Elvis (4 Stars)

I'll start off by saying what's great about this film: Austin Butler's portrayal of Elvis Presley. He's an actor that I hardly know; I only remember seeing him as Tex in "Once upon a time in Hollywood". Whenever he steps onto the stage to start singing there's electricity in the room. It isn't just the girls watching him who're excited, the spark jumps over to the cinema audience.

The film's faults, the reasons why I haven't given it a full five star rating, lie in the film's writing and directing, both of which are the responsibility of Baz Luhrmann. He made certain decisions in the way he crafted the film, and I believe his decisions were wrong. The film begins as told through the eyes of Colonel Tom Parker as he discovers young Elvis. That gives the impression that the film is about Parker, not Elvis. That would have been a good film. But then we jump to flashbacks of Elvis' early life. Tom Parker slips into the background. As the film progresses, Parker comes and goes, and whenever he appears he acts as narrator in voiceover. He's an unreliable narrator. I like the concept of an unreliable narrator, it isn't used in films enough, but it also isn't used in "Elvis" enough. The problem is Tom Parker; either he should have been the main focus of the film, or he should have been pushed to the outskirts and only shown through Elvis' eyes.

The early part of the film is very staccato. We see phases in Elvis' development, but we don't see how he progresses from one phase to the next. We don't see how the young boy in Memphis became the King of Rock'n'Roll. Let's compare "Elvis" with a similar film. "Rocketman" succeeds in telling us how Reginald Dwight became Elton John, which makes it a much better film. Even "Bohemian Rhapsody", though not quite on the same level as "Rocketman", shows the development of Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury. Baz Luhrmann should have learnt from those films.

Another thing that annoyed me about the film was the final credits. After hearing great songs sung by Elvis, there were rap songs which use samples of Elvis' singing. Ugh! What sort of people like nasty music like that? I certainly don't.

I still think that "Elvis" is a good film. But it could have been a lot better.