This movie is so hard to talk about, because the question is: "What is it even about?"
I like movies with abstract themes and strange storytelling, but this was just incomprehensible. Its plot revolves around the machinations of rich men to control the future of their city "New Rome", but the plot is kinda meaningless. There's never any real threat to Caesar's goal. Just plot events that could be obstacles but then are immediately resolved/neutered. Ok, fine! Surely then it's an art-house piece with a deep message? The plot points must be there for the sake of a larger theme. I was waiting for everything to add up in the finale, but it just ends up with Caesar delivering a speech filled with platitudes so bland that I thought it was a joke. Then the credits rolled and the 2 of the other 5 people in the theater with me started laughing.
10 min: This should be interesting.
20 min: Why does this feel... off?
30 min: I must be missing a lot of historical references.
40 min: Wait, is the audience the butt of the joke here?
50 min - 90 min: confusion/anger
100 min: Holy shit Aubrey Plaza is hot
120 min: He made a whole movie for that one scene 🤣
Directors like this have no idea what real people are like anymore. Why would I want to watch another movie about weird rich people doing weird rich people shit?
It's similar only in that it's about a "Great man" remaking a society in collapse.
Really none of the themes are there. Nor is there any journey of discovery to understand who Caesar is, like you get in Atlas Shrugged where other characters learn who John Galt is.
Galt is "Self interest and belief in my vision will make society better". Caesar is "McGuffin building materials and belief in my vision will make society better". For all its flaws, one is at least a political statement, while the other is milquetoast hopium.
The movie didn't sexually harass anyone, Francis Ford Coppola did.
(To be clear, I agree with you, and while the movie sounds like garbage no one should watch, and it looks like at least some in the production team were complicit enablers, my point is that there is no need for the general statement, when there is a specific perpetrator to name)
It is Francis Ford Coppola's film, when I take delight in the failure of the movie it is because of how it impacts its creator (not because I'm trying to shift blame away from him onto his film).
The film is also garbage, but more importantly several critics have noted the film is sexist, like Maureen Lee Lenker's review which mentioned "troubling gender roles and gross sexual dynamics at play". Is it that surprising the film made by the man sexually assaulting people on set is also itself sexist?
I agree that it's worth specifically calling out Francis Ford Coppala and to put the blame where it belongs, and this is why I linked to the article about his specific misdeeds. At first I assumed most people knew about this already, which was maybe a bad assumption. I didn't even link my message at first thinking it was too obvious.
Why is art, even if not to your tastes, incorrect? Commercial viability is not the measure of quality. Even if it's an incoherent mess, it adds. Why a lust for the failure of others? Did Francis re-neg on a promise he made to you personally?
You know, that's the first thing that caught my attention, and it's actually kind of bothering me. I now want to pronounce it "ootopian" to make it work, but it's just so wrong.
It's visually stunning in a way that rivals Moulin Rouge or Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet.
The cast is incredible and I found many of their performances quite interesting and entertaining.
The story is unusual and compelling enough that it held my attention throughout, though I also think it's reasonable to say that there are certainly confusing elements.
I'm confident though that the main reason for the vast majority of the negative reviews are that the film draws strong parallels between certain unlikable elements and the MAGA movement in a way that upsets them.
I'm sure it's fine but I don't have the patience for these movies that are so far up their own ass in "style".
Also Coppola isn't a good director. He's a shit director who made a classic.