Cool Cherry Cream

"Across the Universe"

Finally got around to seeing this movie tonight. My initial thoughts when I saw a preview a few years ago was that it actually looked kind of… cool. Seeing a preview again, closer to the actual release date, I thought the movie would be terrible, but it looked very visually appealing. I heard some of the soundtrack a few days ago, and honestly, I was not impressed. At all. One bit. Whatsoever. I was actually quite turned off.

But I didn't consider not seeing it just because I didn't like the songs. I don't work that way. I'm going to see the movie, and judge the movie for the movie. Even though the cover versions were laaame and wussified.

Case in point: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". It had a very indie sound to it, and indie is just not my thing, nor is chick music (and I'm certainly not going to call it chick "rock", because it wasn't). This song in particular was just the girl singing and an acoustic guitar, mainly (and first off, lack of drums = crappy song). This song could've gone on the "I Am Sam" soundtrack, which also had boring, wussy, white-washed covers. But when watching the "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" scene in the movie, I didn't notice how lacking it was. It actually… kinda… worked!

When listening to the soundtrack, "I've Just Seen A Face" seemed kind of countrified, which again, is not a genre I'm fond of. But also again, I didn't notice this during the movie. And a gospel "Let It Be"? Not my thing at all, but still not my thing when watching the movie.

Let me make one thing clear: I'm not against cover versions. I'm not against people rearranging songs and making cover versions that are actually different. I actually prefer the vastly different cover versions (like Earth Wind & Fire's "Got To Get You Into My Life"). There's a fine line: some covers are just too similar to the original and are pointless (like, oh, let's say, Pearl Jam's cover of "Love Reign O'er Me"?), and then there are some covers that go in a-total-nother direction and turn out disastrously. Personally, for me, I found too many of the songs were slowed down and lost their edge, and that's why I didn't like them. Not because "they r a discrace 2 teh beetlezz!!!1 i can nevar lizten 2 the origanal agin!!11!", but because that is just not the type of music that I like.

But then we have "Come Together", which was actually pretty rockin'. Not nearly as good as Aerosmith's version, but definitely one of the better songs from this movie, in my opinion.

Which brings me to the obvious comparison to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". And really, there is no comparison. "Sgt. Pepper's" was a comedy, both intentionally and unintentionally. It was a lighthearted, fun movie. "Across the Universe" was not. It was a drama, a romance. Not a comedy.

I like comedies. No, let me rephrase that. I like funny comedies. I feel this has to be specified because so many filmmakers these days seem to forget that particular element of comedy. So yes, I do like "Sgt. Pepper's" better, because it appeals more to me personally. Not to mention it had a much better cast: Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Earth Wind & Fire, Billy Preston. Who did "Across the Universe" have? Joe Cocker and Bono. I rest my case.

The list. The list has to be done, now that I've seen them all, doesn't it?

1. Help!
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. Magical Mystery Tour
5. Across the Universe
6. Let It Be
7. Yellow Submarine

And there you have it. So you see, I certainly didn't hate "Across the Universe". Though, I must admit, I had low expectations going in and that may have tricked me into thinking it was better than it was. It's still a little too soon to tell for sure.

One thing I was quite impressed by was the reinterpretation of the meaning of some of the songs. While only a teensy tiny little detail, I liked how "If I Fell" was handled, what with all the "her"s and "she"s in it and having it sung by a girl. And the "I Want You"/Uncle Sam thing was quite genius and slightly hilarious. I didn't like the "She's So Heavy" part though, because, well, the Beatles ain't American, buddy. And speaking of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", another good cover version.

Knowing the origins of the song "Dear Prudence" made me smile during that scene. There were a ton of little Beatle things like that throughout the film, which was nice. Reading the IMDB trivia, it appears I caught every reference and more (for example, the record guy being Bill as in Bungalow, videos projected on faces possibly a reference to "Blue Jay Way" from the "Magical Mystery Tour" movie, a "Two Virgins"-esque drawing on Jude's wall, and so on). I only missed the fact that the contortionist was called Rita.

The "she came in through the bathroom window" line was good (and even my dad, who I was sure would hate this movie, laughed), but a little too blatant for my taste. If they'd just made it a little more obvious that the window was located in a bathroom (or oh, I'm sorry, are we still not allowed to show toilets on television?), that would have been much better and made the hilarity metre rise from a slight chuckle to an outright laugh. Subtlety, people, makes everything much funnier. Speaking of unsubtle song references, the old man at the beginning and "When I'm 64"? Totally laaaame.

On IMDB, one user says: "I noticed the #9 on the door. I didn't pay attention to see if there were anymore". I, too, noticed the 9 on the door, but I can assure you there were no more 9s, because they would have been much more blatant. This movie is not one that makes hidden jokes, they put them out there for everyone to see. Which, really, that's fine, but it shows that their main audience is not Beatles fans, because Beatles fans would recognize these things without it being shoved in their face.

Okay, so previously I praised the interpretations of the songs, but… "I Am The Walrus"… now, it was no fault of the filmmakers that this song is impossible to make sense of, but couldn't they have picked a song that, oh say, made sense in the context of the film?

I generally liked all of Sadie's and Jojo's songs, because they were rockers. Of course, that's probably because they represented Janis and Jimi… again with the obviousness. I also liked both the George cover songs, "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", though "Something" was kind of useless and could have been cut, along with say "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" and a ton of other sequences.

So, all in all, some nice songs, some lame songs, the movie was alright, but much too long, but that's how they all are these days, innit?