West Side Romeo & Juliet
A remake of the musical by the same name, West Side Story is the first time Spielberg directed a movie from this energetic genre. A Caucasian boy and Puerto Rican girl felt in love amidst the tension between the two sides over territory.
When you hear the name Spielberg, you can expect epic. However, in this case, I found WSS to be a mediocre musical with a weak love story. At the beginning, the music was actually playful and fun, but as the story progressed, I found myself bored whenever characters started to sing. Some songs just didn't match with the singer's voice. I just could not wait for the music to be over.
The story was weird. The romance moved at an alarmingly quick pace. One second they fell in love, and the next second they wanted to marry. Jesus calm down youngsters. Some characters were unnecessary and had confusing motivation. The last 30 minutes was basically a mess. I was honestly so checked out at that point. I didn't feel anything for the romance as well as the conflicts between the two sides.
The Puerto Rican characters spoke a lot of Spanish, and if you don't know Spanish, then I'm sorry you can only use context to understand them. There were no subtitles even though sometimes characters spoke multiple sentences in full Spanish. It's not that hard to have subtitles.
Overall, I'm very disappointed in terms of musical and storytelling. 5-5.5/10.
A remake of the musical by the same name, West Side Story is the first time Spielberg directed a movie from this energetic genre. A Caucasian boy and Puerto Rican girl felt in love amidst the tension between the two sides over territory.
When you hear the name Spielberg, you can expect epic. However, in this case, I found WSS to be a mediocre musical with a weak love story. At the beginning, the music was actually playful and fun, but as the story progressed, I found myself bored whenever characters started to sing. Some songs just didn't match with the singer's voice. I just could not wait for the music to be over.
The story was weird. The romance moved at an alarmingly quick pace. One second they fell in love, and the next second they wanted to marry. Jesus calm down youngsters. Some characters were unnecessary and had confusing motivation. The last 30 minutes was basically a mess. I was honestly so checked out at that point. I didn't feel anything for the romance as well as the conflicts between the two sides.
The Puerto Rican characters spoke a lot of Spanish, and if you don't know Spanish, then I'm sorry you can only use context to understand them. There were no subtitles even though sometimes characters spoke multiple sentences in full Spanish. It's not that hard to have subtitles.
Overall, I'm very disappointed in terms of musical and storytelling. 5-5.5/10.