CATS Trailer: How Not To Market A Movie Which Should Never Have Been Made In The First Place

It’s rare that a film trailer totally turns you off when it’s supposed to a be marketing tool to entice – but this trailer for Tom Hooper’s Cats does just that – in spades. They’re pitching this adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical as ‘a breakthrough cinematic event’, I’m calling it kitty litter of the highest order. 

This weird CGI/live action hybrid looks monumentally atrocious, a cinematic travesty in the offing. I’ve never been a fan of Hooper’s flouncy film work (The King’s Speech, Les Miserables, The Danish Girl), with his efforts often coming across like the cinematic equivalent of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Cats would once again seem to prove this.

Don’t give me the old, ‘but it’s based on a stage musical’ story. What works on the stage doesn’t always work on the screen (and vice verse). This looks like it should never have been made. 

It was worrying enough that the cast is a serious mish-mash of talent: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson. But the ridiculous visuals here – wow. 

James Corden is a serious no-no, a self-serving sycophant who loves himself more than anything else. Movies In Focus normally swerves to avoid him, but I’ll be giving Cats a particularly wide-berth when it opens on 20 December 2019. .