabellareminiscent of her former glory and mistakes through a powerful ballad that moved every single cat soul in the room, and it made her the Jellicle Choice. The carefully experimented color exposure for the ending (or epiphany scene) where Grizabella flew away to the heaven layer, using a ginormous hot-air balloon, unfortunately, fell short as it only was a  compensation of the horrendous CGI that swarmed the entire 1 hour and a 40-minute film.

CRITIQUE

The movie was marketed to Children and was released just right before Christmas. The utilization of high-scaled, cat-like point of view setting, under a high-contrast color use, with golden colors dominating and present in almost all of the scenes, was a sweet touch for the Christmas feels. The primary concern that I have, aesthetically, would only be the poor CGI effect that nudged the film to a whirlwind of criticism upon release. The theme of the movie is simple and can be understood even by children, which is redemption and moving forward in life despite hardships and perceived impossibilities. The movie's predictability somehow manages to entertain, like when Mr. Mistoffelees used his magical powers to bring back Old Deuteronomy from captivity; the resurgence of a pivotal character after a win by an antagonist is a movie trite, but the writers of Cats played with the storyline by teasing us with multiple failed attempts made by Mr. Mistoffelees

I was mostly entertained by the musical number made by Taylor Swift in her song "Macavity," because it was just the right blend of sensuality and drama. The torch song of the movie called "Memory," was a classic delivery that doesn't need any final touches, the vocals of Jennifer Hudson is a testament to why she's superior and prominent. The camera movements, or the direction in general, sufficed and complimented even the individual lines of a song. The pleasing visual performance during the musical number of Steven McRae as Skimbleshanks, or the railway cat, exemplifies counter-intuitive creativity, despite mediocre vocal delivery of the actor.

The filmmakers, flopped like fishes with this movie, despite having a good story. In the first place, no one asked for a Cats movie,  the reason being that it wouldn't translate gracefully into a film (and it didn't), but when the first trailer got released online, another issue surfaced: the CGI debacle. The visual effect which they pegged as "digital fur," is so horrendous and was not thoroughly thought of, evidently. The preoccupation of movies are to visually-please people, not scare them with uncanny valley vibes. I speak for millions of people when I say, there's no hope for a sequel. The people have spoken, they hate it. In the end, it didn't matter if it had a mediocre to good storyline, what mattered was the animation, but the filmmakers of Cats undermined and underestimated that criteria.