...Now I'm coming back home.  I've been away now, oh how, I've been alone.

So I saw Across the Universe the other day.  I came out of the theater with very mixed feelings.

As far as the plot goes, the story of Across the Universe is clunky and illogical at best.  The audience is forced to make logical leaps several times in order to simply understand what the hell is going on.  Characters are introduced and named wherever it is convenient to have a song break.  Random extras make comments like "When I'm sixty-four...", which are overt references to Beatles songs, without following up on them.  The fact that they included characters with names like Jo-Jo, Sadie, Maxwell Edison, and even Lucy without even including background music cues for them, while other characters such as Jude and Prudence got full songs, was infuriating.

Acting-wise, the whole film was a crap-shoot.  Some of the actors were decent, some were not so great.  There was a lot of over-acting from the cast, but that's to be expected in what was essentially a two-hour music video.  None of the actors put forth particularly memorable performances.

Had all of the arrangements and musical numbers been fantastic, I could have easily forgiven the shortcomings of this movie.  However, I only found half of the numbers to be in any way compelling.  The other half were absolutely horrible.  I was impressed by the inclusion of some of the 'sillier' elements of Beatles songs.  For example, the long, audible inhale in the chorus of Girl at the beginning of the movie and the crowd yelling 'Whoo!' at the end of each phrase in the chorus of I Am the Walrus.  I also laughed out loud during I Want You as concrete meaning was given to the typically-nonsensical phrase 'She's so...heavy' and in Hey Jude when the character singing the song jumped up on the fence and screamed "Judy-Judy-Judy-Judy" - a fun nod to the original record where McCartney gets way too into the music.

What I did not like was the way in which some of the songs were arranged and placed.  Dear Prudence seems to be included simply for something do fill time during an act break.  In several of the songs, the actors depart completely from the melody line and either sing only the harmony or something completely unrelated.  The melding of Across the Universe with Helter Skelter near the end was extremely difficult to listen to.  While I realize that these completely different songs were put together for effect, that same effect could have been realized without so much dissonance by placing the former in a separate part of the film and only using the later.  Each of these elements in the music really took me out of the film.  It was slightly upsetting.

In the numbers Come Together, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I Want You, and Happiness is a Warm Gun, the choreography was extremely impressive.  Dancers weave about in wonderful formation in each of these pieces.  However, most of the pieces seem to have lacked coherent choreography or even direction altogether.  I Am the Walrus in the first half is at least decent, but in the last half, it degenerates into a bizarre experimentation with lens-filters and film-processing.  The negative exposure effect, which hasn't been interesting in film for years, was overused and ridiculous.

As a Beatles enthusiast, I enjoyed most of this film for its scope.  However, also as a Beatles enthusiast, I was extremely disappointed by some of the musical choices in the film.  The direction went back and forth between inspired and insipid.  I would say that this is a must-see for true Beatles fans or people who love musicals.  However, anyone without the patience for musicals should skip it entirely.

This is sad to say, but I think I liked Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band better than Across the Universe.

Ha--bet you didn't think I read this, did you?

Anyway, I saw the movie, too, and I also left with mixed feelings. My thoughts:
-I didn't like Bono's cameo, either in terms of his character or in terms of "I Am the Walrus." It all seemed kind of unnecessary. Weirdly enough, I thought Eddie Izzard's cameo made more sense (and was funnier).
-I agree about the choreography in those 4 songs you mentioned. Though I didn't much like "Happiness is a Warm Gun." Maybe just not a song I liked.
-I thought the frat boy rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends" was great; I laughed much.
-The "Helter Skelter" bit was kind of hard to listen to, but I think it fit.
-Also great was "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Overall, I think it was a very ambitious project, and as an ambitious project that wasn't quite perfect, it was bound to fall flat at some points. You do find yourself groaning sometimes as the characters introduce themselves. "Oh... 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'/'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'/'Hey Jude'..." Still, I came away having enjoyed myself.