The Magical Mystery Tour was notorious for being The Beatles' first critical dud (the movie that is), but the album became an INSTANT classic for those who heard it all the way through. The movie feels like a fever-dream sideshow of vignettes that The Beatles couldn't firmly set a story around so they just threw together whatever they had filmed and hoped for the best once everything was finished.
Is the film terrible? No. Is it particularly good? No, not so much but it's okay. Is it bad? I guess the film was always gonna be in that 'it's so bad it's good' kind of campiness anyway. It's a confused film in need of a real story instead of the unfocused hodgepodge it turned out to be.
Magical Mystery Tour isn't bad but the real star of the show is easily the music that was done FOR the film; it's become an immortalised piece of pop-music itself and has leapt countless bounds compared to the movie it came from. But the film is nicely crazy.
For The Beatles' first critical flop, it could have been a LOT worse honestly. 3/5 stars. It's watchable and the music is something else, but the story is definitely gonna fall short for some viewers.
Is the film terrible? No. Is it particularly good? No, not so much but it's okay. Is it bad? I guess the film was always gonna be in that 'it's so bad it's good' kind of campiness anyway. It's a confused film in need of a real story instead of the unfocused hodgepodge it turned out to be.
Magical Mystery Tour isn't bad but the real star of the show is easily the music that was done FOR the film; it's become an immortalised piece of pop-music itself and has leapt countless bounds compared to the movie it came from. But the film is nicely crazy.
For The Beatles' first critical flop, it could have been a LOT worse honestly. 3/5 stars. It's watchable and the music is something else, but the story is definitely gonna fall short for some viewers.