Elvis (2022) Review
I was finally able to check out Baz Lurhman’s Elvis. This was a movie that I was excited for ever since I saw the trailer for this movie. And I was waiting for this movie to come out because every time I went to the movies the trailer for Elvis would play, so I was excited for it to come out to stop seeing the trailer. Not that the trailer was bad, but I was getting kind of tired of it. So how is this movie? Is it good? Is Austin Butler as good as everybody is saying he is? Let’s get started!
The Good:
And that final question is of “Is Austin Butler as good as everybody is saying he is?”, and I would yes he is. The person Elvis is such a larger than life type character, he has a big personality about him. And Butler just emotes all of the emotions that Elvis has. He can move, sing, and talk like Elvis. When the movie goes along and Elvis gets drunk and more sick, he has to perform as Elvis being all of those things and Butler just captures all of those emotions so well. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Butler’s name starts coming up a lot around award season. The academy seems to like people portraying real life people, and Butler is another actor to add to that list. So we shall see what happens around January. And then another person you have to talk about here is Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker and I thought he was great. Tom Hanks is my favorite actor of all time, he just has so many great movies and great performances. And this is a very different type of character for Thanks to play. Normally Hanks plays the good guy, but here he’s playing the villain and he plays it so well. And once again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tom Hanks receives a Supporting Actor Nomination at the Oscars this year.
Another thing you have to talk about with this movie is that Baz Luhrman was the director. And I’ve seen two other of his movies, those being Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby (both starring Leonardo DiCaprio). And I’m not the biggest fan of either one of those movies, The Great Gatsby is a good bit better than Romeo and Juliet. So I wasn’t sure how much I would like this movie, and if Baz Luhrman’s directorial style will translate to this movie. And I think this is easily his best movie, the one that I thought worked the best and I think Baz’s style fits best in this movie. Very early on this movie just has Baz’s style all of this movie. The opening scene to this movie has so many crazy camera angles and loops going on, it’s crazy. And I was getting exhausted by Baz’s style very early on. But that’s a good thing, I think that works and it fits the movie. And as the movie goes along I think the style keeps on working better and better because Elvis is just such a big flashy personality. And getting somebody like Baz Luhrman to direct Elvis’ life just works really really well.
From there, of the musical biopics that I’ve seen (which isn’t many) this is the one that I think best captures the concert aspect the best. Where when Elvis is performing on stage, or even recording in a studio you feel the music. And I didn’t realize this until I was watching just how many of the songs I actually know. Elvis is a legend and has a lot of iconic and great songs, so since they are songs that everybody knows it just amps up the viewing experience. I was tapping my feet along with the beat when he was performing or singing. And I think ultimately it all boils down to the direction by Baz Luhrman who is so dynamic, he makes you feel like you are in the middle of Elvis’ shows.
And a nice touch about this movie is that the way the movie is structured and put together almost reminded me of a superhero movie. And I think in some cases that might not work, but I think it works well with Elvis because he is so over the top in nature. And the relationship between Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker is portrayed in the movie really gave off those superhero and supervillain interactions. And as somebody who loves that genre, and loves so many of those movies. That was a nice touch and really really cool to watch a musical biopic be structured and feel like a superhero movie.
Finally, this is a movie that does a great job of transporting the audience back to the 1960s and 1970s. Where the production design, costume design, and hairstyles make you feel like you are going back 50-60 years to the past. And it just adds to the movie, where they spent a lot of time coming up with these costumes, sets, and hairstyles. Along with Butler and Hanks, I think all three of them will get an Oscar nomination. I'm not sure about wins though.
The Bad:
And the big thing here is that I think the runtime is too much. The movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes long, and it does tackle all of Elvis’ life but it just feels too long. It takes a bit too long to get going, we are spending a lot of time on Tom Hanks’ character in the first 10 minutes of the movie that I don’t think we needed to spend that much time on it. And it’s hard to know what exactly they would cut out, but the whole movie just feels a bit too long. I think the middle act of the movie is the best and most well paced act of the three. Which is a bit strange because normally the second act is the act that drags the most in movies.
Another thing with this movie is that I feel like it montages over a bit too much information, but spends way too much time on other pieces of information. So the big example of this is you have the movie montage over 10 years of his life while he’s in Hollywood and making movies. And it just montages over that in 5 minutes. But we are spending way too much time with Tom Parker in the first 5 minutes and too much time in Elvis’ youth that just needs to be there. And this might contradict what I said before about having to cut from the movie. But both the run time and the use of montages both bugged me about the movie.
Finally, this movie adds in some modern pop songs that I don’t think helped the movie. It’s not that the songs were bad by any means but they didn’t fit the movie. It felt like Baz was wanting to add in one more extra layer of spice, pop, and style to the movie and I’m not sure pop songs were the direction to take this movie. I think it worked much better in The Great Gatsby, but for this movie it pulled me out of the movie.
Final Thoughts: Elvis is a movie that is carried by two fantastic performances by Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. Baz Luhrman gives this movie his all, and you feel his directing style all over this movie. The concert scenes are fantastic and I appreciated the superhero movie vibes about this movie. But I think the runtime, use of montages, and pop songs hold this movie back from being a great movie. It’s a really good, but not quite great movie.
The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)
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