Gorgeous visuals, fascinating concept, VERY poorly executed.

Rating: 4/10 (7 January 2010)

I, for one, am a Beatle-head. They are one of the best bands out there, hands down. I own all the albums and have seen all the movies. I am also a pure 100% thespian- I'm a huge fan of musical theatre and have taken part in several productions, the most fond experience to me being Pippin.
When I heard that there was a going to be a Beatle musical, I was excited. Sturgess, Wood, Plenty of Beatles music, I was sold before I saw anything. And then I saw the trailer... the moment Sturgess sung the opening line of "Girl", my jaw dropped. Then I saw it down in Ontario...
Not good.
This movie had TONS of potential. I really do think so. I mean, it has gorgeous and arty visuals. It has a hella talented cast behind it (to an extent), music by one of the best rock bands ever, and an amazing concept to boot.
Now, I can go on all day about how amazing the visuals and concept. But simply, what a bad movie.
The plot is very juvenile. I dunno what the hell was going on- I know this movie is supposed to be artistic, and I applaud that. But the plot basically went nowhere. If you rely on a bunch of Beatles songs to create a good story, that's not good. The Beatles rock, indeed. But The Beatles wrote songs with their own meanings, not to comprise a story of a certain kind. The plot seems to plod its way through without much of a clue as to what it wants to do- Musical-Rom-Com? War Movie? Music Drama? Romance? Another thing wrong is that the movie is simply way too long. I mean, at least 20 minutes could have been cut from the movie, it simply dragged. Real pacing issues ensue, with the amount of material in it- this is one strangely paced movie. It's too long, but yet too short for what's in it. Scenes end before they begin a lot of the time- that really grates on my nerves. As for length, it seems as if the director was too lazy to choose scenes to be edited out so he just said "Hey, no need to edit things out! It's a Beatle musical, everything I touch turns to gold!".
The cast is talented, undoubtedly. But the problem is though- their acting seemed to outweigh their singing talent. While My Guitar Gently Weeps made my jaw drop, it's that great. Martin Luther's voice is tearjerkingly amazing. Sturgess seems to be a rather minor praise for me though... he has a technically great voice, but that's the problem. But on a lot of the songs he seems to take you out of the whole experience. Revolution was laughably bad... he hits several foul notes during the verses then slides to correct them. He was great acting wise, but singing wise was just... bad.
The songs are a really missed opportunity. It seems as if the writer took the songs too literally here. Jude looks at strawberries, and then... *dramatic music* Strawberry Fields Forever!!!! Helter Skelter, which is usually a adrenaline fueled song, is well sung but poorly composed. Because is gorgeous visually and musically, as are a few others. But most of the time my eyes were rolling. Also, there's LOTS missing here; where's songs like "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"? Or "Another Girl"? Or "Tomorrow Never Knows"? That song would have fit the trippy mood.
I'm not saying this movie sucked. It's a GORGEOUS movie. It's very trippy, it's visually amazing, it has good songs, and a good concept. But I simply couldn't enjoy it. Several flaws got into in the way of it. I enjoyed some songs, I loved Bono's clever little cameo (Bono can do no wrong), the acting was good "All you Need is Love" was the best part of it, etc. But it's not very good, and in the end, I could have used those hours to have watched something that was more suited to my liking. And I don't not like Taymor- she did a FANTASTIC rendition of Titus Andronicus, and others, but this movie disappointed me greatly.