There's a lot to love and enjoy about Rock of Ages. Like most musicals, it has a great buzz and electric feel to it. You can't help but finish this film with a big smile on your face and its a very feel good comfort experience.
The production value was also great, from the sets to the costumes, everything felt realistic and just looked cool.
Then there's the key part of any musical, the songs. You can't fault the selection, there were numerous classics which just kept on coming. Maybe a little too much.
I couldn't help but feel like there were just too many songs. There wasn't any time to take a breather and the story wasn't allowed to develop outside of the music. As a result I couldn't find myself connecting to any of the characters and I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunity to develop the plot and characters because of the amount of songs.
This wasn't the only problem with the plot... it was all over place. Was this film about Sherry, Drew, Stacee Jaxx, Patricia, Lonnie and Dennis? Who knows. There was too much sharing of the spotlight, and the constant changing of perspectives and protagonists started to give me whiplash. I think things would have benefitted from having a more obvious and clear protagonist to root for and follow, which would have given the film more drive and direction.
I also had mixed feeling about the characters. What Russell Brand was doing with his sporadic Brummie accent I'll never know. He's never been a great actor, and the accent just made everything so much worse. The two "main" characters of Sherrie and Drew were also pretty bland and I wasn't that fussed about them. Tom Cruise on the other hand, what a surprise. Easily the best thing about this film. He threw himself into this role and it massively paid off. It's worth watching for him alone.
Finally, as much as I liked the selection of songs, the singing wasn't always on point and was quite obviously auto tuned to a heavy extent for some of them. I think musical films need to start finding a better balance between casting big names to get bums on seats, but also casting actors who can sing.
Rock of Ages is definitely fun, and any musical lover will find lots to enjoy here. I did however find it to be quite messy and overcrowded with one dimensional characters and too many songs. Lots of fun, but not a great film.
