across the universe

It looks interesting. I'll probably track it down and watch it at some point, but it also looks like it could easily tip over and contain too much angst for its own good.
 
Resurrecting an old thread. I can't believe it took me 8 months to track this film down and watch it, but here I am.

Across the Universe is a good film. It's solid and hits most of the right notes (no pun intended). Overall I'd say that I really liked the movie and would give it a solid three stars our of four. Julie Taymor treats it more like a stage musical than a film, which makes sense because of her background, but more importantly gounds the film in a sort of reality of it's own making. Across the Universe could easily have been Moulin Rouge with Beatles' songs, but it avoided the spastic speed ramps and A.D.D. editing that plague most movies that you could compare it to. In fact, most scenes have a slow, almost methodic pace to them. In this film you actually get to linger on shots and it helps create a universe where you could imagine "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" being an unrequited love song.

Interestingly, the movie feels more like a tone poem than a narrative. It cuts in and out in the middle of conversations, not always putting the viewer in a place to figure out what exactly everyone is talking about. At first this is a bit distracting, but as strange as this sounds, I found myself not listening to the dialog so much as feeling the emotion of the film. An unfortunate side effect of this is that not all of the characters in the film really come into their own. One character in particular, Prudence, really doesn't connect to the rest of the film in any traditional story arch-kind of way. In a film that is already over-populated, her only purpose seems to be to allow the cast to squeeze the song "Dear Prudence" into the film.

Even with a few missteps here and there, the strong story thread of the film, the love between Jude and Lucy (three guesses as to what songs are associated with those characters), is carried out enough that we care and are interested for the two hour and eight minute runtime. At least I was.
 
i really hated this film. and i rarely feel that way about anything. There was very little story, nobody acted real, and it was full of stupid gimics. like somebody comes in through a window just so another character can say "she came in through the bathroom window." and we find out her name is Prudence. It felt like that skit in Who's Line Is It Anyway where everybody has to talk in song titles. It was like a 90 minute music video with a target audience of 16 year old girls. and they completely changed the meaning of all the beatles' songs. i.e. "I want you so bad" coming from Uncle Sam. ugh. Bruno Delbonnel is the man and he did a great job but wow i couldn't believe how forced this movie felt.
 
I just saw this yesterday - I give it four out of five. It's a really good idea that was executed well. I think it could've been taken a bit further and actually had more of a story...then it could be a 'great' film. But, like others have said, a lot of corners were cut in order to make the songs drive the movie. Some more creative writing would've helped. But, still 4/5, so I highly recommend seeing it...if for nothing else than to witness the style and artistic direction.
 
I rented it the other day and have been meaning to watch it before its due back. Stupid late fees.

Mike, nice tribute to MST3K!
 
Just saw the movie. The first 40 minutes is awful. It was painful to watch the "I want to hold your hand" scene was absolutely painful. There were a lot of songs that were hard to sit through but that was the worst.

"I Want You" was fantastic! I loved the cinematography, choreography, imaging, and sets. It was great.

Over all the movie was great but it had some major downfalls.
 
Taymor can do a hell of a lot better than this. At times I was wondering just what in the hell she was thinking.

Nice visuals, but a lacking film (welcome to musicals).
 
Zander said:
Just saw the movie. The first 40 minutes is awful. It was painful to watch the "I want to hold your hand" scene was absolutely painful. There were a lot of songs that were hard to sit through but that was the worst.
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I couldn't even make it to 40 minutes. As a huge Beatles fan, I found this film outright offensive. I had to turn it off about a half hour in. I don't usually stop movies either.

Beatles for the High School Musical generation. Maybe it's my lack of enthusiam for the Musical genre, I don't know. Good cinematography and editing just couldn't justify tarnishing the music of The Beatles that is almost sacred to me. It's going to take a little while for this abomination to wear off before I can go back to listening to the real thing.
 
I'm usually not a musical fan
but this film was great
the cinematography was wonderful and so were the actor's execution of the Beatles hit's
overall a 4 out 5 stars
 
I saw they just released a 2 DVD set for Across the Universe. What on earth is in it? It better have something damn cool on it. I thought this movie was going to have many more fx sequences than it actually did. This was disappointing. If you don't mind people sitting in a room singing songs (cheesy renditions of Beatles songs) for a good part of the movie, you will be able to appreciate the film.
 
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