Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé

Having attended the Renaissance World Tour in May, I wasn't sure whether I would watch Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce but then I remember how much I enjoyed the Homecoming documentary on Netflix. Not only did I watch it in the end, but I saw it from the balcony of Cineworld's Superscreen which boasts an incredible wall to wall screen, immersive Dolby Atmos sound and two floors which made feel like I was in the a stadium all over again but a little closer and with better sound. This was the perfect screen to soak up a 2 hour and 48 minute spectacle.

Firstly, reliving the performances on the big screen was amazing. Viewers feel Beyonce's energy up close and personal as well as that of her dancers, many of whom have become recognisable names and faces over the years. We also see close shots of fan reactions and sometimes see the performance from their vantage point which drives home how mesmeric Beyonce's on screen presence has become. The Renaissance 'tourdrobe' is on full display as we flash between difference performances of the same song which allows the audience to revel in the Beyonce's outstanding wardrobe (Uncle Johnny made it). One of the best things about the 'tourdrobe', is that it's easy to recognise the location you attended based on the outfit Beyonce was wearing, if not the stadium architecture. London was easy to spot! Those who didn't attend live will recognise several outfits from viral clips.

Whilst the performances are stunning and worth the admission price, it's the behind the scenes content and commentary from Beyonce that adds the cherry on top without ever feeling that they were taking away from the show. As per usual, Beyonce sweats over each miniscule detail of the show. She praises everybody from the stage crew to the backing dancers, highlighting how important their role is. The is an emotional segment where we witness Blue Ivy's first performance and its aftermath. This is one of many moments that we get to witness between Beyonce and a family member, friend or tour family. Importantly, Beyonce speaks of the motivation and inspiration for the album. A Renaissance, a new beginning where everybody can and should be comfortable in their own skin.

This was an entertaining, energetic and insight look into the Renaissance tour.

LIKES:

The Sound Quality -Let's get the obvious out of the way and talk about how the theater really maximizes the sound quality in this experience.

-A concert requires this be on point, and Beyonce's guidance did not fail to deliver room shaking bass, engaging beats, and q musical storm that shakes the clothes.

-Fantastic editing to make sure every sound stays balanced and heard, beautiful support of her vocals, and these background effects kept me ingrained, illustrating a great use of the art of sound making to the highest quality yet.

-To even use a trick about a concert snafu and ingraining that...stellar design and clever tricks that really impressed me.

The Camera Angles: -You want to feel like you are in the concert and experiencing it from every angle? Then again, props to the editing and film crew of this piece.

-Renaissance does great things with the guidance of the camera work, constantly moving around to give you the whole stage timed beautifully to help enhance musical number -Shots of Beyonce's props, key dancing moments and instrument playing, a balance of wide and focused angles, and even crowd views, all achieve a goal of integration that takes this movie to higher levels of concert conversion.

-Alongside good filters, high quality imaging, with ingraining a camera phone filming perspective , the movie accomplished for me, an experience that felt like "I'm there".

The Songs: -I have not been on the tour, nor do I know most of her work outside local radio the last few years, but the concert has a lot of her new edge that other audience members were dancing to.

-It's got great power, a live presence that matched the studio recording with clear vocals, and killer stage presence that helps somehow enhance the musical presence of the movie.

-So, for fans of her music, you are going to really enjoy what the Queen and her cast, especially her sound engineers, really accomplished much in this regards.

The Choreography: -You may not like the music, you may not like the dancers, but it's going to be hard to not give them props for some insane dance numbers they put on in this show.

-The control these people have in their bodies with this strength to pull off these taxing movies was impressive to me A few members had my favorite moves, doing so much with stamina and movement really brought something to the stage just past her singing.

-Hip hop and Pop and Lock reign the dominant style for me, but the way they keep the coordination and mood, adjust for the angles, and integrate so much into the performance... quite awesome in helping add that concert atmosphere.

The Special Effects: -While certainly more impressive in person, Beyonce has brought a stellar show of her stage effects to the silver screen -Laser light show are just the base of this piece, a really cool light effect that does some wicked tricks with the computer screen and the air that would be stellar to see.

-Pyrotechnics accomplish much in the way of a contained firework show, helping to give contrast and framing to the impressive props she rides around the stage.

-And of course, the massive screen behind her holds character, albeit weird for me, that transitions into some of the coolest stage designs I've seen in a long time. A fine fit of technology with real life effects accomplished much for this reviewer and may be one of the best aspects for theater viewing.

The Costumes: -I can't' say most of the outfits were my cup of tea in terms of sexual prowess. But fI was impressed at the designs holding up to the demanding performances.

-Color's are bold, alongside a lot of texture based designs with shiny rhinestones, very silky material, and unique prints that are original, matching the energy of the performance and eye catching.

-They hold up well to the demanding moves of the wearers, look great in a lot of the lighting, and match the leader's unique outfit with coordination that I find amazing by the design team.

-And as this is a concert film, the editing gives you plenty of time with all styles, transitioning the moment on the show to essentially swap the costumes rapidly as if paper dolls were their canvas.

The Editing: -Another nod from me, the editing accomplishes a lot with the effects to take all the things above and bring them together in a very engaging piece.

-The costume tricks alone were impressive, but there was so much more to the film, a logical presentation of shots and elements to make me feel like VIP concert member.

-Alongside picking key moments, there was a great combination of the tour, and parts of the nonconcert material, it helps give you this documentary/concert that has personality and tries to give one the "full" experience. Only tripping a few points.

The Behind The Scenes: -Perhaps my favorite part of this piece, the behind the scenes was perfect for a geek like me to see how it all comes together to make this giant spectacle.

-Construction of the show, the costumes, and the planning took my favorite spot, just seeing so many people coordinating with Beyonce to make this show.

-For those who are big on the current movements, you have plenty of praise and representation in this film and even have messages that the queen wants to share that hold the vibes of the concert.

-And for those who put the artist on Olympian Goddess level, you'll get more than enough time with her struggles and attitude to the artistry. Some of these, were inspiring for me, primarily seeing the hard work in planning the show and her family history that explains a lot.

DISLIKES:

Less Editing On Numbers: -Going to a concert, I like to see the whole song like some artists have done, and this movie cut a fair number of songs midway through their performance.

-While some of these were brilliant cuts, some of my favorite songs were interrupted too soon for me and I really wanted to se them to closure and what she could cap them with her magical touch.

-If this is a concert movie, I kind of wanted a bit more focus on that, including more time with the band shots that sometimes got lost to the other angles.

-In addition, I don't need to see about a fourth of the movie flashing to the fans at the concerts. I get it's about unity, and there is a message, but again, I'm here for the concert numbers, where my audience involvement is my fellow theater attendants.

The Beyonce Glorification: -My favorite behind the scenes stuff is seeing the hard work of this woman and the planning of the show, seeing the strength to balance work and family to A levels.

-But past that point, the movie's portrayal of her personal life and pride did little for a regular person like me.

The film felt very edited/social media like, highlights, fake phrasing, and very dramatic messaging that does not do much for me, that it took away from the things I was enjoying seeing.

-That effect carried over into the background dancers' tales as well, and though the cultural feel is there, the doctoring and dramatic telling just feel a bit too pushed for me.

-And of course, if you aren't a fan of the attitude, you aren't going to like some of the aggressive lines used at times, as it's a very big focus on her new persona which is just not what I like about Beyonce.

Too Sexualized: -My concerts of choice are about the music, the dancing, and perhaps not fully on sexual imagery and attitude.

-This was not the song list for me, nor the show, with Beyonce's new direction being very aggressive, very big on inviting poses, and lyrics that beat this drum to death.

-No shame to anyone who likes this. It's just not the concert experience I particularly like, preferring her previous shows and albums to this show where body, anger, and attitude lyrics are the primary focus.

-The message she says is important about loving yourself and pride, but I just felt this movie did not take the best approach to presenting it, going again more PSA than performance.

-As the shots showed, the movie was who love her new work and agree whole heartedly with the message, you won't find this a dislike at all, but approaching from a general point, this is again going to be a warning and limitation.

The VERDICT: Another win in the concert experience, Beyonce's Renaissance accomplishes much in the way of documentary with musical concert experience. Sensational effects are the thing that won me over to stay in this long movie, seeing so many great shots of wonderful stage effects that really make a theater the optimum way. To build alongside the performance really was impressive to me, and the constant angle changes and editing really optimize the viewing experience. Throw in a wonderful sound editing to help make sure you get everything, alongside creative choices, and well, it's hard not to give props to the work at hand. Alongside an experience of the behind the scenes, including glimpses into her life, well, the Beyonce fan is easily going to give this a 9 or a 10. For me though, the movie doesn't have the song variety of other concerts, focusing more on aggressive sexualization and other political topics that do little for a reviewer like me. When the glimpses are doctored of her life to sometimes fuel that fire, the concert escapism is lost and a regular Joe like me loses the enjoyment despite the message trying to be conveyed. From all of this, my score is difficult to put, but as I'm going for movie overall vs. Concert personification, the scores are going to vary based on how different the media are:

Music/Concert/Documentary: 8.0-8.5 Movie Overall: 5.0.

First of all...10, 10, 10! IT was perfection!

Bro.... Beyoncé is BUILT DIFFERENT! NO ONE is in her league! She is a once in a lifetime artist. She is like SCARY GOOD!

She has so much on her plate and how she juggles her life personal and professional is awe inspiring. No one works as hard as her. Watching this film is like being inside of a body and seeing how everything works. Beyoncé and her team are amazing the way they work together, but Beyoncé being the one the centers it all. I do not envy being the boss of all those of people. She makes it work though. All the behind the scenes with her family is beautiful!

The transitions gagged me. Idk if documentaries are eligible for the editing Oscar... if they are, this definitely deserves at least a nomination.

The theater cried, cheered and danced the night away!

A job well done Beyoncé!

This concert/documentary is one of the best live action-documentary movies I have ever seen. I feel like Beyonce has finally come into her own in regards to directing. Her other project were varying degrees of good but this is well thought out, cohesive piece of work. I love how she interwove so many different aspects of into the movie: Working Mother, Wife, Performer, Woman, Black, LGBTQ+ ally, Injuries, Business owner, Musician, Creative, Leader, etc. It just felt good through and through. She has come a long way from a directorial perspective and it is very nice to see. I hope she continues in this vein. Brava Beyonce!

Just Got out of a Renaissance Dolby Cinema Screening.

I've Now Come to Realise that Beyonce is a One off.

I can see why she has won so Many Awards.

She's one of those things in Life that is never going to happen again. We will never ever see a Performer like this again.

Now of course, there's a lot of Up and Coming Singers/Performers out there and still ones yet to be born. But honestly, I can't see anyone at the very least matching Beyonce in Sheer Routine Skill, Bodily Movement & Ability, Coupled with Singing Ability.

Renaissance by Beyonce -

1.🦄 At 42 years old, she still looks good.

2. 🎥 The Cinematography of the Songs was Good and in Certain Moments, it was Shocking. Her movements at multiple times within the film were just outstanding.

2a. There was a Scene when she's just going full force and her movements were Lightning Fast ⚡ and the colour and Lighting of her Costume changed. It was literally Astonishing to Watch 😳.

2b. There were other Eye popping Body movements she pulls off with Such skill. One of those was the Robot Movements with her Backup Dancers along side her, if you blink, you would literally miss the Snappy Movements.

3.💖 The film had good Edits during the Songs and also it was good to see the backstage segments of what she was going through in preparation and her sheer drive in her Mentality to help produce the best possible show she could deliver.

4. 🌠 Beyonce was always so Skillful in her Dancing Routines and Singing, but Man, after seeing it loud and direct in Dolby Cinema, what a Performer she is! At this point, she really is a Living Legend.

5.💍 She Had Beautiful Costumes throughout the film

6. 💎 The different Stage Screen Themes and Layout was Great to See.

Overall, one of the Top films of 2023, one of those Films I will Remember, it was an Energetic, Insightful and Beautiful Watch.💫