This is a big weekend at the cinema because one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year is finally arriving. Also, there's a new Star Wars movie coming out.
While Cats isn't expected to set any box office records, it's still been one of the more talked about movies of 2019, if only because, ever since the first trailer dropped people have been fascinated by the use of CGI to create strange human/cat people. While the general public is still a few hours from filling their eye holes with the insanity that is Cats, critics have made their voices heard, and their voices are largely saying "What the fuck did I just see?"
The response to the trailer was a lot of confusion. Reviews are generally in the negative. However, Cats director Tom Hooper seems to be taking it all in stride. While he tells EW that he certainly didn't expect this sort of response, he doesn't seem to be letting it bother him. According to the director...
I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, and it was obviously much more of a big deal than I thought. Reading some of the commentary was pretty entertaining.
Tom Hooper admits to be a lifelong fan of Cats as a Broadway musical, and so he had a particular drive to make the movie happen. With that sort of passion, it's not surprising that he isn't letting the response from others bother him.
However, that's not to say that Tom Hopper wasn't listening to the response from those early trailer reactions. He recently admitted that the movie was actually barely finished in time for the world premiere, and that the time was used to change up the CGI a bit in what he hopes will make it all a bit more palatable for audiences. Hooper explains...
I really concentrated on bringing back the actors’ faces because when you’ve got Ian McKellen or Judi Dench or Taylor Swift, why would you not want to? I don’t know if that’s what the comments were asking for, but what I took from it was that I needed to reconnect with my original plan and make sure I was delivering on that.
The response to the Cats has been equal parts terrified and hilarious, but it certainly can't be said that people aren't talking about it, and that's something. While most may be calling it a bad movie, it's the sort of bad movie that you might want to see anyway, if only to understand the insanity that people are talking about. In the end, if enough people are curious, Cats might end up being something of a success after all.
And then, at least, we will have all suffered together.
Cats hits theaters tonight.
