Cats Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

By Jack Pooley /

6. Tom Hooper's Awful Direction

Monumental Pictures

Who could've imagined that Tom Hooper would go from winning the Best Director Oscar in 2011 to directing a terrible Cats movie less than a decade later?

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Though Hooper is clearly a talented filmmaker, you wouldn't much know it from this film, with Hooper's basic coverage of marquee sequences feeling rushed and busy, chopped to pieces in the editing room while overly reliant on both close-ups and extreme wide shots.

This just feels like an anonymous production helmed by any hack-for-hire director: there's no style or personality to the filmmaking, and it's painfully clear that Hooper struggled immensely in his first CGI-heavy feature directing gig.

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Don't be surprised if Hooper ends up among the Worst Director nominees at next year's Razzie awards.