Full disclosure: I could not even finish watching this movie. 

Prior to seeing Cats, I found it hard to believe how a studio with a 95-million-dollar budget to remake a beloved Broadway musical could be as bad as the media portrayed it. However, after sitting through just the first fifteen minutes of watching the strange and unnatural “Jellicle cats”, awkwardly observing as they pranced around the streets, I realized how. While some scenes do have value to them, the overall product is awful to watch. 

The moment the first scene began, I immediately started to question my decision to watch it. The overly realistic CGI made it hard to focus on the storyline of the movie (the occasional and out of place cats wearing  trench coats did not help either). Furthermore, as the story progressed, the plot got lost and the whole storyline can easily be misinterpreted as a Hunger Games, but with cats.

An excessive amount of editing mistakes due to the film being rushed into theaters also contributed to the movies’ low ratings and bad reviews. In one of the scenes, actress Judi Dench is exposed with her human hand rather than that of a cat paw, wedding ring and all. There were additional instances where cats were seen floating in chairs, fur was misplaced for feathers and discoloration in the faces was apparent. 

Not only did critics have negative opinions toward the motion picture, but even the actors have tried to dismiss Cats. Taylor Swift, for example, shared in an interview with Variety she was “in no way aware of how the cats of Cats would end up looking.” She also chose some choice words to describe the film.

The talented cast portrayed the felines considerably well and the vast use of detail in keeping the “Jellicle cats” true to that of a real cat, were about the only good things that came from this film. Despite the intentions to do justice to a classic musical by bringing it to the box office, this is undeniably a movie that is best suited in the litter box.