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Cats Movie Starring Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellan, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift

CuriousCaitian said:
The impression I'm getting is that, for a substantial number of people, crossing human with something other is an automatically troubling concept/visual, especially if that something is an animal - it falls under the broad, subjective umbrella of the 'uncanny valley'. The Cats movie seems to have hit that particular nerve particularly hard, and in our reactive, feedback-loop world of medias social and mass, those reactions are inevitably magnified.

That the stage costumes could generate a similar response in some is perfectly understandable.
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I don't think that this is what uncanny valley actually means, but I agree with everything else in your post.
 
crookeddy said:
I don't think that this is what uncanny valley actually means, but I agree with everything else in your post.
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It's one of those phrases whose meaning seems to have become markedly more generalised over time, and I've certainly seen it used quite a lot in regard to the Cats film. Still, I'll happily admit it's a less-than-perfect fit, and if someone can suggest a better phrase or term, go right ahead.
 
Fopr me personally, its not so much that I find the concept of Cats troubling (there are a bunch of anthropomorphic animals in media, and they aren't freaky or troubling to me), its that the CGreally isn't very good and everyone looks like a freaky monster with bits of a human face floating on their head. I don't know if using CG on a real person's face in the way Cats is doing could work even if they had an unlimited budget and time frame, but it definitely doesn't work like it is. If it was 100% CG I think they could have done it in a way that isn't as off putting, but as it is its really obvious what is CG and what isn't, which makes the whole thing look terrible.
 
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Sci-fi fan said:
It's pretty obvious 80% of the hate is from people that are offended by Cats itself, including the original musical. They can't stand fursuits to put it plainly (CGI fursuits or not).
The rest are saying the musical was better usually. It probably was but I doubt this hate is justified to this level.
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I'm of the opinion that people like to bitch too much, and are way too fraking judgmental, on the one hand; on the other, this musical took way, way, way too long to come to screen, and should've been on screen only a few years after the original West End and Broadway productions (e.g., the same amount of time it took for Camelot to come to screen, or for Jesus Christ Superstar.) That may be why people don't care (and IMHO, what doomed the movie version of Man Of LaMancha.)

I've only heard about Cats (never seen it) and I want to see this movie; I think it looks amazing.
 
David Lynch- I make weird movies

Cats- Hold my catnip


3OfQ0eI.jpg
 
The bad reviews do seem to be the worst reviews I've ever seen for anything, but 18% of critics did like the movie...
 
Good or bad, this movie is gonna' get "steamrolled" by Star Wars (whether it, too is good or bad)!

I pity all other films debuting this weekend.

Anyone think this was a deliberate "The Producers" gambit, something intended to "bomb" as a "tax write-off"?
 
Redfern said:
Anyone think this was a deliberate "The Producers" gambit, something intended to "bomb" as a "tax write-off"?
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Well they certainly assembled some star power to pull of such a stunt but I doubt it. There are much cheaper ways to do it. Hollywood account has even allowed studios to claim losses on films that did wonders at the box office.
 
I was kinda expecting most of the critics to go in on it big time. It's exactly the kind of unashamedly out-there film many just love to cut loose the apocalyptic purple prose for, and after all the online paroxysms, well... True, the apparently unfinished effects are a worry, but I'm a Rocky Horror fan. I live for weird. :devil:

And yeah, anything other than total, galactic SW domination would be unexpected to say the least.
 
CuriousCaitian said:
I was kinda expecting most of the critics to go in on it big time. It's exactly the kind of unashamedly out-there film many just love to cut loose the apocalyptic purple prose for, and after all the online paroxysms, well... True, the apparently unfinished effects are a worry, but I'm a Rocky Horror fan. I live for weird. :devil:

And yeah, anything other than total, galactic SW domination would be unexpected to say the least.
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with cat puns aplenty, the film reviewer for the Toronto Star really rips into the film but from comments (and an earlier article) he's no fan of the original music so have to wonder how much his review is coloured by that.

https://www.thestar.com/entertainme.../12/19/cats-is-a-dog-a-big-dumb-loud-one.html

then again he gave Rise of Skywalker 3.5 stars out of 4 yesterday so who knows :)

This review seems to be a case of WTF??

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-20/cats-movie-review-tom-hooper-taylor-swift/11809384
 
Redfern said:
Good or bad, this movie is gonna' get "steamrolled" by Star Wars (whether it, too is good or bad)!

I pity all other films debuting this weekend.

Anyone think this was a deliberate "The Producers" gambit, something intended to "bomb" as a "tax write-off"?
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All I can think as an explanation for why they released it this week is that they thought there would be able to draw in all the non-Star Wars fans.
 
Was reading an interesting review here. While it's a generally negative one (and actually the reviewer's second one - there's a link to the first), it's also fairly tongue in cheek when addressing some of the film's issues.
 
My one reason for wanting to see it is gone. Taylor is only in it for about 5 minutes. I’ll just wait for her scene to be uploaded to Youtube. I did listen to the song she sang (McCavity) and her English accent was pretty awful. The style of music didn’t suit her voice. The “wide awake” line was awesome though.
 
Yeah, the reviews have pretty much killed my desire to see this in theaters. I'll wait till it comes out on streaming.
 
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