Interesting and unique, but a little too much

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2008)

After my friend just couldn't shut up about how great Across the Universe was, he just kept begging me to sit down and watch it, so I finally did. We are both Beatle fans, so I think that's why he went so crazy over it, however, I wasn't so thrilled. While this movie is very creative at taking such classic songs by the Beatles and turning it into an entire story, I felt like this film was a little over the top and wasn't exaclty well put together. I was disappointed on a few things: the story wasn't that original, the Vietnam War story has been done too many times to the point where I was able to predict the story. Second: the songs, I absolutely love the Beatles, but the some of the songs felt like the director just pushed them in at last minute because he had too. Third: the characters don't have and depth and don't really do too much for the story.
Jude has come to America from Liverpool, England to see his real father, he succeeds, but both of them know it's not the right time to get to know each other. But Jude decides to stay, he meets a college student, Max, they instantly become friends. Jude meets Lucy, Max's sister, they instantly fall in love. But the Vietnam War is tearing them apart when Max is sent to fight in battle; a few friends of their's stick together and try to bring the war down and make a difference. Lucy goes so far in the peace fight that it starts to pull apart her relationship with Jude and sends him back to England when caught in the middle of a riot. But Jude wants to fight to get Lucy back through the power of song, because all you really need is love.
Across the Universe is a decent film, I would never deny that it was unique and interesting to watch, but I just wasn't too moved with this film. In some strange way it reminded me of Forrest Gump, with the girl who is in the peace fight and the man who is finding himself, also the music too I think. The actors were good, but I felt like this was just a waste of their talents, I mean acting wise, their singing was fantastic, but Across the Universe just didn't do anything for me. I know there are a lot of people who are going to disagree with me on this comment, a lot of users loved this movie, but I just didn't get into it, so I suppose this is a movie that you will have to judge for yourself, but I wouldn't really recommend it if you've seen a lot of Vietnam War movies.
6/10