Where to begin? I feel as to not make my comment way too lengthy, as I could go on all day about this travesty, I'll briefly hit every key point:
- Acting/Casting - The main girl looks like she's maybe heard one Britney Spears song in her life, and like she's heard even less about the stars' life and career before signing onto the movie. She acts like the bubblegum Britney for the entire film, and it is extremely infuriating almost to the point of parody, like she doesn't even give a sh!t about the story she's trying to encompass even a little. She doesn't look like Britney, she certainly doesn't dance like Britney, she's not Britney... I'll sum up this portion of my review very quickly by saying that the only person that doesn't look miscast in this and doesn't do a terribly unfortunate job at their performance is the mom, who honestly could have pulled off Britney Spears better.
- Directing/Editing - Choppy, chop, chop mess. Everything felt so overly rushed and poorly edited. We're flying scene to scene with no time to grow any attachment to what's going on in front of us. You'd be better off watching the real life videos again of what Ms. Spears had to go through in order to get a better grasp on the situation, because along with no acting depth, there is no depth in how the director is trying to accomplish every single scene. Such poor direction.
- Facts/New information - Aside from a few things with Justin Timberlake I was unaware of, this movie doesn't bring anything new to the spotlight that has not already been covered by the media or by Spears herself. They're all jumbled facts and info to begin with, and I know it's supposed to just be a chronicle of her life so far, but as other commentators have stated, there were big parts of her life left out, both good and bad.
- Songs or lack thereof/Britney's own rejection - By far one of the worst factors of this movie? The shining star of the film did NOT want it being made, and it shows more than ever. The only music that it shows the woman portraying Britney singing in the film are songs that Britney covered from other artists. ("I Can't Get No Satisfaction, though it's the Rolling Stones version in this movie of course, and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll".) All the other songs? Generic, dumb, badly timed Pop written for the movie it seems that is not worthy of imitating the multiple, high-tempo, sexy Dance beat albums that have been so publicly adored and acclaimed by Ms. Spears. She did not want this movie being made, and I can see why. But aside from the fact that she knew the movie would be bad, it's just an insult altogether. Britney is a normal person like you are me. Yes, a staple icon, but a person nonetheless, who knows that if anything was going to come out documenting her life, she would want full hand in it, and she'd want it to be done with so much more care and understanding than these Neanderthals tried accomplishing.
In the end, the only reason I did not give it a 1 is because I made it all the way through it without vomiting, and surprisingly enough have seen a small handful of worse films. Britney Ever After, however, was a complete mess and useless effort on any and all levels.
