David Beede

I’m not sure if the knowledge that this is a musical would have detracted points or dissuaded me from watching, but boy is this movie disappointing. The otherwise stellar cast is forced to attempt singing over atonal rubbish that quite frankly, a high schooler with garage band could have done a better job at arranging. There’s no tempo or pacing to speak of, both in the songs and in the scenes. It plods on inside a salt mine - turned - homestead, repeating tropes about distrust and the family you make a long the way (it’s not lost on me that Morgan from Walking Dead is here). Unlike Walking Dead or other dystopian fiction, however, this film literally dances around the issues that should be at the forefront. How did we get into this mess? When Michael Shannon jumps off the salt cliff to his doom (but doesn’t, and gets back up to sing) is where the movie jumped the shark and I fell off. Skip this and see Wicked instead.