“Megalopolis” was written, produced & directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featured an ensemble cast that includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishbourne, Talia Shire & Dusin Hoffman. Coppola began developing this film back in 1983 & for over 40 years in remained in development hell. Major studios refused to finance the film & 2001 saw put on the shelf due to the events of 9/11. Coppola put up $120 million of his own money to finance the film & went into production in November of 2022.
In a futuristic / dystopian version of the U.S., New Rome, as it is known, civilization is divided into 2 groups of people, the Romans, who would be considered the middle & low class, and the Patricians, the wealthy. Cesar Catilina (Driver) is a local architect who has the favor of both people & has recently won the Noble Prize. Cesar also has a secret superpower, time manipulation. His opposition is the Mayor of New Rome, Frank Cicero (Esposito) believes that Cesar is nothing more than a spoiled rich man who believes the rules don’t apply to him. In a televised event, Cesar & Cicero engage in a lighthearted debate about the future of New Rome. Cicero is impressed with Cesar’s plans despite not favoring his own. Things begin to heat up when Cesar falls for the mayor’s daughter, Julia (Emmanuel). The story is full of treachery, treason, political corruption & good old fashioned organized crime to make a future crime drama told in an old school way.
The fact that Francis Ford Coppola waited 40 years & used his money to make this film is astonishing but it was vain unfortunately. The film is a complete snooze fest. Visually, this film is amazing & has some great metaphors, but the overall storyline is bland & cliche. Too many characters to follow, the uninteresting get more screen time than interesting. It does a fantastic job establishing the main characters but fails to make them entertaining throughout the story. Some scenes could’ve been cut, some plot points don’t make sense & makes the script very discombobulated. Shia LaBeouf gave a great performance, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time. Adam Driver is great as the tortured hero, but a lot of his scene become diluted with boring exposition.
Overall, this film was billed as the next great big blockbuster, but it failed miserably & not because it wasn’t a good movie but because of the development hell, the controversy surrounding the making of the film & the overspending by Coppola. Ben Afleck has stated that a “Cardinal Sin” that a filmmaker can make is financing your own movie. That usually means the filmmaker is too demanding & was turned by every major studio in town. I think Francis Ford Coppola is a great filmmaker & has made some the greatest films in history but this one fell short despite decades in the making. A star-studded cast & a world renowned director come up short at the box office, however the thing happened with Coppola’s previous film, “Apocalypse Now” in 1979. This may be a cult classic in the future but as of now, it’s a dud.