My Review of "Elvis"

Elvis is one of the hotly anticipated biopics of 2022 and I finally got to see it. I'm surprised it took me this long since I actually had some anticipation towards this movie. When I saw the trailer I thought it would be a fun biopic and in essence it is. I did have a few nitpicks about this movie though.

The movie starts off with an introduction to a Colonel Tom Parker. He immediately seems like a bit of a slimey character from the get go. Apparently this is based off a real person so I can't imagine what Elvis had to go through in real life. He's basically an old school carnival manager. All he cares about is money and he immediately saw dollar signs when he first saw Elvis.

We then start to grow up with Elvis to see where he came from and how he came to be the person that he became. He seems like a really genuinely nice guy that is loyal to a fault. Well we can't say he's extremely loyal as he has betrayed women in his life on numerous occasions.

This movie somehow makes him out to be a saint no matter what he does in this movie. Even the womanizing that he does is done so casually that it seems like a regular day occurrence that should be ignored. People in his tight circle are aware of his infidelities and they don't even care. This includes his eventual wife later on in the movie.

The heart of the story is based on the trials and tribulations that Elvis had to go through when he dealt with Parker throughout his life. This is all narrated through the eyes of Parker but he never really paints himself in a bright light. You'd think everyone wants themselves to be the hero of their own story but this wasn't the case in this movie.

Although I do wonder what Elvis would have accomplished had it not been for the stagnation he was reduced to because of Parker's influences. Still he was able to rise above some of these obstacles and was able to produce a great body of work. We see how he was influenced to do so.

All the storytelling is told in a dizzying array of nonstop scene transitions. Although very creative in the storytelling it never really lets the movie breathe. It's constantly at a frantic pace and at times feels like a cartoon. The fact that the movie looks to have very high CGI factors doesn't help this case. Elvis looked to have such a storied life that this could have been a TV series rather than a simple movie. They crammed so much in there that they had no option but to keep it at a blistering pace.

The art direction of the movie is spectacular though. The bright colors and amazing costumes really add life to the whole movie. I did find it odd that they didn't really do much to add to the aging and weight gain of Elvis later on in the movie. They address this in the conversation but Elvis doesn't really look it when they did make the adjustments to Parker to look older and heavier. Again it seems to gloss over the movie about how untouchable he is.

Overall, it is an entertaining movie but a very uneven and very one sided look at Elvis. I think there's a lot to the story that they don't really tell us and it kind of makes a story to pander to Elvis fans. Nevertheless it is still entertaining. The breakneck pace this movie goes at will keep you peeled to the screen but even that can be a bit exhausting for some. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's fun but I think they could have evened out the movie a little to balance the pacing and bias of the movie.