I went to see Les Miserables (the movie) last night. Having never seen the stage show I didn't know what to expect. At 158 minutes, it is long. The big question is 'does it work as a movie?' Most musicals make poor movies compared to the stage show (Chicago being an exception). The most striking thing about Les Mis is that 99.5% of the libretto is sung. I'm not sure this is a good thing.
After a while you get used to it, but I do think it makes the production musically boring at times.
So, was it a popular stage show ? (yes), will the movie be popular too ? (probably). But popularity is not necessarily the same as quality.
A thing that seemed to be missing was some factual information on the French Revolution. Many movies based on true story put up a few sentences at the start to inform us about the back-story, or at the end to tell us how events continued. Given that this was the birth of democracy, that would have been appropriate.
After a while you get used to it, but I do think it makes the production musically boring at times.
So, was it a popular stage show ? (yes), will the movie be popular too ? (probably). But popularity is not necessarily the same as quality.
A thing that seemed to be missing was some factual information on the French Revolution. Many movies based on true story put up a few sentences at the start to inform us about the back-story, or at the end to tell us how events continued. Given that this was the birth of democracy, that would have been appropriate.
