sensorshot

I was the only person in the cinema watching this which makes me think the bad reviews are catching on. Simply put, i hoped that most people just weren't getting it and my cinephile brain would see the art that others couldn't . There were moments I hoped too much against the wisdom of the masses. I thought 'Is this genius or is it rubbish?' At an hour and a bit of this pointless nonsense, I walked out , settling on the latter. I actually felt insulted. Don't use comic book IP to sell your high school musical flamboyance. It feels like I was scammed by a website pretending to be a quality brand.

So Marvel's best TV show meets it's worst lifting She Hulk to an all time high episode rating. If Jennifer Walters appears in Daredevil- Born Again, I expect the opposite to happen. It seems the MCU are going to put the hours in to Daredevil. Something they clearly never did for She Hulk. I'm not sure what the future is for She Hulk with episode 9 yet to come. This has been a trite mess of a TV show that even fails at being a mediocre sit-com. The irony of course is that there probably is a need for a Superhero lawyer given the constant expansion of the MCU. But surely one who is on top of her brief and had at least heard of Daredevil given the publicity he has had.

There is a lot to unpack about what I did not like about this movie but I also feel I need to 'fess up about my love of Elvis and growing up a fan as a child. I was 11 when he died and it came as a big shock. In rural Norfolk where we lived mostly 20 years in the past so it seemed that he had only just arrived. I spent a long time after following the legend. The Kurt Russel movie, the odd "That's the Way it is / Was" documentaries - stylistically plundered for this movie and of course all the movies. Owning 40 Greatest Hits was pretty much issued to you growing up. Then Punk Rock and New Wave came and Elvis just became the distant past, even if he did shock his audience in a way Johnny Rotten could only dream. Occasionally American Trilogy would come on the radio and I'd crank it up and do an Elvis impersonator sing-along, "Wisha was, inna lanna cotton" I played it on my excited drive to see this movie I had been waiting for, saying to my partner, "If this song is not referenced in the movie, I'll be stunned, it is definitive Elvis".

Once the film started, it was the first track we see enacted by the incredibly brilliant Austin Butler who nails it. Sadly, there is not much else good to say about this movie beyond his performance. It makes sense of course that Baz Luhrmann would open with that. Luhrmann is never one to use a nutcracker when there is a sledgehammer he can bang an idea a few times with until you get it. That's my point. This is not really an Elvis movie. It is a Tom Parker movie that wishes it was an Elvis movie. I am not sure you can be that dark and cynical about Elvis life and hope to get away with it considering what baggage the typical audience are likely to bring to the show. For Elvis to be portrayed as this easily manipulated kid, when anyone who watched the documentaries mentioned above knew The King was always in charge. If you tip the weight of the narrative to Colonel Tom you have to reduce the personality of Elvis. Don't get me wrong when I first heard rumours about this movie I was very keen for a Colonel Tom movie played by Tom Hanks but for that movie to work it needs a less important Elvis, that's a tough trick to pull off.

This movie is only coherent to an Elvis fan. To others not plugged into the folklore, myth and legend, it is long and boring with Luhrmann over egging his point and being cynical and depressive. He either fast forwards too much that is relevant or dwells on insignificance to bolster and pad out the Colonel Tom con artist. There is the art of the conman, the huckster, referenced through this movie. In reality, the biggest card trick is shuffled by the director who promises us a celebration of Elvis but delivers a woeful, tedious tale of a mediocre manager who got lucky clinging to a rocket after it had already launched. Butler is brilliant, no doubt, Hanks is hammy at best. Luhrmann tries to use Elvis to paint Tom Parker which is like I said, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Fun in places but subtle it ain't. Thang yer verry mush.