Elvis (The Movie)

“Don’t be cruel” is what Elvis would have said if he had a chance to read this, and also having to watch his own life story on the big screen. My issue with Elvis is it’s incredibly unorganized, is jumbled up, silly at times, and tries to have a very awkward pick for whom narrates the story.

For some reason they picked Elvis’s manager to be the narrator. It’s an interesting choice and makes sense since we’re able to see behind the scenes of what went down in Elvis’s larger than life production. As interesting of an angel that it is, I didn’t find myself caring about that guy. I would have rather seen Elvis’s life through his eyes. Maybe Elvis didn’t see his potential, but we could have had his manager explain things to him along the way instead of the manager explaining it to the Audience which is what bugs me about this movie. It’s just one long narration in an obnoxious accent. But the narration isn’t smooth. Things constantly jump around. We don’t dive into why or when Elvis started drugs, we were just shown a 10 second clip of him driving in a car and someone handing him a bottle of pills. Imagine someone talking to you about something important and instead of being cohearant about it all they do is say “So this happened, oh and then that one thing, oh I forgot to mention, but wait! I just remembered!” you wouldn’t be able to follow the story and you’d lose interest and that’s how this movie goes. There is even a montage that looks like a comic book that explains like a decade or so of Elvis’s life. BORING and CHEAP is how I’d put that. This movie tries to take all these key points that happen over two decades and just slaps them together, like a dozen of mini stories directed by a dozen more story tellers, there are no bridges or smooth connections. Very choppy.

I was glad to see this angle of Elvis’s life, lots of new stuff I didn’t know about, but it wasn’t done the best and I think it could have been way better. As I watched Elvis I kept thinking about the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line. That one made lots more sense. We should have duplicated that but add the Elvis bright lights and colorful style to it. I can rewatch Walk the Line every few years, but I can’t image ever returning to Elvis. The actors were pretty good but the story telling with smooth arcs just wasn’t there. I don’t think there was even a hero’s journey or any character growth.

I give it a 6/10.