No longer the "Magical Mystery Tour"...

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2008)

Usually when someone sets out to produce a musical, they contrive a story and then create the songs to emphasize certain points or aspects that make up the story. Julie Taymore went against the grain with Across The Universe by taking thirty-three already famous songs by The Beatles and letting those songs shape the story she wanted to tell.
...And what a mess it is.
Sure, this musical has it's good moments, mostly involving very original and innovative visuals and choreography, but it's low points and downfalls far outweigh the good! This musical accomplishes in creating some well-planned feel good moments, but ultimately fails in mashing together beloved songs into pointless and choppy nuances and obnoxious propaganda.
Before I continue let me make it very clear that although I seem to be taking on the role of a critic I am in NO WAY trying to say that I could do any better. I can't and I know I can't. I'm simply making observations as an audience member and sharing my opinions as a movie fan who knows what to expect.
Let us get down to the nitty of the gritty...there are two screaming faults this movie has in my eyes. One, too much liberality in licensing their own meanings to The Beatles wonderful songs; two, a broken flow of music and story that rarely seems to connect.
My first example of Julie Taymore and her crew taking far too much advantage of making their own interpretations of The Beatles songs comes from the beginning of the movie. A cheerleader is singing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (very well I might add) but you find out that she's longingly singing the song to herself about another female. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to get into anything about homosexuality specifically, all I'm saying is, how do you know that's what The Beatles intended? You could argue by saying, "How do you know that's NOT what The Beatles intended?" Alright I'll give you that one...but the point still remains, Taymore is taking the liberty of morphing all these songs into what she wants for her story. And again, when they do the musical sequence for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" they sing the words over and over again "She's so heavy, she's so heavy, she's so heavy, etc." and in the movie they depict that by showing a group of soldiers carrying the Statue of Liberty and making a subtle point about government.
"What's so bad about that?" you ask? People who loved The Beatles and flocked to see this movie will forever associate the meanings of their songs with the meanings shown in this film. And whether or not the movie actually DID get the meanings right the point is Taymore and her crew assumed the position of actually knowing the interpretations and asserted their false position of leadership by incorporating it all into their blockbuster film.
Also, the movie was choppy, wavering, and sometimes just pointless. For example, the character Prudence nearly seemed irrelevant except for the fact that, because of her name, later on they had the chance to sing another song ("Dear Prudence")! Oh how contrived...
Eddie Izzard's appearance was definitely fun (he's a good actor) but sequences like the circus, and where JoJo comes to New York and they sing "Come Together" (so out of place) is all so forced and pointless most of the time. It becomes more of a dragged out music video than a movie. The story was mostly simple and served only the purpose of giving a backdrop to the music.
I suppose that I just saw it on DVD and I actually didn't get the "movie theatre experience" but all the same, it was a disappointment. The music was stunning at times, the singing was mostly well performed especially by the younger actors, and the visuals were almost always astounding and innovative. But the incongruity of it all, the forcing and obvious contriving of it all, and the lack of strong story brings it all way down. I felt like I was being catered to as a 12 year old, and even by a 12 year old's standards, it was pointless and waste of time...