A group of cats called Jellicles meet once a year at the ball to decide who will get the chance to have a new Jellicle life, competing to prove they are the most deserving cat.
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Meeting around London the Jellicle cats explain everything to newcomer Victoria who does not really know what it is all about. Having never met Old Deuteronomy cat who decides who is the most deserving to be born into a new life. She meets plenty of other cats along the way as they compete and stake a claim into why they deserve it. In song and dance of course, Macavity has other plans though as he battles to become that cat.
I am a huge lover and fan of musicals both on stage and on screen. So I have been highly anticipating this film from when it was first announced, then with each and every cast member being announced, even after the two trailers were the CGI looked rather odd. I still wanted to see this, that's right even after the truly awful reviews dropped. However, I can now understand those reviews. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting this film to be outstanding or anything as the stage show is a little strange anyway and doesn't really have a huge amount of story considering it is based on different poems by T.S. Eliot.
The CGI is absolutely horrific and so distracting I could not get away from the human feet and hands mixed with the cat body, tail and whiskers along with the human face to be able to recognise which actor is in that role. The feet were the thing I struggled with the most, I mean I couldn't decide if the bare human foot was worse than the converse trainers or different shoes? One thing is for sure that I was lost before it really began.
They did attempt to have more of a story attached to this (I guess) but again being based on the poems it is difficult to have anything meaningful. I mean come on its a musical, just make sure you nail the songs and dance sequences. They don't do that either, so many of the cast cannot actually sing and the dancing is missed a lot due to the close up shots rather than wider shots to show the dancing, something that actually started off quite well for Jellicle Cats opening number. A big issue even with the show is that the songs and music aren't really that memorable, as much as I enjoy watching the show I have seen it four times over the years. But more for the dancing than the actual songs which after Memory aren't really that great.
Only two positives in terms of singing were Jennifer Hudson and Taylor Swift, I felt everyone else was out of their depth. Even Jason Derulo was not given anything to work with as Rum Tum Tugger and I was left rather shocked with his lack lustre musical number. Francesca Hayward a newcomer to screen a trained ballet dancer was never really given the chance to show that off, as I mentioned earlier with the close up shots during the dance numbers. I seriously cannot believe I have been so negative towards a film that Ian McKellen is in, a very sad day it must be said. Just to add in again though Rebel Wilson is not funny at all, not even a tiny little bit (something I feel I have said after every film I have watched her in) along with James Corden.
Rumour has it that this is version 1 of the film and they are quickly trying to "fix" it and update with a different version? Surely that is only because of the bad reviews, with the use of CGI I really don't see how you can actually make it any better? Unless they sort those freaky feet out of course!
