Like the musical, the music & costumes were AMAZING!!!

Though it was critically lambasted and commercially disastrous in the USA, Universal's film adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats stage musical from 1981 presents the magic of said stage show in a throughly entertaining and visually stimulating piece of cinema, meant to be seen and heard in a proper movie theater with adequate projection and sound systems. Significantly, Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "Memory" and her portrayal of Grizabella will bring all those who do not have the coldest of hearts to tears, while Taylor Swift's setpiece as Bombalurina shows that the pop star has a bright future ahead in films if she so desires. Heartbreaking and poignant, Sir Ian McKellen's segment as Gus, the Theater Cat stirs deep emotions for anyone who has ever desired to hold an audience with a touching story, song, work of art or any other type of live presentation. Much criticism was directed at the Cats' visual effects—which apparently faced production and time problems—but the choice of merging computer-generated feline appearances and behavior with practical makeups and costumes on the actors is never a distraction and only serves to help tell the story of these unique characters, originally described in T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" from 1939. Unquestionably, Webber's original show, staged on Broadway in 1983 to great success, reached a massive global audience, with a reported 3.5 billion in box office returns across the world. Such success, as with Webber's Phantom of the Opera 1980s show, apparently is set up for due backlash when arriving on cinema screens. Nonetheless, fans of the live Cats show would be amiss to skip this courageous motion picture telling of the musical.

I watched a live performance of Cats & loved it. I only saw it once & I was young, in the single digits, so I didn't remember all the details going into the movie. I am absolutely certain the play was better than the movie! The songs were good, the actors did a good job, & there were some comical moments. There were also a lot of lackluster scenes & confusing moments. It didn't seem to go anywhere most of the time.

Boring and too much singing

A very well produced film. The effects, acting, dancing, and singing were superb. A little out there, but wonderful.

this move suck and you can not even tell what they are singing a major disappointment and my expectations was not high to begin with 😤

I was so ready for iit to be over. I guess this was one that should have been left to Broadway.

Same great music as the play - wonderful star performances- beautiful special effects! What was lost in this modern "translation" was the purity of dance performances and costumes that were quite magical in their non-CGI form. The creativity of the set design, costumes, and make-up, and athleticism of the dancers in their non-CGI form added to the wow-effect of the stage play. Bringing it into CGI glory was fun, beautiful, and truly quite impressive, but perhaps doing this took a smidge of the original magic away. "Cats" is an unusual play -- poetry set to music and danced by "cats." The movie stayed true to the play with only a tad bit more story added, and it just isn't everyone's cup of tea -- or should I say, bowl of milk? But this movie did not deserve the terrible press and reviews it received. We enjoyed it thoroughly, loved the over-sized sets, the furry humans, and quirkiness of it -- dancing cockroaches and all!

Weird- cockroaches with faces...

It was entertaining, maybe a bit too long though. Diana Hudson’s voice in Memories is so moving

Total disaster. Just got out of it, couldn’t stand staying till the end. Horrible, pointless, badly done. Waste of money and time...

Tom Hooper should not direct musicals! There were some wonderful moments—-but his concept and there were some casting choices that were just plain stupid. I was in a theatre with young kids who laugh through the entire movie—-even the most heartfelt scenes.

Great singing, choreography & special effects. Much better than broadway musical in telling the story with dialogue.

I’m going to see it again and again...

it was better then I thought or expected . especially for a musical.

fever dream I will never escape

it was hard to folloe

It was beautiful and stunning. My favorite part was the tap number.... outstanding!

Boring storyline and way too much dancing.

Really enjoyed the movie!