Just saw the movie on a Tuesday night after it premiered over the weekend, so I know the movie had a soft opening. The reviews have been good so my take on the soft opening was that everyone knows the movie is a downer and that's not what people want to spend their money on. That, and there are no marquee names in the movie. Now the only hope to turn a profit is word of mouth, and sorry to say the word from my mouth is not so good. Not that the movie is bad, but Spielberg had so much to work with here, and on an unlimited budget, I think we should expect him to at least not screw up the things that worked in the original. Unfortunately he did that in some very disappointing ways. He took away one of the most powerful duets and gave the song to the only person who had a weak voice. He horribly moved an important song from the beginning of the original movie and placed it where the happy little tune stops the movie momentum dead in its tracks, then he depends on momentum to for audience buy in to carry through to the end, but the momentum is gone. And to be honest, the original movie used Rita Moreno for all her incredible gifts; her performance in the original is one my very favorites of all time, but Spielberg didn't know what to do with her here. She starts out strong but her performance goes downhill with the rest of the movie.
There are a lot of things to like here. But in the final assessment, given the material, this was a failure.
There are a lot of things to like here. But in the final assessment, given the material, this was a failure.
