Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour 2023
I am not a Swiftie. I have not heard most of her songs and don't follow her in the news except in the general way that anyone who follows the news has to hear about Taylor Swift. I only know a couple of her songs that were performed by Postmodern Jukebox, a group that takes pop songs and performs them in a vintage style. Still, her concert movie got very good reviews, so I wanted to see it. However, whereas tickets for matinees at my local AMC are usually $6.50, Eras was $19.89 mandated by Swift's special arrangement with theaters, so I wasn't going to pay that. Eventually I watched the expanded version of the movie on Disney Plus, spread out over a few weeks. I feel like I got a great feel for it by giving it my full attention for maybe the first hour, but when I returned to watch the rest, I was on the computer for much of the time.
First, the concert is an amazing spectacle with jaw dropping technology. There are huge video screens surrounding the stage and the stage itself seems to consist of video screens as well, all linked to make one giant screen. Plus the stage includes lifts to elevate singers or dancers. Even the audience members are given light up bracelets that are centrally coordinated (though not by location, so they still aren't quite turning audience members into individual pixels yet). As expected, there are a lot of dancers and full choreography, especially early on. Swift is able to keep up with all of the dance stuff as well as sing and play instruments, making good use of the high tech stage as well as the exuberant crowd. With a number of costume changes and the huge number of screens, they can change the look for almost every song. The songs are catchy. I'm not really into lyrics, and I think that is a big part of the appeal, so eventually many of the songs sounded similar, but I am not her target audience anyway. It is fun seeing that target audience with fan reaction shots as they sing every word, cry profusely, or just dance and have a great time, sometimes all at the same time. Swift is also a very good performer, strutting all over the stage, and giving her trademark flirty looks and winks. Ultimately, however, a concert film has to be about the music and that made much less of an impression on me, mostly I'm sure due to my lack of familiarity with the material. My review ends up a low B+, with high marks for the visual spectacle and the extremely high pop value of Taylor Swift, tempered significantly by my overall lack of interest in the music. I probably would have liked the shorter original version more, but I know the fans appreciate all the extras, which also probably comes closer to matching the length of an actual concert. While the presentation is flawless, I did enjoy seeing some of the bloopers shown in the closing credits as Murphy's Law mandated an appearance.
Written: 28 Apr 2024