I’ll be honest, I did not really have much of a desire to watch this movie. The trailers did not draw me in, and the behind the scenes drama behind the movie did not inspire much confidence in the end result. However, the divisiveness with people’s reactions to this movie intrigued me. Is this a misunderstood masterpiece? Is this a misguided mess? Well, it’s a bit of both, but mostly a mess.

Don’t Let the Now Destroy the Forever

I don’t even know where to begin with this, but we might as well start with the actors. There is a pretty impressive cast here, led by the always reliable Adam Driver. He is still as reliable as ever here, bringing a lot of gravitas to his role of Cesar Catilina. Cesar Catilina is an architect in the city of New Rome and he aspires to create something greater. That’s the throughline in the movie, he’s working on creating Megalopolis, but there are those who oppose him. You have people like Giancarlo Esposito’s Mayor Cicero who want to keep the status quo. He is more old fashioned and views Cesar as a problem rather than part of the solution. Then you have Cesar’s cousin Clodio, played by Shia LaBeouf, who is envious of him. He seeks to destroy his reputation out of his own insecurities. On the surface, the plot is quite interesting. It is also very old fashioned, and the movie plays that way as well. Through the music, the acting, and the structure. It feels like something out of the 1960s. This might have even been compelling to see how these dynamics all play out, but the movie is just so poorly put together. The writing in general is weak. There are big moments that occur, characters that undergo massive traumas, and then the next scene it’s completely dropped. Why? I don’t know, and maybe neither does Francis Ford Coppola. It constantly feels like there are pieces missing in this movie, nothing flows organically to the next scene. There are some good scenes to be had, but when you start putting everything together it just does not feel connected. It almost feels like every scene was written by someone else, who doesn’t know what happened in the scene before, or the scene after. I’m willing to give the movie the benefit of the doubt, but after my first watch I cannot say that it makes a ton of sense. It also does not seem much more complex than it does on the surface. For example, Cesar is able to control time. Why? The movie never explains. But the only person who can see him actually stopping time is Nathalie Emmanuel’s Julia, who is both the mayor’s daughter and Cesar’s love interest. So now you might think that she is able to see him stop time because they have some sort of connection. But then at a point in the movie he just loses his ability to stop time. I have absolutely no idea why, but she motivates him to get the ability back. You can include something like this, and perhaps it doesn’t have a big impact on the plot, it could serve as a metaphor or give us some more insight into our main character. But you have to give us something. There is nothing in the movie that is consistent, so the reasoning behind this time ability is unclear and it just feels like a pointless inclusion. This is just one example, but I feel this way about so many little things in this movie. Don’t even get me started on Crassus and his little bow and arrow.

There’s Still So Much to Accomplish

Backtracking a bit,I do want to touch on the rest of the actors. As I mentioned, Adam Driver is solid, making the most of the lines he is given. I actually really enjoyed Kathryn Hunter who plays Teresa Cicero. She brings some cheekiness to the movie, but it never feels out of place. Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel and Laurence Fishburne are all fine but are all pretty one dimensional. It’s fine with Fishburne’s character since he’s more minor, but it’s pretty important to know more about Emmanuel and Esposito. Her being Cesar’s love interest, and him being Cesar’s rival, we should have gotten more scenes that gave us insight into why they do what they do. As is, we aren’t given enough to speculate. Then finally, we have the outlandish performances of Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf, and Aubrey Plaza. This is likely another reason why this movie felt so disjointed, they all feel like they belong in a separate movie. They really chew the scenery and don’t mix particularly well with the rest of the cast. Voight is in a unique position as well, where there are several scenes that I am convinced he had no idea they were filming him. He just has this befuddled expression on his face. You would think with this group of actors, and especially these zany performances, that the movie would be constantly engaging. But you would be wrong. I found myself eagerly awaiting for the credits to roll. With all that said, and even though I found myself unengaged with this movie, I cannot help but respect it. There are some big ideas here, and this is a passion project from someone who has nothing left to lose. It’s all very admirable, and in many ways I am glad that a movie like this exists.

Closing Remarks

I may have been a bit harsh on this movie, but it still gave me a lot to think about and say. It is by no means the worst thing ever, but it’s also not very good. It is all over the place, and despite having a simple story, it never pulls itself together. Will this movie be appreciate more in the future? Perhaps. Maybe there is a Director’s Cut that will solve all the issues. But where it stands today, it has no shortage of ideas, but it’s sloppily put together, brought down by uneven writing and inconsistent acting.