Blair Loveday
When I saw there was a sci-fi drama written and directed by the incredible Francis Ford Coppola I was so down for it!
Unfortunately, despite being in the cooker for a long time, Megalopolis could have done with a touch more time in the cooker. Or maybe less time, not totally sure.
Megalopolis is set in a version of New York called New Rome. Here we have the city controlled by the rich elite class. Caesar, played by Adam Driver, is a genius who has invented a magical new building material. As such he is trying to reforge the city to be better in every way, for everyone. Unfortunately the elites, including the mayor Cicero, who is played by Giancarlo Esposito, love their old traditional ways. So we see a battle as a visionary tries to make the city a better place for everyone, while the old elites try to maintain their way of life.
Now that on its own would have made for an excellent movie. The issue is the movie tries to do way too much. In the just over two hour run time it starts at a solid and really interesting pace, but ends with all kinds of chaos. Caesar can stop time, for reasons, and then he loses the ability to do that and needs to fix it. There are important characters that seem to drop off for ages for no reason and then it throws so many at you.
Fundamentally the movie needed to focus a bit more on its core story and it could have been something special. Megalopolis is loaded with so many exceptional actors and actresses and they all do stellar jobs in their roles.
The setting and world that is built is visually stunning, and so much heavy lifting is achieved with how everything looks. The CGI is solid and makes for some stunning scenes, even if some don’t seem necessary.
Looking back on my first watch of this movie, I have to say I enjoyed myself.
There are some interesting ideas in here, and it has some fantastic messaging. The only real issue is there is way too much crammed in. A simple futuristic allegory of how America is going down the path of Rome could have been a banger. Unfortunately it winds up being overly messy making for an interesting movie I will be keen to revisit in the future. Good thing I have it on Bluray.
