Cool movie, but not a good movie

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2007)

I've always been a huge fan of The Beatles, and as far as the music and visuals go, this did 'em justice. The casting was spectacular and popularized many unknown actors. The singing, which is what i was most worried about, was exceptional, but thats where the beauty of the movie ends.
The character development was lacking. This seemed like a whole bunch of music videos glued together by a very weak storyline. When Jude went back to Liverpool the audience didn't care that his old girlfriend got a new lover, most probably forgot she existed at all. Sadie and JoJo's temporary infidelity was just a mediocre plot device which allowed the writers to cram a few more Beatles songs in there. Prudence was basically a useless character used to force in the song "Dear Prudence", as the story didn't allow the audience to really care for all for her, except for her lesbianism which was mainly shown in the first half of the movie, and she didn't really belong in the climax. Lucy didn't seem to care that her old boyfriend, her first, just died in war as she took Jude as her boyfriend very shortly after.
Many of the songs seemed to be forced in Across the Universe, while others were perfectly blended into the story line. the choreography was amazing to say the least, but still at times i felt like i should just walk out of the theatre because of how random the songs were scattered about the film.
To sum it up, the movie had great ideas but unfortunately they were poorly executed. There was very little character development, but what everyone came for was the music which was superior to any other musical i can think of. I wouldn't want to see it again, as a lover of a story line and strong plot, but for those of you who want to see a trippy musical i strongly recommend you see this movie at least once.