two scoops of pretentious, a cup of mediocre and a dollop of crap.

Rating: 1/10 (16 October 2007)

I have never wanted 2+ hours of my life back more than I did when I saw this movie. Everyone I know saw it before me and, after all the hype, I couldn't wait. I'm a huge Beatles fan and thought the idea of a Beatles musical would be awesome. I mean, hey, Cirque did it with Love, and they succeeded. The movie had to be good, right? Wrong. I wanted so badly to give it a chance, but within the first half hour I could tell that the plot was severely lacking. Characters like Prudence were horribly underdeveloped; you could've taken her out altogether, and the only thing that would have REALLY changed would that you couldn't include "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or "Dear Prudence," and speaking of the former, that number was just one of the many examples where in the movie, you'd think they were trying to lead up to something, and then they'd drop it altogether. They included random and stupid things just so they could use a few more songs, and why do people buy into this crap? Because they're too distracted by the music to care.
The "cutting edge graphics" as Ebert called them were among some of the worst I've seen in years. They were quite obviously fake and cheesy, and you could argue that it's meant to be as such because it's a hallucination or whatever BS you want to throw at me, but if it really was a hallucination, it should at least be believable! After a while all of the garish colors and pompous, "pseudo-artsy" camera angles made me nauseous.
That's not even half of it, and I haven't even gotten to the music yet. I know nothing compares to the Beatles, but they didn't even TRY - the music was so halfhearted, and some of the "spins" they put on them? Just back off! "Helter Skelter" was ridiculous, and I wanted to slap that actor for ruining "Revolution." There isn't a single song I enjoyed.
In all, I wish I had never gone to see it. Don't waste your time or your money on this pretentious bull.