Across the Universe - Beatles fans rejoice! (or mourn)

[Zealot2120]

This year there is a film that could either be the best film ever, or the biggest embarrassment.

Across the Universe is a movie based upon the music by the Beatles. The characters in the movie all come from the various songs of the Beatles, such as Bill from Bungalow Bill, JoJo from Get Back, Lucy from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Desmond from Ob-la-di, Max from Maxwell's silver hammer, Mr Kite from For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, and more.

The movie moves through the 60's, a time of revolution. It is a time where the youth love, are carefree and are taken in by the new music of Rock and Roll.

Watch the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/acrosstheuniverse/

 

[Revolutions]

There was a thread about this on Something Awful. Someone found these impressions of the movie:

I saw this movie's screening about a month ago and had completely blocked the experience from my mind this morning until i was listening to Abbey Road.

It would be cruel to call "Across the Universe" a two hour music video because it tries so hard to be more than that, but it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate either. The movie can be summed up as a series of punctuated scenes and characters each represented by a Beatles song and strung together by a boilerplate love story.

Of course, these criteria don't preclude the movie from being a true gem. But the real failing of any music video is the inability to explore beyond the literal meaning of a song. Of course, in an ideal world all directors re-imagine an established song or leverage both its nuance and cultural weight. In the best of cases, a movie allows music to transcend its established history. In the worst of cases, music is exploited for its most superficial meaning. Sadly, too often, Across the Universe is guilty of the latter.

Unfortunately, any negative review of this movie may seem like a 'book' vs 'movie' comparison. Surely if "the movie's never as great as the book," a movie that utilizes culturally loaded music is equally likely to disappoint. My complaint isn't that "Across the Universe" is unable to explore the depths of Beatles universe because the movie never tries. If you could distill any Beatles song to its most literal meaning, while ignoring all subtlety, then you'd probably make this movie too. Accordingly, the best scenes in the movie were detached from the story and simply indulgent celebrations of the music, full of Taymor's aesthetic.

Which brings me back to the summary of this review -- while listening to Abbey Road this morning, Across the Universe all came rushing back and I felt half the album being taken from me. In listening to half of the songs on the album, I was reminded of the predictable and superficial renditions of angsty teens bemoaning lost love, while the other unused half remained as a reminder of the depth of the Beatles' music.

I'm still interested in seeing the film, but it seems like it's going to be exactly what I wouldn't want it to be. Beatles covers do not a good film make. Here's hoping that the end of the trailer is more representative of the movie as a whole than the first couple minutes, because those are some pretty cool visuals.

 

[Zealot2120]

Personally, I think that review is fake. It appeared on IMDB (which is far from reliable), and honestly, I doubt the movie is in final form now, and much less likely to be finished a month ago.

The review is awfully vague, as well. I honestly think it's a complete hoax.

The movie is "coming soon". There is no exact date yet, which usually means it isn't coming out till later this year, so I'm pretty sure it isn't finished.

 

[#HBC | marshy]

The first few minutes bored me, it was dull. I was hoping for a more psychedelic movie, or one based on the Beatles themselves(even though there have already several movies on that) but oh well.

Here's hoping that the end of the trailer is more representative of the movie as a whole than the first couple minutes, because those are some pretty cool visuals.

These were my exact thoughts while I was watching the trailer.

 

[Sensai]

I dunno. The entire thing looked cool to me, with the ending being more....faithful....to the Beatles and the decade of the 60s, what with the trippy lookin' visuals.

I'm going to hope that review is fake, as well. You're right though, Revolutions: Beatles covers do tend to be dissapointing, and a movie made around the idea of covering the Beatles....well, ****.