Elvis

Looks like Tom Hanks phoned in his role. His acting, if you can call it that was disgustingly terrible. Austin Butler was the perfect actor to play Elvis. I enjoyed the parts of the movie that he was in without Hanks hovering around trying to steal the scene. The writers needed to delve more into Elvis Presley's early life. Priscilla's character was just a footnote. It was if she was hardly in his life. I would actually watch this movie again if I could delete Tom Hanks from the film. Tom Hanks sucked the life out of the movie as much as Colonel Parker sucked the life out of Elvis Presley and his career.

There are certainly times in which Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" is an engaging and entertaining biopic of rock-and-roll's biggest star. The performance numbers are often incredible and Austin Butler inhabits all aspects/ages of the lead role adeptly. Unfortunately, Luhrmann's let's say "unique" style of filmmaking can't quite get out of its way long enough (especially in the early goings) for this to be a top-notch flick.

For a very basic overview, "Elvis" tells the story of the titular character (played by Butler) from childhood all the way through his Vegas residency at the end of his career. The narrative frame comes from the voice of Colonel Parker (Tom Hanks), Presley's manager and quasi-abuser (largely in the financial department). Elvis's relationship to "black music", teen heartthrob fame, military service, and late-60s comeback are all given time here, including his marriage to Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge).

Perhaps the most notable thing to mention about "Elvis" is that the first 30-45 minutes are kind of a mess. Luhrmann is in peak wackadoodle form (granted, what else could be expected from the director of 1996's "Romeo + Juliet"), what with jarring time-cuts, crazy montages (one that turns the proceedings into a comic book!), and quite a bit of time spent on the bizarre Hanks Parker portrayal. There is also a far-too-on-the-nose scene in which a young Presley supposedly learns his later musical style via an R&B jam session and a revival ministry happening concurrently. I'd blame no one for thinking this was a total mess before the 1 hour mark.

Fortunately, in this case, there is still 2 hours left of "Elvis", and that's when it settles into being a pretty entertaining film. Basically, once all the crazy material is out of the way and audiences can just settle into Butler's portrayal, there is a lot to like. I was really impressed with Butler's ability to portray the young rebellious Elvis, as well as the fat, worn-down-by-life version. The staged musical numbers are every bit as good as those found in recent musical biopics like Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody. I'll certainly be revisiting some Presley tunes after seeing this.

Overall, I can't put "Elvis" in my top tier (Walk the Line, Love & Mercy, & Judy) of biopics because its director seems almost physically unable to "tell it straight" when this film and acting performances would have certainly been good enough for that grounded approach. But it was easily good enough to hold my interest and take me on an interesting journey through the iconic musician's entire career.

Firstly Austin Butler was great , he could actually be Elvis as he looked so much like him and clearly worked hard to do Elvis justice , but I didn't really enjoy the movie but can't put my finger on why , the Main actors did a good job but I couldn't really get an emotional connection with them or the story line until the very end , I thought the legend Tom Hanks had too much of a part to play and Elvis didn't get enough , the story seemed to bounce all over the place and to me just felt and bit disjointed , Im no movie critic or expert so I recommend seeing it as lots have really raved about it but I woo the be watching it again.

Tom Hanks portrayal of Colonel was distracting and aggravating

Austin Butler was incredible.

So much about Elvis is glossed over and Baz's direction and edits are distracting to the point you don't feel like you ever get to know Elvis the way you want.

If this had been directed by someone like Michael Mann who's specializes in layered and complex "people" this may have been great. Baz delivered a mediocre movie and distracting visuals.....

My biggest gripe is it feels like Baz seemed to concentrate more on visual editing and made Elvis more of a side note in this film.

Good luck but it's def a cautionary tale of the more famous you are the more alone you'll always be.

The movie is interesting but I think it's overhyped. I mean I appreciate all the stuff about the influence of black culture but I feel like maybe they pushed too hard to be current with what was politically relevant with today i.e. George Floyd and diversity in cinema. Almost felt exploitive in that they were using stuff like Martin Luther King's death to try and humanize Elvis to be this "great" empathetic man. I don't know how much of it is actually true but I feel like they enhanced and focused on that because it's what the focus is in todays politics, they focused on Bobby King's death too. It just seemed like they were exploiting these great men of black culture to give their film credit in today's world. I almost just decided I wouldn't comment on it but then they actually had him talking with tear filled eyes to Rosetta Thorpe's ghost and that just crossed the line in how purposely this was done to appeal to todays culture shift to swing awards voters and the public because a " privileged straight white man" who abused drugs and philanderer'd with women that weren't his wife just isn't interesting or lovable in todays culture, so I feel like the filmmakers used and exploited black people to sell Elvis in todays market. I'm sure the producers were thinking how do we sell a rich white straight man like Elvis in 2022? In a Hollywood award season). Make him cry and dance with black people throughout half of the movie? Again I wish it was true, but feels like an exploitive attempt to join today's culture club. And I looked online and many articles said the movie embellished these friendships.

Also Butler's performance felt self-indulgent to me. Never felt like I was watching "Elvis" but that I was watching an actor play him. It wasn't bad just not this transformative great spectacle people are calling it. It's even good, but a far shot from what I'd call Oscar worthy. I feel like actors trying to get Oscars play these real people in this generic formulaic attempt for recognition, want an Oscar? Play a real person they say. Felt like a pretty guy posing. More of a !look at me! I'm Elvis, instead of actually being him. I've seen him in things before, felt like I was watching Austin Butler whisper like Elvis. And some of the lines were really clichè and corny like "fly high". Again, not a bad movie, just very overrated in my opinion. And I wonder how much computer work they did on the singing? Also Tom Hanks was totally playing a caricature and he came off as a clown, like a parody.