After a 13 year wait, acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola released his passion project, “Megalopolis” to an underwhelming critical and commercial response. Coppola, who is known for his beloved films such as the “Godfather” franchise and “Apocalypse Now,” spent $140 million out of his own pocket so that he could make the movie. He had been developing the concept for the past few decades, but audiences did not think that he was able to recapture the magic of his earlier films.
“Megalopolis” is a cautionary tale, combining the fall of Rome with a futuristic America. The movie stars Adam Driver as the architect and visionary, Caesar Catalina, who has the ability to stop time. Through the course of the film, Catalina attempts to create a utopia while the presiding government attempts to stop him. Catalina’s visions come into question as he falls in love with his political rival’s daughter, Julia Cicero, played by Nathalie Emmanuel. The movie explores the dangers of society as well as how trauma and love can affect one’s choices. Starring alongside Driver and Emmanuel are other prominent actors, namely, Giancarlo Esposito, Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voight. Coppola reportedly came up with the idea for “Megalopolis” whilst filming the 1979 war movie, “Apocalypse Now,” and has been writing the script for the past 40 years.
Coppola during his prime was one of the most celebrated directors of all time, but “Megalopolis” was unable to perform anywhere near as well as his previous films in the eyes of critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 47% of critics gave a positive review. The movie also got a 5.1 out of 10 stars on IMDB and 55 points on a 100 point scale on Metacritic. Critics were especially quick to point out the movie’s messy plot, rushed ending and mixed messages, although they gave credit to the cinematography and passion behind it. Some critics even recommended people watch the movie just to see how disastrously muddled it was.
“Megalopolis” fared no better with the general audience, making a mere $4 million in its opening weekend. With a budget of about $140 million, this made the movie a major failure. “Megalopolis” is currently ranked as the 151st highest grossing of the year. Coppola’s films are known to underperform on their opening weekend, but then pick up steam, but with its poor ratings, “Megalopolis’s” chances of repeating this seems dim. The small group that did decide to watch “Megalopolis” did not seem to enjoy it with it only having an audience score of 35% on rotten tomatoes, one of the worst ratings Coppola has ever received. Based on any metric, “Megalopolis” was an overall failure for Coppola.
Even after this massive bomb, Coppola has not been deterred from the art of filmmaking. When asked whether he intended to retire, Coppola gave a resounding no and stated that he was currently working on two other projects. Critics and fans alike hope that with these new projects, Coppola may finally be able to regain the magic of his work during the 1970’s, but for now they are left with “Megalopolis”, one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
