Movie Review: Cats is so terrible, it’s comical

The movie Cats came out recently and I watched it so you don’t have to.

The movie is based off the hit Broadway musical that premiered in 1981, which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber after he was inspired by the poetry book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot.

In theory, the movie adaptation should have been a hit, like it was on stage, with the star-studded cast, cult following and music from the play alongside originals but it missed its mark. 

The cast was put into costumes with added CGI effects that were truly disturbing. At one point, the cat Jennyanydots (played by Rebel Wilson) unzips her fur during a number that features cockroaches and mice with human faces.

The costumes were not the only problem with the movie. The plot was very hard to follow and you had to either have seen the play beforehand or look up the plot to understand. Part of the confusion may be the fact that the visuals of the movie are so off-putting that it is hard to understand anything that is going on though. I had to Google the plot later and it still didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

The amazing actors, actresses, and singers that were in the movie have my pity. When I saw Jason Derulo come on the big screen as the cat Rum Tum Tugger, I was shocked. His singing was great but I don’t think anyone who saw the movie will ever be able to see him without the awful cat suit ever again. When I saw my favorite late night host James Corden come on the screen as the fat cat Bustopher Jones, I almost started crying. That is just how bad the visuals of this movie are. Taylor Swift played the cat Bombalurina and it was scary.

I ended up having to leave the theater before finishing the movie because it was just that bad. There were only about eight other people watching and maybe half of them left before my friends and I did. Some theaters are starting to pull it from the list of movies they will play because barely anyone buys tickets and if they do they leave before the movie is over.

I will say that the movie has one redeeming quality: it makes the audience laugh. The costumes and the scenes are so bad that they are funny and some moviegoers made comments about what was going on during the film that were funny. The scene where Jason Derulo’s character Rum Tum Tugger performs at a milk bar while cats drink milk from taps made me laugh, as well as when James Corden’s character Bustopher Jones dove into a garbage can.

In my opinion, the movie is a hate crime against humanity. I don’t quite understand how the idea of all of the insects and animals having human faces got the green light but at this point I don’t even want to ask.

All in all, the movie was disturbing, scary and overall awful. I would tell you to go see it for a good laugh but that would be a waste of your money. I hope I never watch that movie again.