Maxwell's silver hammer came down on Julie Taymor's head!!!!

Rating: 3/10 (14 October 2007)

What went wrong? What went so very wrong? This film is an embarrassment in its execution. The only redeeming quality of the whole film was the music, other than that it is a nightmarish offspring of a VH1 original movie and High School Musical. Julie Taymor is definitely capable of making a MUCH better movie. Frida was well done. But this ***shudder*** was just frightening. There was a Joplin-type character and a Hendrix-type character!! Why, you ask? Oh because they were already spinning a strange cartoonish version of the late 60s, so why be shy? There were moments were it did become visually interesting but when it happened it seemed to be at the wrong moments. Then there were moments that were screaming to become visually interesting and instead they sat there as limp as a wet noodle. I work in the art department on feature films and I must say that some of the scenic painting was nice in the apartment but the way it was all lit and shot, it just killed it all. It looked like a TV movie. I have never seen a movie that teetered on the edge of being good but instead leaned towards bad as much as this one did. I can only hope that this monstrosity was the product of the studio mucking it up. I know there were fights. I know that they essentially ripped the film out of Taymor's hands but I have trouble believing that they would take away visual effects that they had already paid for. If that is the case then I will watch a directors cut. I really want to believe that Taymor had a much better film in the can and that it was the "suits" that put this sad movie into the theaters.