I drove across town to see "Across the Universe"

I seriously thought about drawing a comic to detail my journey to the theatre and the experience of watching this mess of visual cliches, nostalgia, emo boy haircuts and Beatles music. Then I realised I'd be putting a lot of work into a movie that I just didn't care about.

It was predictable. It relied on imagery that we already know to iconify a cultural era that us young-uns never lived through, but are haunted by. Everytime that I thought this movie was going to push the limits, it held back. Halfway through I was so thoroughly frusterated with the shallow characters, obvious visual accompaniments to the music and glassy doe-eyed singing sequences that I was so near to walking out of the theatre. Then the movie got into some better stuff, though nonetheless wholly mediocre.

The last half of the film was more interesting (though much less cohesive) than its first counterpart. The Beatles music from this time is better as well, as it seems they obtained their critical edge. My criticism here is the same as above, however, as they didn't push it far enough. It could have been thoroughly psychadelic, tense and culturally interesting, but it just kept on missing the mark. All in all, this is a safe movie made to sell theatre tickets off of nostalgia, real, cultural or imaginary.

History is always viewed through our present context, and "Across the Universe" has nothing to add to my perspective on history nor that of the present. It's a well dressed typical musical sold on the fame of the Beatles.