Review of Cats (2019) by Pomattovich — 22 Dec 2019

What did you expect? Oh. Do the you think the humans pretending to be magical singing cats look weird? I tell you, if someone was going to make an adaptation of ALW's Cats, I WANTED it to look weird! I wanted it to strange, fantastical, sometimes silly, sometimes oddly serious, and always unlike any other movie out there.

In those terms, this film is a wild success. You can argue that you don't like the show on which it is based (I had actually never seen it, nor was I familiar with most of the music,) and that you might have never had any interest in seeing any adaptation of it period, but I feel like most people are merely reviewing the film's existence and not the film itself.

If you don't like the look of the film and the performers, what WOULD have satisfied you? It was always going to be humans pretending to be cats. Yes, the CGI fur and make-up looks odd, but I was totally fine with it.

I was thoroughly entertained for the entire film. I went to an early press screening, and then took my wife a few days later. Unlike me, she is very familiar with the show and she absolutely loved this film.

Even more than I. Are there so rough edges to this film? Definitely. But that's certainly true with similarly toned recent musicals like Moulin Rouge or The Greatest Showman, and I like this film considerably more than those.

The cast here is excellent. Ian McKellen is a notable standout. Many of the non-star dancers are exceptional. I think Hooper did an excellent job with the film. A Cats movie was always going to be weird.

This is gloriously weird. The more people who hate on it now, the bigger the cult status it will achieve later. This film has its fans. They just need to find each other. This one will be watched for years to come.

Just not by everyone.