It was 1978 when it all began. That's when George Lucas and a fairly unknown band of filmmakers and actors introduced us to that galaxy far, far away. We met characters like Han Solo and Princess Leia. We fell in love with droids named R2D2 and C3PO. We booed and hissed at the classic villainy of Darth Vader. And the hero of it all was a young farmer boy who pined for adventure on a backwater planet where nothing exciting ever happened. That's where we met Luke Skywalker, and for three films ending in 1983, we were treated to an epic adventure. This unknown band would become cultural icons, but it was all over after five years of space swashbuckling and good old good versus evil. At some point Lucas made it known that the first Star Wars film was actually the fourth film in a trilogy of trilogies. Star Wars would gain the tag A New Hope, followed by The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. Of course, while Lucas teased there was a prequel trilogy and a sequel trilogy, we were told not to get our hopes too high. But in the 1990's Lucas felt ambitious, and he delivered on that prequel trilogy with underwhelming result. Surely the rest of the story would remain untold.

Enter The Walt Disney Studios, who had already racked up some success picking up the Marvel franchise. They were looking for something else to sink another $4 billion in. With half in cash and half in Disney stock, Lucas relinquished control of his beloved Lucasfilm and all of the properties it contained, from Industrial Light & Magic to Indiana Jones. But the cornerstone of the film franchises was certainly Star Wars. From that point there was to be no mistake: the final three stories would be told. The Force Awakens directed by JJ Abrams really did give fans a new hope. The film was a wonderful companion to the first three, and we could finally forget about those meddlesome 90's films. Abrams returned the franchise to the organic delights of actual film and teased the decision in the film's first teaser/trailer. I literally cheered when I saw him demonstrate actual film being threaded into a camera. This was the true return of Star Wars. That film was followed by a remarkable spin-off story called Rogue One that told that story from A New Hope of those brave people who lost their lives delivering the plans to that nasty Death Star to the Resistance. It was another wonderful film, and the sky appeared to be the limit.

This film proves that not all things need to be adapted for the silver screen. This re-imagining of this Broadway musical was best left on the stage. Now I am saying this having never seen the musical, but given the execution of this film, I am forced to make that the assumption that the musical has to be better than what I witnessed at the theater. Despite having a top-shelf cast that included Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, Jennifer Hudson, and Taylor Swift, the film fails to entertain. This isn’t just a biased opinion, either; my wife, who was very excited for the film, fell asleep at multiple points and was highly annoyed by the story. I have no idea what was initially hoped for this adaptation, but I am hard pressed to believe that it was this. As much as I want to put the film behind me, there is one song regarding a magician cat that is just staying with me, furthering my frustration. The film was already going to have a difficult time making its mark based on the fact that is going against a film that is basically guaranteed to win not only this week but also subsequent weekends at well. Given the cult status of the musical, I assume that the die-hards will make the trip to the theater, and I would be curious to speak with any of them and find out if they were as disappointed as I was.

One of my main issues with the film had to do with the ineffective way that the story was carried out. Out of the blue, a cat named Victoria (ballerina Francesca Haywood) is dumped in a seedy part of town, and then suddenly a bunch of other cats surround her, and next thing we know the singing commences. This is basically how the entire movie goes; very little dialog, and the cast’s main way of communicating is through song. This method was very difficult to follow, as I felt that no real information regarding the overall plot or information about the characters was adequately explained. It was very difficult to form a connection with any, essentially because I knew very little about any of them. In fact, we don’t learn anything about the film’s central character until half way through the movie.